City Officials Trim Back Rule Barring Beards : Convention Center Regulation Only Applies to New Hires

ANAHEIM â€”  A 66-year-old man who was going to have to choose between his beard and his job at Anaheim Convention Center received some good news on Tuesday: He’ll be able to keep his job and his whiskers.

Robert Patterson, a part-time crowd control worker, had been battling city officials for weeks over a newly revived policy that prohibits any facial hair other than a neatly trimmed mustache.

“Those of us with beards will be grandfathered in,� said a relieved Patterson. “But I’m told that there will be no future beards allowed.�

Convention Center manager David Meek confirmed Tuesday that the no-beard policy will still go into effect, but it will pertain only to new employees.

“We wanted to make sure we did the correct thing,� Meek said. “It was not our grooming policy when Mr. Patterson was hired and we did not feel it would be fair to our employees who previously worked here.�

On Sept. 7, a supervisor sent Patterson and the rest of the convention center’s crowd control staff a memorandum stating there had been a “lack of enforcement� of grooming standards detailed in the Anaheim Way Booklet, a handbook for employees.

The memo outlined grooming requirements, including neat haircuts, clean shirts and black dress shoes, and no beards or elaborate jewelry.

Also detailed in the memo was a four-step process that supervisors are to follow if an employee does not adhere to grooming standards. The first step is a verbal warning, the second a day without pay, then a week’s suspension and, finally, termination.

Patterson, a resident of La Habra who earns $7.26 an hour, had received a verbal warning earlier this month because he continued to wear his salt-and-pepper beard after the Oct. 1 deadline.

He said he was then informed that no further disciplinary steps would be taken until officials had the chance to further review the policy.

Although Patterson was the most vocal in his opposition to the rule, he was not alone. At least a handful of other bearded employees had expressed concerns, officials said.

“I think, unfortunately, the issue got turned into a discrimination issue when it was never meant to be that,� Meek said. “It was a grooming standards issue.�

Patterson said he is relieved that he gets to keep his job but still disagrees with the policy.

“They are automatically eliminating people with beards who could be an asset to the Convention Center and the city of Anaheim,� he said.

Patterson, who was hired at the Convention Center in January, said he’s glad he decided to take on the city.

“I don’t shave,� Patterson said. “This beard has been here for 27 years and I intend to have it when they put me in the pine box.�