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A. Any person employed under the civil service provisions of this Charter, exclusive of members of the uniformed ranks of the police and fire departments as provided under Section 8.343 hereof, in a position defined by the commission as "permanent" may be removed or discharged by the appointing officer for just cause, after being provided with written notice of the charges, copies of all documentation upon which the charges are based and after an opportunity to respond to the charges before the appointing officer or his or her designee. Pending investigation of conduct involving misappropriation of public funds or property, misuse or destruction of public property, drug addiction or habitual intemperance, mistreatment of persons, immorality, acts which would constitute a felony or misdemeanor involving moral turpitude, or acts which present an immediate danger to the public health and safety the appointing officer may place the accused person on unpaid administrative leave for no more than 30 days unless the investigation shall be delayed beyond such time by the act of the accused person. When the appointing officer imposes discharge or removal he or she shall, in writing, notify the person removed or discharged of the right to appeal the discharge or removal by mailing such statement to his last known address. The employee shall have thirty days from the date of mailing of the notice to file an appeal of the matter in writing with the appointing officer. Upon receipt of a timely appeal, the appeal shall be conducted forthwith by a qualified and unbiased hearing officer who shall be employed under contract by the City and County and selected by procedures set forth in the rules of the civil service commission. The hearing officer shall publicly hear and determine the appeal, and may approve the discharge or removal, or exonerate, or suspend the accused.
If the employee is exonerated the hearing officer may, at his or her discretion, order payment of salary to the employee for the period of the discharge or removal or unpaid administrative leave, and the report of such period of discharge or removal or unpaid administrative leave shall thereupon be expunged from the record of service of such employee.
The civil service commission shall immediately be notified of the charges when made, of the action of the appointing officer to remove or discharge, of the appeal, and of the finding thereon. The finding of the hearing officer shall be final.
The civil service commission may remove or discharge an employee for any charge filed by a citizen or by any member of or authorized agent of the commission when the appointing officer neglects or refuses to take such action against the employee within 30 days of notification to the department head of the occurrence or event giving rise to the charge. Removal or discharge may be made for any cause after the employee is provided with written notice of the charges, copies of all documentation upon which the charges are based and after the employee has had the opportunity to respond to the charges before the civil service commission or its designee. The decision of the civil service commission shall be final.
Nothing in this section shall limit or restrict rules adopted by the commission governing dismissal of probationary employees, lay-offs or reduction in force or providing for the removal of any appointee who has abandoned his or her position as defined by civil service commission rule.
B. Notwithstanding the provisions of Subsection A above, a recognized employee organization and any affected City department may agree to alternative procedures, including final and binding arbitration by a neutral arbitrator jointly selected by the employee organization and the City, to deal with charges brought against individual employees, the resolution of such charges and the appropriate discipline, if any, to be imposed on the employee. Said alternative procedures shall be included in a Memorandum of Understanding between the City and the employee organization which shall be effective when ratified by the Board of Supervisors.
The appointing officer may, for disciplinary purposes, suspend a subordinate for a period not exceeding 30 days; and suspension shall carry with it the loss of salary for the period of suspension. The suspended employee shall be notified in writing of the reason for such suspension, and if the suspension be for more than five days the employee shall, at his request, be given a hearing by the appointing officer. The decision of the appointing officer in all cases of suspension for disciplinary purposes shall be final.
Members of the uniformed ranks of the fire or the police department guilty of any offense or violation of the rules and regulations of their respective departments, shall be liable to be punished by reprimand, or by fine not exceeding one month’s salary for any offense, or by suspension for not to exceed three months, or by dismissal, after trial and hearing by the commissioners of their respective departments; provided, however, that the chief of each respective department for disciplinary purposes may suspend such member for a period not to exceed 10 days for violation of the rules and regulations of his department. Any such member so suspended shall have the right to appeal such suspension to the fire commission or to the police commission, as the case may be, and have a trial and hearing on such suspension. Written notice of appeal must be filed within 10 days after such suspension and the hearing of said appeal must be held within 30 days after the filing of said notice of appeal. If the commission shall reverse or alter the finding of the chief, it shall order that the member affected be paid salary for the time of the suspension received or altered. In the event the chief should exercise such power of suspension, the member involved shall not be subject to any further disciplinary action for the same offense; provided, that where the Department of Police Accountability has sustained a complaint and recommended discipline in excess of a 10-day suspension, the Chief of Police may not exercise his or her power of suspension under this section without first meeting and conferring with the Director of the Department of Police Accountability and affording the Director an opportunity to verify and file charges with the Police Commission pursuant to Section 4.136. If the Director of the Department of Police Accountability verifies and files charges, the Police Commission shall conduct a trial and hearing thereon, and the Chief of Police may not suspend the member pending the outcome of the Police Commission proceedings on the charges except as provided in Section A8.344.
Subject to the foregoing, members of the uniformed ranks of either department shall not be subject to dismissal, nor to punishment for any breach of duty or misconduct, except for cause, nor until after a fair and impartial trial before the commissioners of their respective departments, upon a verified complaint filed with such commission setting forth specifically the acts complained of, and after such reasonable notice to them as to time and place of hearings as such commission may, by rule, prescribe. The accused shall be entitled, upon hearing, to appear personally and by counsel; to have a public trial; and to secure and enforce, free of expense, the attendance of all witnesses necessary for his defense.
(Amended November 2003; Proposition G, Approved 11/8/2016)
In the circumstances listed in Section A8.341 the chief of the police department and the chief of the fire department may temporarily suspend a member of the respective department pending a hearing before the police or fire commission on disciplinary charges against the member, and the member shall be entitled to a prompt administrative hearing to determine if he or she should remain suspended pending the outcome of the commission proceedings. If a member of the uniformed ranks of the police and fire departments is suspended by the chief of the respective department pending hearing before the police or fire commission for charges filed against him and subsequently takes a voluntary leave of absence without pay pending his trial before the commission, and, if after such trial he is exonerated of the charges filed against him, the commission shall order payment of salary to such member for the time under suspension and may, in its discretion, order payment of salary to such member for the time on voluntary leave of absence without pay, and the report of such suspension and leave of absence without pay shall thereupon be expunged from the record of service of such member.
(Added November 2003)
The people of the City and County of San Francisco hereby find that the instigation of, or participation in, strikes against said City and County by any member of the uniformed forces of the police or fire departments constitutes a serious threat to the lives, property and welfare of the citizens of said City and County and hereby declares as follows:
No uniformed member of the police and fire departments employed under the civil service provisions of this Charter shall instigate, participate in, or afford leadership to a strike against the City and County, or engage in any picketing activity in furtherance of such a strike. In the event of any such strike against the City and County, it shall be the duty of the appropriate appointing officer of the City and County to ascertain the identity of any officer or employee of the City and County under his jurisdiction who is in violation of the provisions of this section and to initiate dismissal proceedings against said officer or employee in accordance with the provisions of Section 8.341 of this chapter. Any citizen of the City and County may file written charges against an officer or employee in violation of the provisions of this section and the appropriate appointing officer shall receive and investigate, without delay, any such written charge, and forthwith inform said citizen of findings and action, or proposed action, thereon.
If the appointing officer, after a hearing, determines that the charges are supported by the evidence submitted, said appointing officer shall dismiss the employee involved and said employee shall not be reinstated or returned to City and County of San Francisco employment except as a new employee who is employed in accordance with the regular employment practices of the City and County in effect for the particular position of employment.
In the event any appointing officer determines that he shall be unable to meet constitutional due process requirements in providing a timely hearing to any officer or employee charged hereunder, he may, subject to the budget and fiscal provisions of the Charter, engage the services of one or more qualified hearing officers to conduct hearings hereunder. In conducting said hearings, any hearing officer shall have the same powers as granted to an appointing officer hereunder.
No officer, board or commission of the City and County shall have the power to grant amnesty to any person charged with a violation of any of the provisions of this section.
In order to bring the provisions of this section to the attention of any person who may be affected thereby, each member of the uniformed force of the police department and each member of the uniformed force of the fire department on the effective date of this section, and each person appointed to the position of Q2 police officer or the position of H2 fireman on or after the effective date of this section shall be furnished a copy of the provisions of this section and shall make under oath and file in the office of the civil service commission the following declaration: "I hereby acknowledge receipt of a copy of the provisions of Section 8.345 of the Charter of the City and County of San Francisco and hereby declare that during the term of my employment in either the Police Department or the Fire Department of said City and County, I shall neither instigate, participate in or afford leadership to a strike against said City and County nor engage in any picketing activity in furtherance of such a strike."
A dismissal imposed pursuant to this section (8.345) shall not be appealable to the civil service commission.
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