(a) The City affirms a policy that sexual harassment of its employees is prohibited. All employees, will be subject to discipline, up to and including discharge, for any act of sexual harassment which in the judgment of the City they have committed.
(b) Definitions.
(1) “Employee” includes all department personnel, both sworn and civilian.
(2) “Sexual harassment” includes any unwarranted or repeated verbal or physical sexual advances, sexually explicit, provocative, or suggestive statements, innuendo, or comments, or sexually oriented conduct of physical conduct, made by another employee which are unreasonably offensive or objectionable to the recipient or which reasonably interferes with the recipients work performance.
(3) “Unwanted conduct” includes any conduct, verbal or physical, which is of ethnic, racial, or religious nature, which reasonably causes the recipient discomfort or humiliation, or which reasonably interferes with the recipients work performance.
(4) “Shall” is mandatory, not permissive.
(c) (1) It shall be a violation of the City’s policy prohibiting sexual harassment for any employee, male or female, managerial, supervisory or hourly, to in any way harass another employee by making unwelcome sexual advances, by either directly or indirectly requesting sexual favors, or by engaging in any other verbal or physical conduct or communication of a sexual nature which either constitutes or affects the terms or conditions of any employee’s employment with the City. It is also a violation for any employee to require or request, directly or indirectly, that any employee submit to such conduct as a basis for, or as a factor in, any employment decisions affecting such employee. This policy also forbids any employee from engaging in any conduct which has the effect of either directly or indirectly creating or contributing to an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working environment because of such conduct.
(2) The City will neither condone nor knowingly fail to take appropriate steps to prohibit the sexual harassment of any of its employees. All employees, including supervisors and department heads, will be subject to discipline, up to and including discharge, for any act of sexual harassment which, in the judgment of the City, they are found to have committed.
(3) Anyone who is party to an unwelcome romantic relationship, in violation of this policy, should bring a complaint under this policy.
(d) (1) Any employee who believes that he or she is being subjected to sexual harassment in violation of this policy should report the alleged harassment to the department head or to the Mayor. In so doing, the employee should clearly state that he or she believes that he or she is the victim of sexual harassment and that the employee is reporting the same pursuant to this policy. Such written complaint or request for investigation shall specify the nature of the conduct which is alleged to have violated this policy, the individual which is alleged to have violated this policy, the individual or individuals who are alleged to have engaged in said conduct, the dates, times, and places of said conduct, as well as any other information which the City deems necessary for its investigation.
(2) Upon receiving a complaint of sexual harassment or a request for investigation of the same, the department head or Mayor will investigate the matter. In so doing, it may require that all employees who possess knowledge of the alleged incident or of similar incidents to cooperate in its investigation by fully and accurately responding to its inquiries in this regard. The failure of any employee, including a complaining employee, to satisfactorily cooperate in such an investigation will be deemed sufficient grounds for discipline.
(3) Making a complaint of sexual harassment is a serious matter. Any employee who has, in the judgment of the City knowingly requested an investigation under false pretense or who knowingly submitted false, inaccurate, or otherwise misleading information to the City in connection with its investigation of an alleged incident of sexual harassment shall be subject to discipline.
(4) Notwithstanding the foregoing, no employee will be subject to any form of retaliation of disciplinary action for making or pursuing a complaint of sexual harassment of a request for investigation of an alleged incident of sexual harassment, which complaint or request is made in good faith.
(e) Should any complaining employee, after the investigation of any complaint of sexual harassment, disagree with the action of the City in the matter, said complaining employee may have such action reviewed by a grievance committee made up of the Law Director, acting as chairman and two Councilmen.
(f) The City will keep such complaints of sexual harassment confidential to the extent that this is possible and still conduct an investigation.
(Ord. 15-97. Passed 7-10-97.)