(A) No Police or Fire Department member in the classified service shall be dismissed, suspended, or reduced in grade or pay for any reason except inefficiency, misconduct, insubordination, violation of any law involving moral turpitude, or violation of any rule adopted by the City Council or Civil Service Commission.
(B) Any person may prefer charges in writing against any Police or Fire Department member in the classified service by filing them with the Mayor, who shall communicate the charges without delay to the Civil Service Commission. The charges must be signed by the person making them and must set out clearly each charge. The Mayor shall, whenever probable cause appears, prefer charges against any Police or Fire Department member in the classified service whom he believes guilty of conduct justifying his removal. Upon the filing of charges, the Clerk of the Civil Service Commission shall notify its members and serve a copy of the charges upon the accused Police or Fire Department member with a statement of the date, place, and hour at which the hearing of charges will begin, this hearing not to be held within three days of the date of the service of charges upon the accused member. The day on which the charges are served on the accused member shall count as one of the days of notice. The person accused may in writing waive the service of charges and demand trial within three days after they have been filed with the Clerk of the Civil Service Commission.
(C) Upon the hearing, the charges shall be considered traversed and put in issue, and the trial shall be limited to the issues presented by the written charges.
(D) The Civil Service Commission shall have the power to summon and compel attendance of witnesses at all hearings by subpoena issued by the Clerk of that body and served upon the witnesses by members of the Police Department or any officer authorized to serve subpoenas. If any witness fails to appear in response to a summons or refuses to testify concerning any matter on which he may lawfully be interrogated, any district court judge, on application of the Commission, may compel obedience by proceedings for contempt as in the case of disobedience of a subpoena issued from the district court. The accused Police or Fire Department member shall have the right to have subpoenaed any witnesses he may desire, upon furnishing their names to the Clerk. As many as ten subpoenas may be served at the request of the accused member without charge, but each additional subpoena requested by him shall be issued by the Clerk of the Civil Service Commission, and served by the Police Department only upon payment of $.50 to the City Clerk/Tax Assessor by the employee. The action and decision of the Civil Service Commission on the charges shall be reduced to writing and kept in a book for that purpose and the written charge shall be attached to the book containing the body’s decision.
(E) In cases where the head of the Police or Fire Department or the Mayor has probable cause to believe a Police or Fire Department member has been guilty of conduct justifying his removal or punishment, he shall immediately suspend that member from duty or from both pay and duty pending trial and the member shall not be placed on duty or allowed pay thereafter until the charges are heard by the Civil Service Commission.
(F) The Civil Service Commission shall punish any Police or Fire Department member found guilty by reprimand or suspension for any length of time not to exceed six months, or by reducing the grade, if the member’s classification warrants, or by combining any two or more of these punishments, or by dismissal. No such member shall be reprimanded, removed, suspended, or dismissed except as provided in this section.
(G) In any instance in which the requirements of KRS 15.520 are applicable to a disciplinary action against a city police officer, such disciplinary action shall be conducted in accordance with the procedures and requirements of KRS 15.520.
(KRS 90.360) (Ord. 16-1967, passed 5-1-67)
Cross-reference:
Positions of Police Chief, Assistant Police Chief excluded from civil service, see § 35.35.(B)