(a) Within five (5) working days after the filing of a written appeal with the City Clerk, the City Manager or the designee of the City Manager shall file with the City Clerk an answer in writing to the appeal setting forth any facts which might be in dispute in the appeal, and setting forth the reasons why the actions are believed to be justified, and the City Manager or his or her designee shall serve a copy of the answer on the employee in person or by ordinary mail to employee’s home address.

(b) Promptly after the appeal is filed, the City Clerk shall deliver a copy of the appeal to the City Manager.

(c) The members of the Arbitration Panel shall be listed in alphabetical order, and will be called in rotation. Any member passed over because of illness or absence, or disqualified by an appealing employee in the classified service or the administration, shall be treated as though he or she has served on the Personnel Board and will not be called again until his or her name comes up in the normal rotation. As soon as an appeal is filed with the City Clerk, the City Clerk will make contact and determine the next five (5) members of the panel due and available for service during the following three (3) weeks, and shall notify the appealing employee of the five (5) members due for service. The appealing employee will advise the City Clerk within two (2) working days which member the employee wishes deleted from the list, and the City Clerk will then notify the City Manager or his or her designee of the four (4) remaining members due for service. The City Manager or his or her designee will advise the Clerk within one (1) working day of the name of the member the administration wishes to delete from the list. Thereafter, the Clerk will notify the two (2) members of their disqualification and the other three (3) members as to being chosen for service and will determine a date, time, and place when all three (3) members may assemble for hearing, and will then notify the appealing employee and the City Manager or designee of such date, time, and place of hearing.

(d) At the time of hearing, the employee in the classified service shall present any written evidence, oral testimony, or witnesses that he or she desires, and thereafter the City Manager or designee shall present evidence, oral testimony, or witnesses as he or she deems fit, following which the parties may continue to present rebuttal testimony alternately until neither side has anything further to present.

(e) After completion of presentation of testimony, the appealing employee in the classified service may make any statement he or she desires by way of argument, which may be answered by the City Manager or designee, and the appealing employee shall then have a final closing argument if he or she so desires.

(f) If any member of the Personnel Board feels it necessary or desirable, he or she may call additional witnesses or call for presentation of additional testimony, adjourning the hearing to a future time for such presentation if necessary.

(g) After presentation of all evidence and arguments, the Personnel Board shall go into executive session to make a determination of the appeal, and the Personnel Board shall make written findings of fact and conclusions as to the justness of the disciplinary action.

(h) There shall be no formal restrictions on the kind of or form of evidence presented so long as it is pertinent to the appeal and is not unduly repetitive, but the Personnel Board by majority vote may limit repetitive evidence and may restrict evidence to matters pertinent to the hearing and to evidence which they would find credible.

(i) The Personnel Board has power to uphold the disciplinary action, to set aside the disciplinary action completely restoring the appealing employee in the classified service to his or her former position and to any and all pay which may have been lost because of the disciplinary action, or if the Personnel Board feels it necessary in the interest of justice that some disciplinary action be taken but that the particular disciplinary action was too extreme, it shall determine what the proper disciplinary action should be.

(j) The decision of the Personnel Board may be made by a majority of the Board and shall be final and binding on the employee and on the City.

(k) Copies of the appeal, the answer to the appeal, and the written decision of the Personnel Board shall become a part of the personnel file of the appealing employee.