The Warrenton Board of Aldermen had their first glimpse of an employee handbook during a workshop Tuesday night that spelled out what officials are in charge of discipline and the steps involved in terminating an employee. Deborah Jett, human resources manager, presented the aldermen and mayor the first phase of the employee handbook, most of it dealing with the city's disciplinary policy. She said a second phase consisting of job descriptions, individual goals, departmental goals and a performance improvement plan are next on her agenda to complete. A third phase to finish the handbook is adding a departmental procedures manual dealing with employee expectations. Jett said she began working on the handbook soon after being hired in May. "We are putting into words what we have done long before I got here," Jett said. "We're actually putting it on paper now." According to the formal policies, department heads will discipline employees they supervise with either a written or verbal reprimand or suspension. Upon disciplining an employee, the department head will meet with Jett to determine if the action is warranted. The department head and Jett would then meet with Terri Thorn, the city's director of operations/finance manager, to recommend to the aldermen and mayor on whether the employee should be fired. "Our process with the verbal reprimand, in an ideal world, would hopefully rehabilitate an employee and we would not have to do a termination," Mayor Greg Costello said. "But in the case we have to do a termination that is a board decision on the recommendation of the supervisor." Tuesday night's workshop followed some unrest by former city employees who spoke out at previous aldermen meetings questioning how their dismissal was acted upon. Aldermen claim the formal policy talked about Tuesday night is unchanged from previous action taken by the board when it came to disciplining an employee in the past. Mayor Greg Costello said a previous city attorney recommended not putting the disciplinary policy in writing. "An employee who states they have no wherewithal on why they were fired is kind of bogus?" Aldermen Phil Tallo asked. Chris Graville, city attorney, answered: "I can't say enough, this is really nothing changed from what we're doing. This is formal written policy." Jett pointed out the city is not required to follow all four steps of the disciplinary process. "It's a four-step process, but it may not always follow those four steps depending upon the severity," she said. Should an employee be fired, a non-supervisor will be notified of the board's actions by Jett and the department head. Should a department head be let go, Thorn would join Jett in giving notice to the employee. "It puts a neutral party in there, myself being the neutral party," Jett said. "Really, I will do most of the talking most of the time because I am that neutral party. I am unattached to the situation as it works." Aldermen expect to approve the policies once some minor changes are made. "I think we're headed in the right direction," Alderman Fred Flake said. "I think we made some improvement for our employees and it will benefit us."