Winston-Salem’s civil service board got the official go-ahead from city councilmembers in a 6-2 vote on Monday night. A civil service board serves as an extra layer of protection for city employees who disagree with employment decisions. The board gives them the opportunity to request a hearing and plead their case before the five-member board.

Actions taken by Winston-Salem’s board will only apply to police and fire department employees. While police and fire department chiefs and assistant chiefs can’t make a complaint to the board, employees in those departments can pursue action from the board if they have been fired or let go, suspended, reduced in rank, transferred against their will or denied a promotion or pay raise. This board has the power to overturn decisions made by police and fire department heads, and also has the power to initiate an investigation. The city’s annual budget includes $50,000 in funding for the board.

According to City Attorney Angela Carmon, while there are still many steps that need to be taken before the board is officially up and running, the city anticipates it will start up by January 2025. The city council will choose the board’s chair, and the board will be made up of five members who must be city residents. Police and fire department employees will elect one member each to represent their departments and the department chiefs will choose a member together. The fourth member will be chosen by the city council and the fifth will be selected by the other four. 

Members serve two year terms and there are no term limits. 

“That’s problematic,” quipped Councilmember Jeff MacIntosh, who voted against approving the board on Monday night. Councilmember Barbara Hanes Burke also voted against it.

Current city employees can’t serve on the civil service board, but former employees can if they stopped working for the city at least seven years ago. 

The fact that decisions made by police and fire leadership could be overturned by this board didn’t sit well with Burke.

“…I think about the kind of training that our chiefs have gone through,” Burke noted, “…[A]nd to know that five individuals who don’t meet this criteria will be making decisions that overturn decisions that our chiefs will be making, it’s alarming.”

The city did not pursue this legislation; it was enforced by a law passed by the state legislature in August and also applies to Greensboro.

Last summer, Greensboro city employees across multiple departments urged state lawmakers to pass a bill that would establish these boards in Greensboro and Winston-Salem. The bill’s initial language indicated that the board would have served all city employees — like the city of Asheville’s civil service board does. But at the last moment, lawmakers changed the language so that only police and fire department employees would benefit from the board, shutting out many of the city employees who fought so hard for it.

“I know it’s a mandate, but…the math ain’t mathing,” Burke concluded.

All CityBeat reporting content is made possible by a grant from the NC Local News Lab Fund, available to republish for free by any news outlet who cares to use it. Learn More ↗

Republish this story 🞬

Republishing Content

All content created for the CityBeat— photos, illustrations and text — is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives 4.0 license (CCA-ND).

These republishing rules DO NOT apply to all of our content. The CityBeat is a nonprofit-funded position that specifically reports on city council business in Winston-Salem and Greensboro.

You are free to republish all content from the CityBeat under the following conditions:

  • Please copy and paste an html tracking code into articles you post online, allowing us to access analytics on our work.
    It can be dropped onto the page right beneath the copyable content, available below.

    If your site is using Google Analytics already:

    <script>
    gtag('config', 'UA-49884744-1');
    gtag('event', 'page_view', {
        page_title: 'Winston-Salem city council approves civil service board for police and fire employees to request hearings about employment decisions',
        page_location: 'https://triad-city-beat.com/winston-salem-gets-civil-service-board-for-police-fire/',
        send_to: 'UA-49884744-1'
    });
</script>

    If your site is not using Google Analytics: 

    <script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=UA-49884744-1"></script>
<script>
    window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
    function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}
    gtag('js', new Date());
    gtag('config', 'UA-49884744-1');
    gtag('event', 'page_view', {
        page_title: 'Winston-Salem city council approves civil service board for police and fire employees to request hearings about employment decisions',
        page_location: 'https://triad-city-beat.com/winston-salem-gets-civil-service-board-for-police-fire/',
        send_to: 'UA-49884744-1'
    });
</script>

  • Please use our bylines with attribution to Triad City Beat with a live link to our website: "by Gale Melcher/Triad City Beat"
  • At the bottom of the article (print or web) please include this text (links may be hyperlinked online):

    "Triad City Beat is an independent, for-profit news source serving the cities of the NC Piedmont Triad in Guilford and Forsyth counties, online at triad-city-beat.com.
    CityBeat content is funded by a grant from the NC Local News Lab Fund, online at nclocalnews.org."

  • If you have any questions, please contact Brian Clarey at [email protected]

Join the First Amendment Society, a membership that goes directly to funding TCB‘s newsroom.

We believe that reporting can save the world.

The TCB First Amendment Society recognizes the vital role of a free, unfettered press with a bundling of local experiences designed to build community, and unique engagements with our newsroom that will help you understand, and shape, local journalism’s critical role in uplifting the people in our cities.

All revenue goes directly into the newsroom as reporters’ salaries and freelance commissions.

⚡ Join The Society ⚡