Mayor Urges Staff to Take Drug Tests

As way to show that the mayor’s office is serious about fighting drug abuse, political appointees on Mayor Maureen O’Connor’s staff have been asked to join a voluntary drug-testing program in which the mayor will also participate, her office announced Tuesday.

O’Connor will submit to a drug test when she returns from a European vacation in about two weeks, said Paul Downey, the mayor’s spokesman. Most of the other 28 eligible employees took the urine test last week and results are expected shortly, Downey said.

Downey said the samples will be tested for the presence of cocaine, marijuana, amphetamines and several other illicit drugs. He said he did not know if the test would include alcohol.

Results of the tests will not be made public and only Ben Dillingham, the mayor’s chief of staff, and the employee will be told the result, Downey said. Dillingham also will be in charge of any possible disciplinary action should someone test positive, Downey said. Downey said no action will be taken against anyone who declined to participate in the program.

Downey said the program was based on a belief by the mayor that “public officials should be held to some higher standard” and was not the result of a concern that a drug problem existed on the staff.

Downey, who said he submitted to a drug test last week, said the staff and mayor felt that the program would “set an example to the community that this mayor and her staff are serious about the problem of drug abuse.” But Downey added that the mayor and her staff were not advocating that other city departments start similar testing programs.

The city already has a policy that allows supervisors to order urine tests of city workers who are suspected of using illicit drugs. That policy, however, does not apply to workers on the mayor’s staff.