Director wants employees safe from changes in administration

Kendall Stall, director of Information Services Technology for St. Charles Parish, wants his four employees to be given civil service employment status instead of being appointed by the parish president.

The change will guarantee the jobs of the employees in his  department and when a new parish president takes over, he wouldn’t be able to replace personnel in the department.

“The change creates more stability for the employees and continuity of services,” Stall said. “The goal is to prevent the department from having to be redone with each new parish president and administration changes.”

Stall is in the process of writing job descriptions for each of the four positions.
“One of the positions we added is a GIS (Geographic Information Systems) coordinator,” he said. “That person will automatically fall under civil service.”

Stall met with the Civil Service Board and they approved his request to include that position in the system.
“Converting the department does come with some risks,” Stall said. “The two positions that will be changed over will have to be open to all civil service employees currently working for them to apply.”

After five days, if no one has applied for the positions, Stall says the workers that hold the positions will automatically be hired.
“I’ve spoken with the employees and they’re very much on board with this,” he said. “I think it will be a great idea.”

Stall says his position as the director will not be converted over to civil service.
“If it was to be converted, that decision would have to be made by Parish President (V.J.) St. Pierre,” he said. “But if any position should remain appointed, it should be mine, not those who work under me.”

St. Pierre says he has no plans to convert Stall’s position to civil service, since he is a department director.
Under the current plans, two technician jobs would be converted. The help desk position is civil service already, and the newly created GIS coordinator position will also be civil service, bringing the total to four.

“The salaries of the employees will change,” Stall said. “I’m working with the personnel director on job descriptions for each position.”
Once the job descriptions are complete, salaries will be determined for the positions under the civil service system pay scale.