Pubdate: Fri, 20 Sep 2002
Source: Charleston Gazette (WV)
Copyright: 2002 Charleston Gazette
Contact:  http://www.wvgazette.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/77
Author: Greg Stone

CITY, COUNTY APPROACH DRUG TESTS DIFFERENTLY

Anyone in a "safety sensitive" position with the city of Charleston - such 
as police officers or garbage truck drivers - must submit to random drug 
screens.

Their Kanawha County counterparts have no such policy. Does this mean that 
city workers are inherently safer because they may be tested at any time? 
Or is the county simply following a different approach, one that depends on 
probable cause to drug test an employee?

Charleston Mayor Jay Goldman pressed for passage of the random policy late 
last year. After intense lobbying by Councilman David Molgaard, the 
ordinance was changed to give already-hired employees a second chance at a 
failed screen, provided the employee paid his own way to a treatment program.

"All we're trying to do is ensure a safe workplace," Goldman said. "We 
don't operate on the oral history of what's gone on here for 100 years.

"As municipal judge I saw a lot of people who abused drugs as well as 
alcohol. It's a social problem, a workplace problem. It's the right thing 
to do."

Kanawha County Commissioner Kent Carper, meanwhile, says he is not 
necessarily opposed to random testing on constitutional grounds, but he 
sees no practical reason to implement it. Courts have largely upheld a 
company's right to implement drug tests.

"Employees aren't serfs," Carper said. "They're employees. I just don't see 
anything that causes me that type of concern right now. Politically it's a 
great thing to do, to go around and say you're fighting drugs by making 
people take drug tests."

Carper says the county has other tough questions to tackle right now, such 
as communications between sheriff's deputies.

He says he and fellow Commissioners Dave Hardy and Hoppy Shores could 
probably impose a countywide policy, but the going might be tough without 
the full cooperation of the sheriff and other elected officials.

County government officials largely possess more autonomy through their 
elected status, Carper said.

Carper said he would listen to a drug-testing proposal from Sheriff Dave 
Tucker if one came his way. That proposal would need to include detailed 
cost estimates, he said.

Prospective city employees who fail the initial drug test don't get another 
chance to apply.

Others looking for a job have simply declined to take the test, knowing 
they would fail.

Six of nine applicants for public work positions simply walked away earlier 
this summer when notified they would have to take the test.

The city both randomly tests and spot tests, Goldman said, if a department 
head decides someone is behaving oddly.

The mayor said he did not see drug tests as a civil rights infringement.

"Most industry uses it," he said. "It's very prevalent."
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