The Board of Public Works and Safety on Tuesday gave approval for the city’s police and fire departments to send out a notice to active members regarding a pending vote in order to determine whether both will establish merit systems.
The system would create boards made up of five members each, who would be authorized to oversee things including hiring, promotions and disciplinary actions.
House Enrolled Act 1016, passed in 2023, says that departments with at least 12 full-time staff serving areas of at least 20,000 in population must adopt a merit board by 2025, unless a municipality’s city council adopts a resolution before the end of the year rejecting the establishment of a merit system.
Columbus City Council members voted in August to approve a resolution that rejects the establishment of a merit system, with the idea being to leave the matter up to the departments, city officials said
“We presented it to council with the recommendation to reject the automatic adoption of a merit system so that police and fire would have the option to vote themselves,” according to Executive Director of Administration Eric Frey.
The board of works will send out the notice to CFD members, whereas CPD Deputy Chief Matt Martindale said its administration will provide notice to their officers.
CFD will hold meeting where members will vote on Oct. 21, 22 and 23 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Evolution Training Facility. CPD active members will vote in one session on Oct. 23 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. in the Cal Brand Meeting Room at City Hall.
If a majority of active department members at the meetings vote “yes” on the resolution, a merit system will not be established.
Police officers will be given a copy of the statute, along with description to make “it more reader friendly,” Martindale said.
“The only things that I would add would be to stress that the merit commission would also have authority over our hiring process. In my reading of the statute, people would no longer apply to the city directly to be a police officer. They would submit their applications to the merit commission, who would manage our hiring process, which is very drastically different from what we do now.”
CFD Chief Andy Lay said firefighters were given a copy of the statute and information will also be distributed by the Columbus Professional Firefighters Local 2190 union.
“It’s up to the membership whether they want to implement that or not. Speaking as the fire chief, I like the current system that we have,” Chief Lay told board members. “I think we have a good system. We do testing right now, we use third party vendors for promotions that come in, so it is a service that we contract with. I think our promotions are fair and just. I also like our hiring process, we use the same company that does our promotions, so all those things that can get you in trouble are in place, so we have a very solid system.”
