ROBERTSDALE, Ala. — At their Monday night council meeting, the City of Robertsdale passed a motion to update their Substance Abuse Policy effective immediately.

Adopted in 2006, the policy needed to be brought up to date to meet the Federal minimum requirements of the direct observation collections for return-to-duty and follow-up testing that became effective in 2009 by the Alabama Department of Transportation.

David Kilcrease, Safety Coordinator for the City, said the change comes from the recommendations of Robert J. Jilla, Multimodal Transportation Engineer from ALDOT concerning random testing of employees.

According to the policy “Testing will be performed at the Federal minimum rate for drug and alcohol utilizing a random number table or a computer-based random number generator matched to employees’ social security numbers” and “the city shall select 25 percent of the pool of DOT-regulated employees (including CMV (Commercial Motor Vehicle) drivers and Gas Department employees) to be tested annually. CMV drivers and Gas Department employees selected for random testing shall be subjected to both controlled substances and alcohol testing.”

Kilcrease said they had previously been randomly testing 50 percent of the pool of employees and now with the change, it will ultimately save the City money by cutting down on the amount of money spent on testing.

“We test once every quarter on site, even volunteers who drive our buses have to be tested, and they go through a Medical Review Officer. And most of the time if it is positive, it’s because of prescriptions or cough medicine. Those are the worst,” Kilcrease said.

Mayor Charles Murphy said since 2006, they have only had six people test positive for drugs or alcohol and have had some go and some stay. “This policy has been a good tool for us and beneficial for the city.”

Ann Simpson, City CFO, said they receive a discount for having the policy and the discount pays for the testing so it evens out. “The amount is based on our payroll and since we will only doing 25 percent of the employees now, it should be cheaper for us.”

Other updates to the policy include two additions to the “Refusal to Submit” section. According to the policy, any employee will be deemed insubordinate if they:

“Fail to follow the observer’s instructions during an observed collection including instructions to raise your clothing above the waist, lower clothing and underpants, and to turn around to permit the observer to determine if you have any type of prosthetic or other device that could be used to interfere with the collection process…or possess or wear a prosthetic or other device that could be used to interfere with the collection process.”

Finally, a whole section on “Observed Collections” was updated and reads:

Observed collections are required in the following circumstances:

1. All return-to-duty tests (second chance policy)

2. All follow-up tests (second chance policy)

3. Anytime the employee is directed to provide another specimen because the temperature on the original specimen was out of the accepted temperature of 90-100F.

4. Anytime the employee is directed to provide another specimen because the original specimen appeared to have been tampered with.

5. Anytime a collector observes materials brought to the collection site or the employee’s conduct clearly indicates an attempt to tamper with the specimen.

6. Anytime the employee is directed to provide another specimen because the laboratory reported to the MRO (Medical Review Officer) that the original specimen was invalid and the MRO determined that there was not an adequate medical explanation for the result.

7. Anytime the employee is directed to provide another specimen because the MRO determined that the original specimen was positive, adulterated or substituted but had to be canceled because the test of the split specimen could not be performed.

8. The employee who is being observed will be required to raise his or her shirt, blouse, or dress/skirt, as appropriate, above the waist; and lower clothing and underpants to show the collector, by turning around that they do not have a prosthetic device.

The policy also states “the City will not pay compensation and no compensation will be available to any employee after the employee has been warned, in writing, by the provisions of this manual of both the terms of City’s workplace drug and alcohol policy and that a positive drug or alcohol test could result in his/her termination.”

In other council business, Resolution 00-11 was passed allowing the City to submit the plans for the “Safe Route to Schools” sidewalk project to ALDOT.

“90 percent of the plans are complete. All we have to do is execute the agreement and submit the plans. We have already submitted the permits and once ALDOT approves them and sends them back, we can start advertising for bids. We have a year to get started on the project,” said Greg Smith, City Engineer.

The City should get good bids and a good price because companies are looking for work at this time of the year, Smith said, and once the contractor is hired, the city will pay them and ALDOT will reimburse the City.

The council also passed a motion to purchase a full page color ad for $1,900 plus $125 for production in the 2011 Central Baldwin Magazine as they did last year for the same price and to reschedule the Monday, January 17 meeting to Tuesday, January 18 because of the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday.