CORRECTED BILL

 

Bill No.                32-12                        

Concerning: Personnel – Regulations – Persons with Disabilities – Noncompetitive Appointment  

Revised:  January 17, 2013 Draft No.  6 

Introduced:      November 13, 2012        

Enacted:         February 5, 2013            

Executive:       February 12, 2013          

Effective:        May 14, 2013                 

Sunset Date:  None                             

Ch.     1    , Laws of Mont. Co.    2013    

 

County Council

For Montgomery County, Maryland

 

By: Councilmember Andrews, Council Vice-President Rice, Council President Navarro, Councilmembers Leventhal, Ervin, Floreen, Elrich, Berliner, and Riemer

 

AN ACT to:

(1)        establish a program, as authorized by the County Charter, permitting the noncompetitive appointment of certain qualified persons with severe disabilities who apply for a County merit position;

(2)        require the Executive to adopt regulations permitting the noncompetitive appointment of certain qualified persons with severe disabilities who apply for a County merit position; and

(3)        generally amend the merit system law concerning hiring persons with disabilities.

 

By amending

            Montgomery County Code

            Chapter 33, Personnel and Human Resources

            Section 33-7

 

Boldface                                             Heading or defined term.

Underlining                                          Added to existing law by original bill.

[Single boldface brackets]                  Deleted from existing law by original bill.

Double underlining                              Added by amendment.

[[Double boldface brackets]]              Deleted from existing law or the bill by amendment.

*   *   *                                                  Existing law unaffected by bill.

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


The County Council for Montgomery County, Maryland approves the following Act:

 

Clerk’s Note: On page 3, line 50, show omitted language in brackets.


          Sec. 1.  Short Title.

This Act may be cited as the “Expanded Hiring of Persons with Disabilities Act.”

          Sec. 2.  Section 33-7 is amended as follows:

33-7. County executive and merit system protection board responsibilities.

*                 *                 *

(d) [Hiring preference] [[Special hiring rules for]] Hiring persons with disabilities.

(1)     Findings.

(A)    Persons with disabilities are a largely untapped resource for outstanding candidates for County employment.

(B)     There are many County residents with severe disabilities, including Wounded Warriors treated in the County at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

[(B)] (C)      Persons with disabilities suffer from a high unemployment and underemployment rate in the County due in part to unfounded myths, fears and stereotypes associated with many disabilities.

[(C)] (D)      [A] [[Special hiring]] [preference] Hiring rules for persons with disabilities [is] are necessary to remedy past discrimination resulting from these unfounded myths, fears, and stereotypes and to enable the County to be a model employer of qualified persons with severe disabilities.

(E)     Special hiring rules for qualified persons with severe disabilities would permit the County to hire highly productive interns with severe disabilities into merit system positions.

CORRECTED PAGE

 
(F)     The Charter permits the County to operate a program within the merit system to recruit and select qualified individuals with severe physical and mental disabilities on a noncompetitive basis.

(2)     The Executive must adopt by personnel regulation, under Method (1), standards for establishing and maintaining [a preference] special rules for the initial appointment of a qualified person with a disability into a merit system position. These standards must:

(A)    define a person with a disability eligible for [the] a competitive appointment with a preference as:

(i)      a person with medical proof of a developmental disability, a severe physical disability, or a psychiatric disability; or

(ii)     a veteran rated by the Department of Veterans Affairs with a compensable service-connected disability of 30 percent or more;

(B)     define a person with a severe disability eligible for noncompetitive appointment as a person with medical proof of a severe developmental, physical, or psychiatric disability; and

(C)     require medical certification of a qualifying disability [(C) establish the following order of precedence;].

(3)     Competitive appointment. 

(A)    The regulation must establish and maintain a preference for the initial appointment of a qualified person with a disability into a merit system position under the following order of preference:

(i)      an employee who is unable to perform the employee’s job because of a disability or injury under the ADA;

(ii)     an employee subject to reduction-in-force;

(iii)    an employee who was granted a temporary disability retirement under the Employees Retirement System or an initial or temporary disability benefit of any type under the Retirement Savings Plan or the Guaranteed Retirement Income Plan but is no longer eligible for such a temporary disability retirement or benefit;

(iv)    a veteran with a disability;

(v)     an equal preference for a veteran without a disability and a non- veteran with a disability[; and] .

[(D)] (B)      The regulation must only apply the preference to a person who is among the highest rating category in a normal competitive process.

(4)     Noncompetitive appointment.  The regulation must establish and maintain standards for the noncompetitive appointment of a qualified person with a severe disability to a position in the merit system.  The standards must:

(A)    permit the noncompetitive appointment of a qualified person with a severe disability without advertising the position;

(B)     require [[medical]] certification of a severe disability based upon medical evidence;

(C)     apply only to the initial appointment of a qualified person with a severe disability to a merit system position; and

(D)    require the person to successfully complete the appropriate probationary period for the position.

*                 *                 *

Approved: