Council looks at hiring practices

Two resolutions facing Newport Beach City Council members tonight look to correct more than 10 years of improper hiring due to vague and confusing city codes, ordinances and Charter language, with the biggest position under consideration being that of Police Chief John Klein.

A resolution seeking to ratify post-retirement employee agreements with 13 Newport Beach city workers, acknowledges that due to legal jargon in various city requirements, they were all hired without proper city approval. Tonight’s ratification would right those 13 wrongs, which affects retired police officers, reserve officers and librarians hired back to work part time since 1998. If the city declines to ratify them, all their contracts would be void and they would stop working for the city.

The resolution brings the total number of employees found to have been illegally hired by the city under post-retirement agreements to 19 since the Police Management Assn., representing sergeants and higher-ranked officers, called for an investigation into their own department’s hiring and promotional practices months ago.

Within the resolution, City Atty. David Hunt notes that Klein, who was promoted to chief in 2007, was also recruited incorrectly because candidates from outside the department were not tapped as potential hires, violating a city ordinance.

Hunt asks union officials what they want to do about it: Let it go and make sure it doesn’t happen again, or begin a new recruitment process for the chief’s position, or something in between.

Union leaders said they are polling members now and expect to have a decision in the next few weeks. Hunt said he will consider their input, but what the union wants isn’t necessarily what he would recommend to the council to correct the mistake.

Klein declined to weigh in on how the city should rectify the problem.

“As far as how I was hired, I’ll leave that up to the council and let them deem what’s appropriate,” he said.

The recruitment mistake is only the latest shot against Klein, who’s been under fire since the union requested an investigation months ago into the process behind promotions and hirings.

“There are certainly areas in the promotional process and testing process that are being questioned, and it’s certainly because I conduct it. The last promotional process, I’m being questioned in that one as well,” he said. “It’d be hard not to see that as a reflection on me ... clearly with all the questions they’re asking about the process, clearly some are directed at me.”

A second resolution looks to cover the city for the future. The human resources director and city attorney are looking for authorization to launch an independent review of the city’s governing documents for the Civil Service System, which have become muddied over the years with various changes and additions. Such an investigation would likely stave off future problems with hirings, promotions and recruitments, officials said.