Bellflower Weighs Drug Testing for City’s Employees

The City Council has taken the first step toward voluntary drug testing for all city employees, including council members.

If adopted, Bellflower would be the first city in the Southeast and Long Beach areas to begin testing employees already on the payroll.

The surprise request for the city attorney to draft the ordinance was made by Councilman Mike Brassard at the end of the council’s regular meeting Monday.

Councilman John Ansdell suggested that the city go further than voluntary testing and make the drug screening mandatory for all prospective employees and current city employees up for a promotion.

But City Atty. Maurice O’Shea argued that requiring employees to undergo drug testing before receiving a promotion, might cause legal problems for the city.

“I am being very cautious with this. I don’t think we will have any problems requiring the test of new employees, but requiring current employees to take it before a raise, may be tricky,” O’Shea said.

Mayor Joseph Cvetko and Councilman Ken Cleveland said they support the drug testing but both expressed surprise over the proposal in an interview after the meeting.

“I was completely caught off guard on this,” said Cvetko. “I don’t think we have any drug problems on our staff and I don’t know how much good drug testing does, but I think it’s great that we are following the President’s footsteps on his anti-drug campaign.”

O’Shea said he plans to present a preliminary report to the council at the next meeting. There was no immediate estimate of how much it would cost to conduct the urine tests.

The city has 74 fulltime employees. They are not represented by a union.