It is the policy of the City Council of Santa Cruz to provide all current and prospective employees with equal opportunity in employment without discrimination on the basis of race, color, creed, national origin, ancestry, religion, disability, medical condition, gender, height, weight, physical characteristics, marital status, sex, age, sexual orientation, organizational affiliation, disabled veteran status, or status as a veteran of the Vietnam era (except when sex, age, disability, or medical condition is a bonafide occupational qualification). This non-discrimination policy applies to decisions affecting recruitment, selection, placement, assignment, training, transfer, promotion, evaluation, discipline, termination, compensation, benefits, and all other aspects of employment.
The City Council recognizes that the most fundamental function of a municipality is to deliver services such as law enforcement, fire protection, and public utilities to persons who live and work in the City and who pay taxes to finance the delivery of these services. Because the populace of Santa Cruz is culturally diverse and ethnically diverse, it is reasonable to conclude that Santa Cruz can most effectively and efficiently function in its role as a municipal service provider when its workforce, charged with responsibility for delivering municipal services, is similarly, ethnically, and culturally diverse. While Santa Cruz does not have, and never has had, "quota" or "set-aside" programs to assure that its workforce enjoys the same cultural and ethnic diversity that the City enjoys overall, it is the policy of the City Council, in order to achieve its objective of effective and efficient delivery of municipal services, to actively and aggressively recruit qualified applicants for City employment from all cultural and ethnic sectors of the City and County of Santa Cruz, including members of protected classes who may have been inadvertently excluded or under-utilized in the past. While this recruitment policy process specifically contemplates identifying groups and organizations comprised of, or with close connections to, members of protected classes, the policy is implemented within the context of the City's overall policy to recruit the most qualified employees from all sectors of the community, and is included within the overall policy as a safeguard to assure that protected class members are not inadvertently deprived of an equal opportunity to compete for City employment positions. This policy serves to assist the City in approaching a goal whereby, through the provision of equal opportunity to all sectors of the community, the City achieves and maintains a workforce which includes women and minorities in percentages consistent with those of the Santa Cruz labor market and/or the labor market of any larger recruitment area.
The City Council further recognizes that discrimination of the type prohibited by Santa Cruz city policy and ordinance is also strictly prohibited by the Constitution of the United States of America and the State of California Constitution. These constitutional proscriptions against discrimination not only forbid acts of discrimination by individuals, but also institutional discrimination by public entities that might not be apparent but for periodic review and examination of patterns and practices with respect to hiring and employment of workers. To that end, Santa Cruz is committed to an annual self-examination of its workforce to identify the number and placement of minority, women, disabled, and other protected class individuals within that workforce to confirm that Santa Cruz is not engaging in unlawful and unconstitutional discriminatory hiring and employment practices either through acts of commission or omission.
Through the establishment and implementation of this policy, it is the intent of the City Council to actively support and comply with the following laws and regulations: the Equal Pay Act of 1963; Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (as amended by the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972); Executive Order 11246 (as amended by Executive Order 11375 [revised order #4] of 1968); the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (as amended in 1978); the Rehabilitation Act of 1973; the Vietnam Veteran's Readjustment Act of 1974; the California Fair Employment and Housing Act of 1980; the California Fair Employment and Housing Commission Rules and Regulations; the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1991; the Civil Rights Act of 1991; and the City of Santa Cruz Anti-Discrimination Ordinance of 1992.
The City Council charges the City Manager with responsibility for, and holds the City Manager accountable for developing, implementing, and administering an Equal Employment Opportunity/Non-Discrimination Program to carry out these policies and objectives.
Policy (English) [PDF]
Policy (Spanish) [PDF]