June 2020

IN THIS ISSUE

With all the COVID-19 related furloughs, temporary layoffs, and standby employees, what is the average/estimated time to recruit a new position? Requesting sample procedures for the deletion or disabling of log-ons and/or passwords of separated employee and/or contractor accounts. Under which phase of the Governor’s reopening plan will outdoor "car shows" be permitted - III, or IV (assuming 150 - 175 vehicles, a public address system, awards, judging and sale of refreshments)? I heard the bid threshold for metropolitan park district goods was raised to $75,000 and am trying to confirm. Please provide the statute if this is correct. Is it legal for the city to change the city code to prohibit all solicitors within the city limits? Scroll down to read the answers

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With all the COVID-19 related furloughs, temporary layoffs, and standby employees, what is the average/estimated time to recruit a new position? While the traditional recruitment and employment process typically takes two to three months (assuming the position is already defined and approved), some things may change this time horizon. Some things to consider in determining the best answer to this question would be: The nature of the position. Is it a permanent position (suggesting that the hiring process is a long-term commitment to the individual and the individual to the employer)? Is it a temporary position which could be recruited for and hired in a much shorter time horizon? Does the organization take advantage of recruitment services where subsequent decisions could be made to convert a “temp service” employee to an entity position? Each of these will affect the time horizon. Is the agency job announcement and recruitment process mature and digital? Many have moved this process to a hosted, digital service. This reduces the paperwork and often the time needed for the announcement and recruitment of qualified candidates. Does the agency conduct remote interviews? This has already become more common for remote applicants. With the workplace being closed in many cases, a remote interview is appropriate and can also reduce the time required to complete the hiring process. All that being said, the typical process often takes two to three months – as we said previously. We are hearing that some agencies are working to find ways to keep their displaced staff (due to the COVID 19 pandemic) accessible once things begin to open up. This is through voluntary furloughs for example. The big question will be what the revenues might be like in the future and how much of the workforce can be retained.

Requesting sample procedures for the deletion or disabling of log-ons and/or passwords of separated employee and/or contractor accounts. In response to your inquiry requesting sample procedures for the deletion or disabling of log-ons and/or passwords of separated employee and/or contractor accounts, please see the following: Employee Separations, San Jose Procedure for Employee Separation, Carnegie Mellon University Sample Password Policy, State of Michigan (See section on “password deletion”) Employee Separation Process, University of Texas at San Antonio (See Sec.I(5)) IT Access Control and User and User Access Management Policy, Grand Prairie Regional College Each of these contain sections that address steps to take in disabling passwords in cases where employees or contractors no longer qualify for access to agency IT systems.

Under which phase of the Governor’s reopening plan will outdoor "car shows" be permitted - III, or IV (assuming 150 - 175 vehicles, a public address system, awards, judging and sale of refreshments)? Here is a link to the Governor’s Safe Start Program, which was released on May 4, 2020. Page six summarizes what is allowed in each of the four phases. Based on that, we think the car show you describe is a “Phase 4” event. Phase 3 allows gatherings and recreational activities of 50 or fewer people—what you describe would entail more than 50 people in attendance. Phase 4 allows gatherings of over 50 people, so that seems like the best fit based on the information you provided.

I heard the bid threshold for metropolitan park district goods was raised to $75,000 and am trying to confirm. Please provide the statute if this is correct. The threshold for metropolitan parks to purchase goods, materials and equipment is $40k. If you are authorized and use the roster you can use that process up to $50k. Otherwise anything above that must be formally bid. ( RCW 35.61.135) The $75,500 recently changed threshold was for city public works projects. The public works threshold for metropolitan park districts is $20k. A roster process can be used up to $350k; over that is formally bid.

Is it legal for the city to change the city code to prohibit all solicitors within the city limits? Probably not, but cities may place reasonable restrictions on them. See MRSC’s page on Regulation of Peddlers, Solicitors, Temporary Merchants, and Mobile Vendors. A search of city and county codes turns up many sample code provisions for you review.

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