Hamilton County modernizes personnel policies: updated ADA process, remote-work guidance, CDL testing and security-records policy adopted by consent

Hamilton County commissioners on May 14 adopted modifications to the county personnel policy manual as part of the consent agenda.

A county HR representative explained the changes to the board: "The first one we updated, which Jeff mentioned, is the ADA policy has been updated since 2017. If you looked at our current policy, all it says is that we abide by the law... It doesn't actually provide, like, any structure or process or tell employees, like, who's eligible for an accommodation under the ADA? How do you get an accommodation? So we just did a really robust revision to that policy to really explain to all of our employees and managers and departments how it works," the HR speaker said.

The telecommuting program has been retitled and revised to 'remote work' to reflect post-COVID operations; the policy now provides departments with discretion to determine remote-work eligibility and includes new forms to ensure accountability for equipment and work locations.

Officials also updated the CDL alcohol and drug testing policy to align with recent federal regulatory changes affecting employees with commercial driver's licenses in operations and engineering divisions. Finally, the board adopted a new security records access and authorization policy to streamline requests for county security camera records through HR and risk management for employee-relations investigations.

Commissioners described the updates as "mundane but important," emphasizing clarity for employees and managers and improved processes for accommodations, record requests and federal compliance. The policy changes were included in the consent agenda and adopted along with other routine items.