At the December 4 meeting of the Henderson City Council, concerns of city workers, mainly in the Sanitation Department, dismissed over the results of polygraph testing were first brought to the attention of the Council by the Reverend John Miles.
Since that encounter, a correspondence was transmitted by Terry Garrison, a Vance County Commissioner and the President of the Vance County Branch of the NAACP to City Manager Jerry Moss. The letter, submitted to Garrision by Katie Foster, John Miles, Anthony Butler, and the Reverend William Clayton, listed several concerns regarding the termination of several workers through the use of polygraph testing.
The letter claimed that all of the workers dismissed were African-American.
Further concerns enumerated were:
* Polygraph tests were given as a result of a “rumor” or “whim of the city manager”.
* No worker has seen a written policy by which such a test is required.
* Workers are fired without written documentation.
* People of color who have applied for positions with the city have been told they cannot be hired because they are friends of an employee who has been in a “situation”.
* Polygraph testing is a tool to dismiss unwanted men and women of color. The cost of unlimited and unnecessary tests costs the taxpayers money.
* There is favoritism in the billing department. If the cut-off list has names that begin with professional titles, those names are to be returned to the department and not acted upon.
* New hires are not paid the rate they are promised.
At the Henderson City Council meeting of January 8, Moss read his response to the letter from the Henderson city workers verbatim. Before responding to the claims of the original letter point-for-point, Moss noted that the first person dismissed based on polygraph testing was not an African-American.
* Moss stated that employees were read their Garrity rights before being questioned about the possibility they were involved in thefts. The Garrity Rule indicates that an employee coerced into a confession when his or her job is at stake is not liable to criminal prosecution. Moss said that polygraphs were administered to determine if employees were telling the truth or to clear employees of wrongdoing.
* The City does not have a written policy regarding the process of giving polygraphs but has the right to do so under the Employee Polygraph Protection Act of 1988. Moss indicated that the dismissal process was being streamlined so that the City Manager would not be involved, thus freeing the Manager to participate in the appeals process.
* Employees who are terminated do not need to be given documentation or sign exit papers of any sort. Paperwork generated as a result of a termination may be inspected in the employee’s confidential personnel file upon request.
* There was a case of a supervisor who wished to hire his girlfriend and was not permitted to do so. Moss stated he agreed with the action taken in that matter.
* Polygraphs tests were performed as much to clear employees as to find them guilty of criminal acts.
* The practice of billing favoritism does not exist. Moss claimed to have stopped the practice of accommodating the requests of City Council members that certain billing sections not be disconnected for non-payment when he assumed the role of City Manager.
* Moss also claimed that there were too many people involved in the hiring process and too many safeguards to allow a new hire to be paid a rate other than the promised rate. He said a pay plan is used to determine the hiring rate. He asked that if there is proof of deceptive practice that it should be brought to his attention.
Moss also noted that employee policy manuals would soon be distributed.
In reply, the Reverend John Miles stated that the letter that Moss received was not the letter that was intended. He stated that racial involvement with the polygraph testing has not been found.
Miles asked the City Manager for a city policy manual and requested that a section on polygraph testing be included.
Miles asked that healing be brought to the City of Henderson.