Title
Review and approve the Civil Rights Complaint Procedures.
Report
RECOMMENDATION:
It is recommended that the Board of Supervisors:
Approve the Civil Rights Complaint Procedures.
SUMMARY/DISCUSSION:
The County's complaint procedures were last updated in February 2014.
On January 2018, the Board of Supervisors amended Chapter 2.80 of the County Code, changing the name of the Equal Opportunity Office to the Civil Rights Office. Chapter 2.80.050, Section D of the Monterey County Code delegates authority to the Civil Rights Officer to enact procedures to enforce Chapter 2.80 and the following four policies:
1. Nondiscrimination Policy;
2. Sexual Harassment Policy;
3. Language Access and Effective Communication Policy; and
4. Reasonable Accommodation Policy.
Although vested with the delegated authority to enact procedures to enforce Chapter 2.80, to promote transparency, the Civil Rights Officer recommends that the Board of Supervisors review and approve the recommended update to the County's Civil Rights Complaint Procedures.
The updated procedures maintain the main previous processes but are updated to reflect the name change of the Office and Officer and the policy updates, along with five substantial changes, which are outlined below.
Significant Change No. 1: Statute of Limitations: The updated procedures would allow complainants up to 180 days to bring their concern to the Civil Rights Office; current policy allows 90 days. We found that because of the sensitivity and sometimes difficult nature of bringing forth a complaint, it is important to grant 180 days for people to review and determine that they need to file a complaint.
Significant Change No. 2: Responsibility: Current procedures allow the Civil Rights Officer to make recommendations for how a department is to handle a Civil Rights violation, but there are no procedures to follow up after that recommendation. The updated procedures will require that 30 days after the recommendation is ...
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