Principles for Public Safety Employment

 Inform the employee of his/her right to respond in writing and/or verbally to the proposed action.  Advise the employee that if he/she does not provide a written response and/or request a Skelly conference by a certain date, then his/her failure will constitute a waiver of the right to respond to the proposed discipline.  Advise the employee that he/she has the right to be represented by a representative of his/her choice at the Skelly conference.

The Skelly Notice should list all of the materials that the agency relied upon in making its recommendation for proposed discipline, as well as the documents being provided to the firefighter. Liebert Cassidy Whitmore recommends that an employer provide an employee subject to discipline with copies of all materials that the employer relied upon. 238

LCW Practice Advisor

2. T IME L IMITATIONS FOR P ROVIDING THE P UBLIC S AFETY E MPLOYEE WITH F INAL N OTICE OF D ISCIPLINE Government Code section 3304(f) provides that a public safety officer must be notified of the decision to actually impose discipline within thirty (30) days of that decision, unless the officer is unavailable for discipline. Neves v. California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation 239 Neves v. California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation , held that this 30 day period begins on the date of the final decision to impose discipline, including the level of discipline imposed. A corrections officer was personally served by his employer on December 30, 2009 with a document titled “Sulier Notice.” The document notified Neves that pursuant to Sulier v. State Personnel Board 240 , the employer had completed its investigation into allegations of misconduct against him, that the Department had decided to take disciplinary action against him, and that “the recommended” penalty was dismissal. Neves was further notified that formal papers would be served on him within the next 30 days. The purpose behind the so-called Sulier Notice was to satisfy the requirement in Government Code section 3304(d) that an employing agency complete its investigation into alleged misconduct and serve an officer with notice of intended disciplinary action within one year of discovery of the alleged misconduct.

Thereafter, a formal notice of adverse action dated January 27, 2010 notified Neves that he would be dismissed from his position effective February 12, 2010. The January 27 notice further advised Neves of the legal and factual reasons for the adverse action, his right to respond to the proposed action, and his right to appeal to the State Personnel Board.

Principles for Public Safety Employment ©2022 (s) Liebert Cassidy Whitmore 82