HUNTINGTON ALREADY RUNS RANDOM DRUG TESTING

The random drug testing program Mayor Jay Goldman is preparing to
propose to Charleston City Council is nothing new.

Huntington has had a random testing policy for its employees since 1996.

"So far it seems to be working fairly well," said Sherry Lewis,
Huntington's assistant personnel director.

"We're not doing anything radical," Goldman said.

The program Huntington uses calls for random drug testing of all city
employees who are in "safety sensitive" positions.

Police, firefighters, some public works employees and workers with
commercial driver's licenses are tested randomly. Clerical workers and
administrative employees are not, Lewis said.

She said the majority of the city's roughly 500 employees are tested
under the program.

"Of course, with a program like this, you always meet with some
resistance," Lewis said. "But for the most part it's being accepted
fairly well."

Representatives for Huntington police, fire and nonuniformed workers
were not available for comment.

Jason Huber a Charleston lawyer and representative of the American Civil
Liberties Union, said random testing was an invasion of employees'
privacy.

He said training supervisors to spot workers impaired by drug or alcohol
use at work would be less expensive and more effective.

Lewis said about 20 employees are tested in Huntington every month. She
said 10 workers have tested positive for drug or alcohol use since the
program started.

She said urine screening for drugs costs the city $44 per person per
test. Alcohol testing costs $30 per person per test.

Ken Schneider is a Huntington-based occupational health director for
EMSI. The company has handled Huntington's random drug testing program
since 1996.

He said it has also handled random drug testing for Charleston employees
with commercial driver's licenses, a program the city has had since
1996.

He would not say how many employees in Charleston had tested positive
for drug or alcohol use. In general, he said, about 4 percent of the
tests come back positive in random drug testing programs.