1994 AGN OCT 04 I28 - Laserfiche WebLink

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AGENDA REPORT City Council Meeting September 28, 1994 For City employees in Colton, this means that if they are subpoenaed to appear during that employee's working hours, the City must collect $150, from the process server when the subpoena is served and must document and account for the actual cost to the City of making a particular employee available to testify. It is unclear from the Government Code as to what happens with regard to compensation or witness fees when City employees are subpoenaed to appear on a day when they are not on duty for matters relating to their employment. Particularly with a four day work week, this may happen with some frequency. The existing policy is designed primarily to assure City employees that they will continue to receive compensation when they act as witnesses under subpoena or on their own behalf in employment related administrative hearings. Because of the City is entitled to reimbursement for such costs, however, appearance under subpoena and appearance at employment related administrative hearings are separate issues from the standpoint of administrative policy. Accordingly, it would be advisable to revise the existing policy so that it addresses only the issue of reimbursement to the City of compensation for attendance at employment related administrative hearings and to adopt a new policy with regard to subpoena situations. Recommendation: It would seem appropriate to compensate non-exempt personnel when they are required to attend court proceedings under subpoena on matters directly related to their positions as City employees. In fact, it appears that they may be entitled to payment of overtime. Because the Government Code does not address this situation, it would be appropriate for the City to adopt an administrative policy to that effect. The effect of such a policy would be that the City would still collect the $150 fee provided by Government Code Section 68096. 1, and would calculate the actual cost of making the employee available to testify on an overtime basis to determine whether a refund or additional costs are due. With regard to exempt personnel, the City need not collect $150 but should instead collect the $35 witness fee plus travel expenses payable to the employee under Government Code Section 68093. These fees should also be collected by the City when the subpoena is served and then remitted to the employee. It would similarly be appropriate to include this clarification in an administrative policy. City employees are currently entitled to receive normal pay when they attend administrative hearings affecting their employment. Unless the City wishes to direct staff to meet and confer with the employees on this issue, the policy cannot be changed. It can, however, be restated as a separate policy from the policy affecting situations where an employee must appear in his official capacity as a witness under subpoena.