1994 AGN JAN 18 I26 - Laserfiche WebLink

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y CITY OF COLTON INTEROFFICE MEMO TO: JERRY L. YOUNG �` DAT CITY MANAGER of f '�`��orvorate � a 1887 a t f atv E. JANUARY 6, 1994 GORDON R. JOHNSON Personnel Director MINIMUM EDUCATION REQUIREMENTS ON JOB DESCRIPTIONS On December 21, 1993, the City Council voted to amend the proposed job description for Purchasing Manager, requiring a bachelor's degree rather than the equivalent to a Bachelor's degree. In addition, they eliminated the language permitting any combination of experience and education that would likelyprovide p de the required knowledge and abilities to be qualifying. While I applaud the Council's desire to upgrade the standards for this important management position, potential problems which may arise from such action or similar actions on other job descriptions include: 1. Establishment of minimum standards for a division headosition which are higher than for cit department head positions To my knowledge, all City of Colton job descriptions have the equivalency language in them which the Council removed from the Purchasing Manager description recently. This includes the City Manager and all Department Heads, The employee associations may have a legitimate concern if our minimum requirements are not consistent throughout the city. Conflict with Equal Employment Opportunity laws and court decisions California Government. Code Section 19702.2 states in part: "Educational prerequisites or testing or evaluation methods which are not job-related shall not be employed as part of hiring practices or promotional practices conducted pursuant to this part unless there is no adverse effect." If fewer members of a protected class in the relevant labor market possess the necessary qualifications, so that the use of the requirement operates as a barrier to that group's employment opportunity, the City has the burden of proving that its minimum education or experience qualifications are BJOQs (bona fide occupational qualifications). Attached are some pages discussing this issue from the EMPLOYMENT COORDINATOR, a set of volumes discussing legal aspects of personnel management. The referenced pages discuss how minimum education and experience requirements in job descriptions may adversely effect protected class members in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The trend the past 30 years has been to replace mandatory minimum education and experience requirements with equivalency language like that found in our job descriptions. Potential violation of the City's Affirmative Action Program Article VII B 1 & 2 state