Hiring and Advancement Practices at the Glenn County Human Resources Agency

2 - Applicability: This policy applies to all employees (including upper- and mid-management level staff) volunteers, agency representatives and work experience placements assigned to or working at the HRA. 39.4 - Definitions: For the purposes of this policy, conflict of interest is any situ- ation where there is the potential for perceived favoritism or unethical activity in the hiring, evaluating, and/or promoting of an employee who is related to another em- ployee at the HRA, or in the assignment of tasks to that employee. 39.5 - Policy: It is the policy of the HRA to ensure that ethical standards are in place and adhered to with respect to family members employed at HRA, including those who may work in the same unit or division. All HRA employees shall be sub- ject to the same standards of work behavior in that no individual shall receive favored treatment during the course of the hiring process, the evaluation process, promotions or the assignment of tasks or responsibilities. 39.6 - Procedure: Interviewing and Hiring - When an individual who is related to, or friends with, an HRA employee is applying for work at the HRA, the current HRA employee will not be selected to participate in the interviewing and/or hiring process of the applicant. The current HRA employee shall not have access to the in- terview questions nor any applicable testing materials with respect to the hiring of the applicant. Supervision and Assignments - In no case shall employees who are related, either by blood or by marriage, be permitted to supervise the employee to whom they are related. Furthermore, employees who are related or friends with one another shall not receive preferential treatment with regard to the assignment of tasks or duties. If two related employees reside in the same division, a staff member from a different division shall act as the functional supervisor for the employee. This is to ensure that no conflict of inter- est occurs within the division and that the chain of command is not compromised. For example: The SSD Fiscal Supervisor wants to hire someone who is related to another SSD employee. This is permissible, provided that the new SSD employee does not fall within their relative's chain of command. For example: The SSD Fiscal Supervisor wants to hire someone who is related to the SSD Deputy. In this case, conflict of interest could exist by virtue of the fact that the 17 SSD Fiscal Supervisor (who will become the applicant's [SSD Deputy's relative] su- pervisor) is ultimately Supervised by the SSD Deputy. This scenario is only permissi- ble if the applicant [SSD Deputy's relative] will be supervised by an employee from CAD. Evaluations - Employees who are related either by blood or marriage shall not participate in or provide input to the evaluation process of the employee to whom they are related. IV. CONCLUSIONS It is the conclusion of the Glenn County Grand Jury that the hiring of the two individuals into the Glenn County Human Resources Agency did constitute a conflict of interest, as outlined in the Policies and Procedures of the agency. As stated in an Executive Team Update to all HRA Staff and all CWS-CWS, the issue of conflict of interest was addressed, and a promise of a response was given. However, no response could be found, staff admitted that no response was given as a follow-up.