University Times

The recent dismissal of a staff member in the Office of Human Resources has Staff Association Council (SAC) concerned about the future of the Leadership Development Process (LDP), and the staff compensation policy and performance appraisal process.

LDP is a supervisory training program launched last year in response to a 1991 request from SAC to Chancellor J. Dennis O'Connor.

The staff compensation policy and performance appraisal process establish guidelines as to when a staff member's job performance is considered meritorious and deserving of a merit salary increase in addition to a cost-of-living increase.

To express the group's concerns about the future of the LDP and the compensation policy and performance appraisal process, SAC plans to write a letter to Senior Vice Chancellor for Business and Finance Ben Tuchi, and possibly to the University's Board of Trustees, according to Harris.

SAC's concern over the LDP, and compensation policy and performance process, arose after Jerry Moore, former manager of Employee Development in the Office of Human Resources and a member of the team that created the LDP, was fired two weeks ago.

According to Harris, Moore was the driving force behind the LDP and SAC is concerned that his departure will leave a void in support for the LDP within the Office of Human Resources.

"Who will continue the Leadership Development Process?" Harris said. "The chancellor certainly endorsed it. There was a commitment to move on with that program. What happens to it now because he [Moore] was instrumental in bringing it about? It was his program." Harris said that the compensation policy and how it works with the performance appraisal process also was something that involved Moore.

"He took it under his wing," she said. "He started meeting with us on it and we started to think we were making a little progress. Nobody else on the Human Resources staff has committed to any such thing." About the future of programs Moore was associated with, such as LDP, Associate Vice Chancellor for Human Resources Darlene Lewis said: "Nothing is going to happen with it [LDP]. We're going to continue on. It is probably in the same state that it was before he left. We'll continue to plan for LDP." On the dismissal of Moore, Lewis said: "I never comment on an individual employee's status. It's confidential."

–Mike Sajna