On May 26 the Civil Service Commission met to consider my request on behalf of the Fraternal Order of Police that NOPD officers be paid the Emergency Rate of Pay. On March 25 and April 13, I submitted correspondence to the Civil Service Department and the Civil Service Commission regarding the application of New Orleans Civil Service Rule IV, Section 11.1. You can review the arguments here and here. The issue was initially scheduled to come before the Civil Service Commission at a meeting on May 18. That meeting was rescheduled to May 26.

First, I want to thank everyone who submitted a comment form. All of the comment forms were read into the record during the meeting. The Civil Service Staff read more than 20 comment forms, all in favor of granting the emergency pay.

The meeting was conducted using Zoom. At the Zoom meeting, I was allowed to make comments. You can see my comments here. Once I read my comments into the record, Assistant City Attorney William Goforth made comments on behalf of the City. Basically, the City’s position was that the Mayor did not request that only essential employees report to work as required by Civil Service Rule IV, Sec. 11.1. Mr. Goforth’s argument was that the city was still open for business and that employees working at home — there were essential and non-essential employees who had to report to work. Therefore, Rule 4, Art. 11.1 did not apply. Essentially, their argument was that since there were employees working from home it was not just essential employees reporting to work.

My response to that was that the definition of essential employees was a fluid one based on what was actually happening. There were some employees who were required to work and some employees who were not required to work and paid their salary with civil leave. The only question in my mind is whether those employees working at home were essential employees or not. I think they are not. I think that reporting to work means that an employee reports to a specific location at a specific time. I do not think that includes the employee’s home. However, if the City thinks those people are essential employees, it just increases the number of people eligible for the emergency rate of pay.

The Civil Service Commission voted to deny the request for the emergency rate of pay. It is disappointing that they voted that way. After they voted, I requested that the Commission make note of my intent to seek a writ on behalf of the Fraternal Order of Police. My intention is to take the issue to the 4^th Circuit Court of Appeal once I have received a written decision from the Commission.