(a) Policy. It is the Village's policy to provide safe, dependable and efficient government services to the public. Village employees are a valuable and important resource and it is therefore the Village's policy to provide a healthy, safe, and satisfying working environment for its employees as well as to staff that working environment only with employees who are fit to duty. Federal laws and regulations have been adopted which require the Village to implement a drug, controlled substance, and alcohol screening program for operators of a commercial motor vehicle and for employees who engage in certain safety sensitive occupations. Accordingly, a requirement for entering Village employment, retaining Village employment, or advancing in the administrative service of the Village into positions to which the abovementioned Federal regulations apply shall henceforth be that such an employee is fit for duty in the additional sense that he or she is free of drug dependence, not a user of nor a trafficker in controlled substances or drugs, and free of alcohol dependency or use such that his or her normal mental or physical capabilities are not impaired. In meeting these goals, it is further the Village's policy to:
(1) Assure that covered employees operating a covered vehicle with or without a commercial driver's license are fit for duty and able to perform their assigned duties in a safe, productive, healthy, and unimpaired manner.
(2) Create a workplace free from the adverse effects of drug, alcohol, and substance abuse.
(3) Prohibit the unlawful manufacture, distribution, dispensing, possession or use of alcohol, drugs or controlled substances, among persons entrusted with covered vehicles or persons employed by the Village by contract to engage in work involving the operation of a covered vehicle.
(b) Purpose. The purpose of this policy is to assure that covered employees who operate covered vehicles are fit for duty; to eliminate, if possible, the risk to the Village posed by the use of alcohol, drugs, and controlled substances by covered employees while operating covered vehicles; and to maintain a workplace free of alcohol abuse, controlled substance use or drug abuse. It is further the Village's purpose to detect, identify and remove from duty those covered employees who operate covered vehicles when such employees should not be operating a covered vehicle because they are not fit for duty. However, it is not the purpose of this policy to warrant or to guarantee to the public at large or other employees of the Village who are injured by a covered employee that the Village has detected or will in every instance detect that a violation of this policy has occurred before some injurious result occurs, and it is not the purpose of this policy to create an express or implied warranty on the part of the Village to the public at large or other employees that all covered employees are free from alcohol abuse, drug misuse, or controlled substance use.
(c) Applicability. This chapter shall apply to covered employees when going to or from work, when going to a work site, when preparing to perform work at a site, when performing work for the Village, when on a break or at lunch while in the course of performing work, after concluding the performance of work at a site but before departing the work site, when returning to the Village facilities following departure from a work site, and when on Village property regardless of work status.
(d) Rulemaking Authority. The Mayor or the Mayor's designee is hereby authorized to adopt such rules and regulations as well as create forms, documents, and procedures for the implementation of this chapter. Such activities as are undertaken under authority of this subsection shall be consistent with this chapter and consistent with the relevant Federal laws and regulations governing substance abuse testing as the same are applicable to the Village.
(Ord. 1996-4. Passed 2-12-96.)