Florence updates employee handbook after 20 years

By Charles Tomlinson
Morning News Reporter
Published: August 28, 2008

FLORENCE — Florence has made its first update in 20 years to the city’s employee handbook, now a more concise document that aims to put the spotlight on policies most relevant to all employees.

“There’s nothing really new in here; we’re not changing the way we work with city employees,” city attorney Jim Peterson told Florence City Council on Thursday.

Council voted unanimously during a special called meeting Thursday on a resolution to adopt the revised handbook. Five council members attended; Mayor Frank Willis and councilman Rick Woodard were absent.

Amid the passing of state and federal laws, such as the Civil Rights Act of 1991, the city complied with new regulations but didn’t incorporate new policies into its handbook, Peterson said.

“We just wanted to get it all in the same place,” Peterson said after Thursday’s meeting.

The revised handbook also includes a section detailing city officials’ right to observe how employees are using their work computers. The purpose, however, is not to spy, said Linda Edwards of Columbia, the city’s labor attorney.

“You should have the opportunity to do that if you think there’s a problem,” she said.

Edwards also pointed out the handbook’s first page is a disclaimer that the document doesn’t serve as an employment contract. That serves as a “safety net” for the city, because breach-of-contract court costs are funded not from insurance, but a city’s budget, she said.

The contract states that employees can be fired for any reason — not unusual, because South Carolina has always been considered a state of “at-will” employment, Peterson said.

“Every employer in South Carolina has this,” Edwards said.

Council on Thursday also unanimously approved first reading of an ordinance to transfer two city-owned buildings on the 100 block of South Dargan Street to the Florence Downtown Development Corp., which would market the properties.

The corporation, a nonprofit group established by the city to foster downtown revitalization, had asked for the building at 117 and 119 S. Dargan St. as well as the former Carolina Theater, at 129 S. Dargan St. Both structures flank Florence Pharmacy.

The corporation would not need council’s approval to transfer the buildings to yet another owner unless it would receive less than fair market value for the properties, Peterson said.

The corporation already has bought Royal Knight Formal Wear building at Dargan and Evans streets, and it hopes to focus on the block of Dargan between Cheves and Evans streets, George Jebaily told council earlier this month on behalf of the corporation.

Council amended the ordinance to exclude the corporation’s request for a one-year option to purchase for $500,000 a vacant, one-acre, city-owned lot at the northwest corner of Cheves and Dargan streets.

Councilman Buddy Brand said he and councilman Bobby Holland know of a potential development for the property, although he gave no specifics.

“I’d just hate to tie up anything,” Brand said.