Hi Laurie, We provide county owned cell phones to those who need them in the performance of their duties in order to avoid mixing private and public information and records. Our policy regarding county provided equipment follows. Thank you! Michelle Michelle Noble Assistant County Administrator/HR Director Board of Clark County Commissioners 50 E. Columbia St., PO Box 2639 Springfield, OH 45501-2639 937.521.2008 SECTION 7-G: TOOLS, SUPPLIES, EQUIPMENT, AND TELEPHONES a) When tools, supplies, telephones, and equipment needed to perform job duties are provided by the employer, it is the responsibility of supervisors and employees to see that they are properly used and maintained. b) Misuse, neglect, theft, and abuse of tools, supplies, equipment, or telephones is prohibited. Accidents involving misuse (or abuse) of tools, telephones or equipment will be cause for disciplinary action. If an employee loses tools or damages telephones or equipment, he or she may be required to pay for those items lost or damaged, at the discretion of the Appointing Authority. In that event, the employee may be given the opportunity to enter into an express contract by which the Employer may deduct or retain the wages of such employee, or a part thereof, for wares, tools, or machinery destroyed or damaged. c) Each department is responsible for the effective, efficient and responsible use of County acquired telephone services. At a minimum, departments shall implement the following requirements regarding County telephone services: i) Limitations on Personal Calls. Personal calls made using County wired or wireless telephone services shall comply with the following minimum requirements: (1) When using a County wireless telephone service, personal calls and/or text messages are acceptable only so long as they are kept to a minimum. Any employee who causes any additional expense to be incurred by the County due to personal use of a county wireless telephone service may be required to reimburse the county. (2) When using a County wired telephone service, the number, frequency and duration of personal calls shall be kept to a minimum and, whenever possible, made during lunch hours or authorized breaks. (3) Personal long distance calls made using the County’s wired telephone service are only acceptable if charged to a personal credit card or personal telephone card, or if billed to a non-County third party number. In the case of an emergency, personal long distance calls may be made using the County’s wired telephone service and charged initially to the County. It is incumbent upon the employee to find out the charge and reimburse the County for the cost of the call. (4) Personal business, which involves an activity undertaken for profit or gain of any kind, shall not be conducted using a County telephone service. Employees are prohibited from circulating their County telephone number as a telephone number at which they can be reached for personal business. Personal business cards and other such materials shall not have a County telephone number listed as a contact number. (5) Departments may, at their discretion, prohibit the use of any County telephone services to receive or originate personal calls if it suspects that the employee has been abusing the employee’s privilege to use County telephone services for personal use. (6) Excessive use of personal calls may result in discipline up to and including termination ii) Limitations on Use of Personal Cell Phones. When using personal cell phones calls, texts, and emails shall be kept at a minimum and, whenever possible, made during lunch hours or authorized breaks. iii) Prohibited Calls. The following types of calls are prohibited if not related to official County business: (1) Pay per call numbers (2) Collect calls to County telephone services (3) Calls billed to County telephone services iv) Penalties. Violation of this policy may result in discipline up to and including termination, loss of the privilege to use the County phone services for personal use and in extreme cases offenders may face criminal prosecution. d) At the time of separation from employment, all county provided supplies including keys, uniforms, tools, telephones, laptops, etc. must be returned to the employee’s supervisor. e) For additional information see Section 7-M Computers, Email and Internet Usage. Authority: ORC 4113.19 From: CORSA-broadcast [mailto:corsa-broadcast-bounces@corsa.org] On Behalf Of Laura Murphy Sent: Wednesday, April 25, 2018 9:32 AM To: 'CORSA Broadcast Email' Cc: Christina Ingle Subject: [CORSA-broadcast] Cell Phone policy and reimbursement rates Good Morning- Our Butler County Board of County Commissioners has requested an analysis and recommendation regarding our personal cell phone use policy and reimbursement rates, for both bargaining and non-bargaining employees. Our current policy for non-bargaining employees provides that eligibility for a cell phone allowance is made by the Department Director or his/her designee and requires a determination whether the employee’s duties include the need for and frequent use of a cell phone for business purposes. Reimbursement amounts are set at $15.00 per pay for employees who average more than 350 minutes per month or use a BlackBerry device. Users who average more than 100 minutes per month, but less than 350 minutes are reimbursed $7.50 per pay. The amounts are computed on an annual basis and paid in 24 equal installments. Thus, higher usage employees receive 24 payments in the amount of $16.25 (annual $390) and the lower usage employees receive 24 payments in the amount of $8.13 (annual $195). Employees receiving the allowance must submit copies of their monthly cell phone statements to the Director or his/her designee for review. Quarterly audits of cell phone allowances are supposed to be conducted to make sure the allowances are appropriate, administered as intended and to certify that the employee has purchased the equipment/services for which the benefit was intended. There are some other somewhat cumbersome provisions regarding required documentation and what happens if there are changes to plans. Our bargaining units generally follow the Commissioners' policy, with some exceptions. We do not yet have anything in the policy regarding work-related texting and the implications under the public records laws. We would like to know how other Counties are addressing the personnel cell phone use for business purpose issues. If you could share your Counties' respective policy language, it would be much appreciated. Thank you in advance. Laurie [cid:image001.png@01D3DD71.7F6A6B40]
