Haines Borough Manager David Sosa will not pursue a proposed policy aimed at discouraging the borough from entering into nondisclosure agreements with departing employees who have a history of improper behavior.
Sosa said existing Alaska law already gives employers the right to disclose information about employee performance.
Former assembly member Debra Schnabel submitted the policy for assembly consideration in August. The policy never made it onto the assembly agenda.
Schnabel’s policy was prompted by the borough’s negotiation of nondisclosure agreements with former police chief Gary Lowe and former police sergeant Jason Joel.
Joel resigned in April 2011 after the department received complaints about Joel sexually harassing women, including co-worker Angie Goodwin. Lowe was placed on administrative leave in March 2013 and resigned a month later following allegations of verbally abusing staff.
Lowe and Joel resigned in exchange for the municipality’s agreement to not discuss complaints about their alleged abusive behavior. Their conduct was brought to light by sources other than the borough – including local news reports.
Schnabel’s draft policy stated the borough “shall adhere to standards of fair disclosure in providing reference for an applicant with employment history with the Haines Borough.”
“Fair disclosure provides for the borough manager or the manager’s designee discretion in communicating information about a prior employee’s tenure and termination,” the policy stated.
Schnabel said the policy was aimed at screening people out of the pool of potential public personnel who “don’t really have the character or the skills for the job.”
“The reason they don’t get filtered out is because people who are skilled in evaluating peoples’ character and performance in the job refuse to be open and honest in sharing information to other prospective employers,” Schnabel said this week in an interview.
Sosa said the policy isn’t necessary because of a section of Alaska Statute called “Immunity for Good Faith Disclosures of Job Performance Information.” The statute allows employers to, in good faith, disclose information about employees and not be held liable for the disclosure or its consequences.
“(The statute) provides very strong protection for any employer, to include a municipality, to disclose information about an employee’s performance. Given this, I do not know that a specific policy on nondisclosure agreements is warranted so long as the administration makes it very clear to employees that the borough reserves its right to provide disclosure in accordance with the statute,” Sosa said.
Sosa said the statute will be emphasized to borough employees when they are hired.
Reinforcing evaluations, training supervisors and developing clear policies are also proactive steps to holding people accountable throughout their employment, he said.
“(These actions) help prevent getting into situations where a nondisclosure agreement is preferable to a protracted legal fight,” Sosa said.
Schnabel said she was disappointed in Sosa’s decision not to implement the policy or put it before the assembly for consideration, though she is confident Sosa will make the right decisions when it comes to providing information about former employees.
“I’m disappointed that the manager doesn’t want to support the idea of having a policy for it. I would trust the manager to, in his own way, be true to the concept of disclosing, in a fair way, information about prospective employees to others,” she said.