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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.
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 officer or employee of said City and County constitutes a serious threat to the lives, property, and welfare of the citizens of said City and County and hereby declare as follows:
(a) As used in this section the word "strike" shall mean the willful failure to report for duty, the willful absence from one's position, any concerted stoppage or slowdown of work, any concerted interruption of operations or services by employees, or the willful abstinence in whole or in part from the full, faithful, and proper performance of the duties of employment, for the purpose of inducing, influencing, or coercing a change in the conditions of employment; provided, however, that nothing contained in this section shall be construed to limit, impair, or affect the right of any municipal employee to express or communicate a view, grievance, complaint, or opinion on any matter related to the conditions or compensation of municipal employment or their betterment, so long as the same is not designed to and does not interfere with the full, faithful, and proper performance of the duties of employment.
(b) No person holding a position by appointment or employment under the civil service provisions of this Charter, exclusive of uniformed members of the police and fire departments as provided under Section 8.345 of this Charter, which persons are hereinafter referred to as municipal employees, shall strike, nor shall any municipal employee cause, instigate, or afford leadership to a strike against the City and County of San Francisco. For the purposes of this section, any municipal employee who willfully fails to report for duty, is willfully absent from his or her position, willfully engages in a work stoppage or slowdown, willfully interrupts City operations or services, or in any way willfully abstains in whole or in part from the full, faithful, and proper performance of the duties of his or her employment because such municipal employee is "honoring" a strike by other municipal employees, shall be deemed to be on strike.
(c) No person exercising any authority, supervision, or direction over any municipal employee shall have the power to authorize, approve, or consent to a strike by any one or more municipal employees, and such person shall not authorize, approve, or consent to such strike. No officer, board, commission or committee of the City and County of San Francisco shall have the power to grant amnesty to any person who has violated any of the provisions of this section, and such officer or bodies shall not grant amnesty to any person who has violated any of the provisions of this section.
(d) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a person violating any of the provisions of this section may subsequent to such violation be appointed or reappointed, employed or re-employed as a municipal employee of the City and County of San Francisco, but only on the following conditions:
(1) such person shall be appointed or reappointed, employed or re-employed as a new appointee or employee, who is appointed or employed in accordance with all Charter provisions, ordinances, rules or regulations of said City and County in effect for new employees at the time of appointment, reappointment, employment or re-employment;
(2) the compensation of such person shall not be increased by virtue of any previous employment with said City and County.
(e) In the event of a strike, or if the Mayor with the concurrence of a majority of the Board of Supervisors determines that a strike is imminent, a special committee shall convene forthwith, which special committee shall consist of the presidents of the airports commission, civil service commission, fire commission, police commission, public transportation commission and public utilities commission. The president of the civil service commission shall serve as chairman of the special committee. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, it shall be the duty of the special committee to dismiss in accordance with the provisions of this section any municipal employee found to be in violation of any provisions of this section. Any person may file with the special committee written charges against a municipal employee or employees in violation of any of the provisions of this section and the special committee shall receive and investigate, without undue delay, and where necessary take appropriate actions regarding any such written charge(s), and forthwith inform that person of its findings and action, or proposed action thereon.
In the event of a strike or determination of imminent strike as specified above, each appointing officer shall deliver each day no later than 12:00 o'clock noon to the chairman of the special committee a record of the absence of each employee under his or her authority for the prior day and a written report describing incidents of and the participant(s) in violations of this section wherever the identity of the participant(s) is known to him or her and the participant(s) is (are) under his or her authority.
In addition each appointing officer shall provide to the special committee, whenever it has been convened under authority of law, any other information determined by the special committee to be necessary for the discharge of its duties. The failure of an appointing officer to discharge any of the duties imposed upon him or her by this section shall be official misconduct.
(f) An employee charged by the special committee with a violation of this section shall be notified of the time and place of the hearing on the charges and of the nature of the charges against him or her. Said employee shall be given such other information as is required by due process. Said employee shall respond to said charges by a sworn affidavit, signed by him or her, and by such other information and documentation and in such a manner as is prescribed by the special committee. An employee failing to provide the responses required by this section or in any way failing to comply with the procedural time limitations and information requirements imposed by the special committee shall be immediately suspended and shall not be entitled to a hearing until he or she has fully complied with the aforementioned requirements.
If the special committee, after a hearing, determines that the charges against the employee are supported by the preponderance of the evidence submitted, said special committee shall dismiss the employee involved and said employee shall not be reinstated or returned to City and County service except as specified in Subsection (d). A dismissal or suspension invoked pursuant to the provisions of this section shall not be appealable to the civil service commission.
(g) The special committee shall discharge its duties in a timely manner while preserving the due process rights of employees with the objective of obtaining immediate sanctions against striking employees. The willful failure of any member of this special committee faithfully and fully to discharge his or her duties in a timely manner and to accord absolute priority to the performance of those duties shall be deemed official misconduct.
In the event the special committee determines that it shall be unable to comply with constitutional due process requirements that a timely hearing be provided or that it shall be unable to comply with its obligations fully and in a timely manner to investigate and hear all violations of this section, then the special committee may, subject to the budget and fiscal provisions of the Charter, engage the administrative and clerical personnel, investigators, and one or more hearing officers to conduct hearings hereunder. In conducting hearings, the hearing officers shall have the same powers of inquiry and disposition as the special committee.
(h) In order to provide for the effective operation of this section in the event of a strike or determination of imminent strike, the president of the civil service commission, not later than 30 days after this section becomes effective, shall convene the special committee which shall adopt rules, regulations, and procedures for the investigation, hearing and disposition of all violations of this section.
(i) In order to bring the provisions of this section to the attention of any person who may be affected thereby, each municipal employee on the effective date of this section, exclusive of members of the uniformed forces of the police and fire departments as provided in Section 8.345 hereof, and each person appointed or employed as a municipal employee pursuant to the civil service provisions of this Charter, exclusive of persons appointed to the entrance positions in the uniformed forces of the police and fire departments as provided in Section 8.345 hereof, on or after the effective date of this section shall be furnished a copy of this section and shall acknowledge such receipt in writing. The signed, written receipt shall be filed in the office of the civil service commission and maintained therein for the term of his or her employment with the City and County of San Francisco.
(j) The provisions of Sections 3.100 and 3.100-1, relating to the emergency powers of the Mayor, shall not be applicable to the provisions of this section.
(k) If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subsection, or part of this section shall be adjudged by any court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, such judgment shall not affect, impair or invalidate the remainder thereof, but shall be confined in its operation to the clause, sentence, paragraph, subsection, or part thereof directly involved in the controversy in which such judgment shall have been rendered.
(a) Employees of the City and County of San Francisco may transfer their unused accumulated sick leave to other employees of the City and County of San Francisco who have been determined to be catastrophically ill, and who have exhausted their vacation allowance, sick leave and compensatory time off, provided that such determination and such transfer may be made only in compliance with the terms and conditions established by ordinance adopted by the Board of Supervisors.
(b) Notwithstanding Sections 8.360 and 8.363 of this Charter, within sixty (60) days of the effective date of this section, the Health Commission, Civil Service Commission, and Retirement Board shall conduct a joint hearing to consider and develop recommendations for submission to the Board of Supervisors. The Board of Supervisors shall adopt an ordinance, as provided in subsection (a), and establish any rules necessary to administer, interpret, and regulate the provisions of this section, provided that all such rules shall be approved, amended, or rejected by resolution by the Board of Supervisors.
(Amended November 1999)
Under federal, state and local law, employees are entitled to take an unpaid leave of absence in the event of pregnancy disability or to care for a child after birth or placement for adoption or foster care. But employees may not have the financial resources to take advantage of this leave. This section provides compensation to supplement state disability insurance payments, paid sick leave, compensatory time, and other forms of paid leave, to ensure that an employee will receive the equivalent of the employee's salary for 12 weeks, or, if the employee is temporarily disabled by pregnancy, up to 16 weeks, while on approved leave.
In accordance with this section, eligible employees on approved Parental Leave shall receive Supplemental Compensation as set forth herein.
Nothing in this section shall be construed to expand, reduce or otherwise affect the total amount of leave time available to employees under federal, state, or local law, Civil Service Commission rules, or applicable memoranda of understanding between the City and County of San Francisco and employee organizations. This section is intended to supplement other available sources of income during specified periods of leave to which the employee is otherwise eligible. Except for leave mandated by law, requests for leave continue to be subject to the approval of the appointing officer.
(Added November 2002; amended November 2015)
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