Goal: Expand city hiring pool

Leaders say it has been more difficult to find applications for jobs

Thursday, March 8, 2007

By Marcie Young
Charlotte Observer Staff Writer

Morganton city leaders hope recent changes to the city's nepotism policy will allow more people to apply for city jobs.

After weeks of discussion, the City Council in February approved a revised nepotism policy that will allow some types of relatives to work for the city.

Under the previous nepotism policy, most people with relatives employed by the city were prohibited from a city job. The policy did not cover extremely distant relatives such as second cousins.

Under the new policy, adopted Feb. 23, aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews, cousins, in-laws and step relatives of city employees can work in unrelated departments, said Human Resources Director Cheryl Dellinger.

Over the years, the city had been forced to fire a few employees who, because of changes in their circumstances, such as marriage between extended family members, were no longer eligible to work for the city.

The city, in response, recently began re-evaluating the strict policy, which prohibited relatives of city employees from working for Morganton, even in different departments, Mayor Mel Cohen said.

But some relationships, including in-laws and cousins, the council decided, were distant enough that the city would not suffer from hiring relatives of existing employees, said City Attorney Steve Settlemeyer.

"It's no different than two good friends working for the city," Settlemeyer said. "We can't be too restrictive ... (because) we might not be able to hire the best."

The previous policy, which Cohen called "one of the toughest ordinances in the state," was adopted in March 2000 to assure that government employees were not getting preferential treatment from family members also working for the city.

Spouses, children, parents and grandparents of city employees remain ineligible for city jobs, according to the revised policy, and more distant relatives will not be allowed to work in the same department.

"In a town our size it has become more and more difficult to hire people (based on) their extended families," Cohen said. "It really gets hairy, and we've had to let quality people go."


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