• Reaction to Pastor David Petersen’s interview (MP3) on Issues, Etc., regarding pastoral care for those with special needs. Worship practice may be a dovetail here…
• The rest of the Professional Engineering conference notes
• What do we listen to for Christmas (and the fact that the new shopping season is two weeks done already)
• Global warming?  Not in Ohio…
• Gathering contacts for “A Night with NR” #2…if not, you’ll get to hear my piano through a monaural voice mike.

Or if you don’t want to wait until actual posts on these topics, leave a comment.  Could be fun.

The last session of the first day, it didn’t help my interest level that there wasn’t as much new material in “The Fundamental Keys of Success for Every Engineering Firm” as in the other classes.  Brad Bennett, Esq., did his best. He talked about sole proprietorships, LLCs, S-Corporations and C-Corporations.

While he was talking about the application process, he threw out a stat: 20% of an application may be false.  People tend to puff up their resumes. Look for “power words.” Oh, you managed? What did you manage? Oh, you mean you scheduled employees? Did you decide the schedule?  Oh, you mean you wrote the names on the board. Thanks.

Image via Wikipedia

Ohio has a reference check law that protects a person who is asked for a character reference as long as the reference isn’t discriminatory. People giving references still must be cautious: if you give a lot of detail during one reference, you need to be consistent in giving detail to other people who call for references.

It is permissible to check backgrounds for convictions but not for arrests. Arrests inadvertently bias the sample to certain races. In certain occupations, the nature of the conviction can be especially relevant: it is reasonable for a bodyguard company to mandate clean assault records, or for accounting services to require records free of theft or embezzlement.

Credit reports can be checked. If the credit report causes the employer not to hire the applicant, the employer needs to send the applicant a letter stating the situation.

In the Employee Handbook, don’t list all the behaviors that can get an employee fired.  If the list is long enough, a judge may determine that the list limits the number of behaviors that are firing offenses.

The class ended with a brief overview of how to deal with personality types at work.

Lori Torriero returned in the afternoon Thursday to talk about investigations in the work place.

Whenever there is an accusation of wrongdoing, it is a mistake to rush off and confront the person. Unless there is a pressing need, such as theft or danger, the first thing to do is to plan and perform an investigation. Done right, investigations avoid liability, impose discipline, and improve company performance.

There are advantages and disadvantages to using either in-house personnel or external personnel.  External personnel avoids an appearance of bias, and internal personnel have experience in the tasks that need to be performed.

Investigations can’t be kept secret, so don’t try. Keep it factual and impartial. If and once you have a case of harassment, the law says the action must be remedial and effective.  If a co-worker tells you they are being harassed, you have to report it or take action if you’re a manager, even if the employee tells you not to take action.

If you as a manager have to put a person on administrative leave, remind the person that he or she is still an employee still needs to follow what management wants, such as reporting back to work.

While interviewing the person making the accusation, ask:

• What do you think you saw or heard?
• Who else saw it?
• Who else should have been there?

Private sector employees can’t be polygraphed, but public sector employees can.  The presenter doubted the usefulness of polygraphs. The private sector employee can be informed that they need to answer truthfully upon insubordination; the public sector employee has Fifth Amendment protections.

In Ohio, recordings are legal if one of the parties in the interview is aware they are being recorded. A third party cannot record the interview without the consent of either party. An interviewee may refuse to be recorded, but the interviewer can then say that notes will be used, and it will be a matter of he-said-she-said. Written statements prior to the interview are a good thing to get.

Image via Wikipedia

During the interview, ask pointed questions in order to get a story that makes sense.  Don’t leave the judge who is reviewing your information a year or so after the incident with pieces that need to be put together. Schedule time after the interview to fill in voids, such as body language and impressions.  If you don’t feel the interviewee was truthful, write down the objective cues that gave you the hint.

Documentation is most important. Date and number pages.  Xerox appropriate pages of company policy, because the handbook may change. Be aware of immediate and potential audiences, and be as factual as possible. Keep investigation files separate from personal files until the incident is closed; then they can go into the personal file.

Anybody can sue. The lawyer always gets paid. The difference is whether you win or lose.

Angela Newland, PE, gave a presentation on the most interesting subject of the day, public works security. Since she is a VP at the Columbus Regional Airport Authority, her emphasis was in airport security.

Three times during the presentation we were asked to recite a promise to use the knowledge in the presentation “for good and not for evil.” The recitation was light-hearted, but it reminded us of the seriousness of the subject. I am restricting information in this post.

Posted signs and policemen with Segways are classified as “Lightweight Infrastructure Security.”

“Heavyweight Infrastructure Security” includes the scrambling of jets to protect our air space, but Newland’s specialty is in ground security.

A picture of CMH in 1958 was shown. Parking was right next to the terminal, and there were no cameras on the light post.

Headache bars, set at the entrance of the airport, keep excessively large vehicles from getting close to the terminal. The small concrete posts that keep people from driving into glass windows and other gear are called bollards.

There is no parking allowed near any of the security fences, to keep them from being compromised. Fences are 8′ high to prevent deer jumping. They also extend underground.

CMH Airport during Thanksgiving

After September 11, airports spent millions of dollars installing cutting-edge bagging screening technology that didn’t work very well and/or are expensive to maintain. My comment: thank Tom Daschle and his wife the airport lobbyist. At the time, CMH didn’t have the money to install the cutting-edge equipment, so they are spared those headaches.

The airport is seeking funds from TSA to upgrade its baggage screening equipment and move the machines out of the airport lobby.

Baggage is currently screened with low dose X-rays, and there is research to X-ray vehicles as they come into the airport. Waste receptacles are now blastproof for a certain amount of TNT, in case there is a need for quick disposal.

“Puffer” systems that try to detect explosives on a person have been tested in several airports, but not in Columbus. The detectors have a high failure rate due to dirt and dust at airports.

Airport demand is projected to be down over the next couple of years, then increasing as the economy improves.

During the question and answer session, I expressed concern for the new air traffic control tower’s proximity to the main road. She answered by saying that the tower needed to be built in a location where it could see everything, and that the new terminal would be built around it, pushing road access away from the tower.

The dry topic of employment posters was lightened a little bit by Lori Torriero, of Downes, Hurst & Fishel.

Failure to post is a 4^th degree misdemeanor, though there are no records of someone going to jail because they didn’t post proper information regarding minimum watch, equal opportunity employment, etc. Enforcement of this rule usually comes on the tail of other employment violations, such as wrongful termination.

Image via Wikipedia

No Smoking posters not only have the international No Smoking sign or NO SMOKING, but they should have the phone number of the Department of Health, so that someone may call for enforcement. The passage of Ohio’s anti-smoking act, which forbids smoking in buildings “with at least 2 walls and a roof,” also requires No Smoking signs for businesses. Smoking is also forbidden in public vehicles.

Torriero recommended getting a new set of posters every 3-5 years. Posters must be displayed in conspicuous places where employees regularly gather.

The Family Medical Leave Act requires that its poster be in a language that is readable by the majority of posters, if the majority of posters cannot read English.

One could contact the Department of Labor for posters, but this increases the risk of a visit by the D.O.L. It’s better to get posters from a third-party supplier.

Posters may be required in places where legislation doesn’t affect them, such as taxi drivers. The posters then have a sticker that says the legislation doesn’t apply.

If a company hires minors for summer employment, there is an additional poster that covers the rights of minors.

Employment posters can be posted on the company’s intranet.

Thursday was the first day of the Continuing Professional Development Conference put on by the Engineers Foundation of Ohio. The entire conference provides enough continuing education hours for me to keep my P.E. license another year. Some material I’ve heard before, but there were a couple of topics that were enjoyable despite their subject matter.

Brad Bennett, Esq., of Downes, Hurst, & Fishel, started the day with a two-hour presentation on proposed and actual changes in employment law. He made no secret of it; with Democrats in charge, there is bound to be more employment law.

Notes from the first course:

• Ohio Military Discrimination Prohibition
  • Puts military status on the same level as race, color, creed, etc.
  • Unintended consequence: Some charities like to hire veterans, and until there is litigation to write an exception into case law, it is now illegal to ask someone you are about to hire their military status.
  • If a “dishonorable discharge” has a direct effect on the job they would do, it might survive a court challenge.
• Family Medical Leave Act Amendments
  • Currently required for 50 or more employees. There are talks of taking it down to 25.
  • Opens up who can take care of a person to “next of kin” rather than immediate family.
  • A single 26-week period in addition to 12 weeks per year of a “qualifying emergency.”
  • If your company hires a person who is taking leave under the FMLA, you need to let them know right away that you’ll likely let them go when the first person comes back.
• Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments
  • Increases ability to sue.
  • In Ohio, companies with 4 or more people are required to follow.  The Federal minimum is 15.
  • Lessens the need of the employer to retain their own doctor in order to procure a patient’s medical records so that the employer can reasonably accommodate a disability.
  • An employer does not have to remove a typical employee in order to place a disabled employee, but if a spot opens up, disabled employees are to be given special consideration.
  • Funny: glasses are not considered a disability, but hearing aids are.
• Ohio Healthy Families Act. This was the Proposition 4 that was withdrawn for the election. Its proponents are now aiming for federal legislation.
• Employee Free Choice Act.  Also known as Card Check.
  • Expect the Democrats to pass this.
  • If 30% of employees agree, they can go to the National Labor Relations Board and request a vote using union recognition cards, ending the secret ballot. Ironic since the secret ballot was a hallmark of the original National Labor Relations Act.
  • 50% + 1 employee is required for unionization, which means 50% - 1 employees don’t have to be asked to vote with the Card Check system.
• Employment Non-Discrimination Act
  • Pending legislation in the House.
  • Two bills, one also adds “gender identity” as a protected class.
  • Currently gender identity discrimination is already sex discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.
  • Purports to exclude military and religious organizations (but what about organizations like Catholic adoption agencies?)
• Changes to the I-9 Proof of Employment Eligibility
  • Do not keep the photocopies of the drivers’ license and Social Security cards.
  • Employers cannot mandate which
  • Keep I-9s separate from other employee records for ease of auditing.
  • Expired drivers’ licenses are acceptable.
  • Audit your I-9s before the Feds do. If you find a mistake, fill out a new form and staple it over the old form. Don’t throw the old form away.
• E-Discovery Rules
  • Under electronic discovery rules, a document’s metadata (stored changes, last time it was saved, etc.) can be used as evidence.
  • May want to work in Word for documents, save documents in PDF, and mandate that PDF is the official copy of the document.
  • Electronic documents can be placed on a “legislative hold” upon suspicion that they may be needed in litigation. Know your company’s document retention schedule.

The discussion ended with one attendee asking if legislators consider the administrative costs of these regulations. Bennett indicated that there is some consideration of these costs, reflected in the fact that the smallest businesses aren’t required to perform many of these requirements.

I really think this issue would be over if first, California and other states had just gone for civil unions with the same legal rights as marriage, and second, if the courts had let the legislatures handle it. Alas, the courts decided to write law. Gavin Newsom and same-sex proponents wanted the right to change the definition of a word and, perhaps more importantly, showed more hate for their opponents than was ever displayed by the Mormons, Saddleback Church, or Delta Township church in Lansing. The Bash Back group seems to be the Westboro Baptist Church of the Left.

The sexual morality horse is out of the barn. Even if 100% of gay civil unions ended up in legal dissolution, it doesn’t come close to the half of U.S. marriages ending in divorce. We have our own house to clean up. Call it specks and logs, if you will. Oops, there’s that Bible again.

As long as there are no discrimination laws that impinge on the free speech rights of pastors and my responsibility as a parent to instill right and wrong in my children, I’m actually quite open to the civil union debate.  Just don’t call it marriage.

Google Logo for Veterans Day

I am impressed.

Google, who took a little heat for not providing a custom logo for Memorial Day, has come out with a logo for Veterans Day.

Good on you, guys.

Thanks also to the men and women of our Armed Forces, who give up more than we know in the defense of our country. Thanks especially to Dad, my uncle, and my father-in-law.

PatentlyO, a blog that discusses patent law, has an article about a Halliburton patent application that patents methods for someone to get a patent even though someone else did the research.

The purpose does seem funny, but I wonder if we have some people in our law department that remember the fiasco regarding foam fracturing.

Halliburton was the first in the oilfield services industry to offer foam fracturing service. Instead of fracturing with just liquid, we introduce either nitrogen or carbon dioxide gas to generate bubbles and reduce the amount of water used to flood the formation. Foam fracturing is particularly useful in water-sensitive and low pressure lithologies. Most foams I pumped in Duncan ran around 65-70% gas (v/v).

As I was told by my first boss, HAL has the patent to pump foam fluids with 42% or greater of nitrogen gas or carbon dioxide gas. Our competition figured out a way around our patent, by pumping foams with two gases, each less than 42%. Thus we couldn’t keep a total lock on the foam fracturing market.

Fortunately for us single foam technology is superior: there’s less equipment, less complexity in the foam design, and greater ability to design the foam for what it is supposed to do.

Josh S quipped on the Boar’s Head Tavern: “Also, none of us social conservatives are any more or less against a woman giving herself to another woman in marriage than we are against circles having corners.”

If we want to talk about the state’s role in “marriage” as a legal corporation that allows resources to be pooled and people to visit one another in the hospital, then let’s call it that, a social partnership or corporation, but calling it “marriage” confuses the issue as to what marriage is.

Marriage is a divine institution, not only revealed in the Bible but also in the nature of things. Regardless of how one feels about who is attracted to whom, the observation remains that we are created male and female. There are mating parts. They generally work together in the service and pleasure of both, and they are the only natural means of creating children. These are the world’s clues. Gene Simmons and Shannon Tweed may not have a marriage certificate, but a monogamous relationship with two kids seems pretty darn close to a natural marriage, even though they hold they aren’t married.

When we view the world, we recognize that we are only seeing a part of what God has created, through a “mirror dimly”:

Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. — 1 Cor. 13:8-12

As I mentioned in the LiveJournal debate, the Bible gives us further clues and much good news regarding God’s institution of marriage, such as that it was given so that we may not sin sexually, that it’s a representation of Christ and us as his church, and that we leave our parents to start our own families.

I understand the mantra to keep religion separate from the state. This is a good and bad defense. It is a good defense in that people should not be subjected to the truth claims and proscriptions of false religions, including the error of universalism. It is an unfortunate defense because God has given us his revealed Word in part (although not the main purpose) to show us the intended order of what he has given us.

We have seen the secular effects of adultery and no-fault divorce. At this point in time these have done much more harm to societal order than homosexuality. The Bible has warned us that sex outside of a marriage is a bad activity to engage in, and we are reaping the fruit. The Bible also warns us that homosexuality is not good for us, and we are going down that road. Some of the effects of the abandonment of the order of creation are on the horizon, such as the advance of cultures that are outgrowing the majority population and seeking to subdue the rest of us. Hopefully that is a very long coming, and we can show them that freedom and classical liberalization will make their lives better.

At the present, I feel that if the state can’t get marriage right, then it should get rid of the marriage business altogether. Filling out two 1040s instead of one might be a pain, but it’s better than the state lying about who is married and who isn’t.