Loading...
10.7. SR 11-02-2015 EOty1� ,.,�� Request for Action River To Item Number Mayor and City Council 10.7 Agenda Section Meeting Date Prepared by Work Session November 2, 2015 Cal Portner, City Administrator Item Description Reviewed by 2010 Vacation Accrual Carry-over Discretion Reviewed by Action Requested Discuss and provide direction regarding the 2010 Vacation Accrual Carryover. Background/Discussion At the June 7, 2010, the city administrator proposed a plan assist with staffing issues resulting from accrued compensatory time and growing employee vacation accruals. The Council approved the plan which essentially allowed employees to carry over twice their annual allowed vacation to the next year. Effective December 31, 2015, employees will only be able to carry over the 240 hours of maximum vacation accrual. We have a situation where an employee plans to retire effective December 31, 2015, and essentially cash out all of his vacation accrual. Due to departmental staffing needs, the individual has indicated he would postpone his retirement for a few months to assist with the staffing transition however he has no desire to lose his excess vacation accrual. Council is asked to consider amending the existing policy to provide for the cash payout option at the full accrual rate in exchange for the employee's extended employment through this challenging staff transition. Financial Impact There is no financial impact to the city. If the amendment is not approved, the employee will be eligible for the entire vacation accrual payout. Attachments ■ June 7, 2010, Staff Memo ■ June 7, 2010,Meeting Minutes POWERED 6T A IR Item # 7.2. City of Elk River MEMORANDUM TO: Mayor and City Council FROM: Lori Johnson, City Administrator DATE: June 7, 2010 SUBJECT: Discuss Staffing/Personnel Items At Monday's meeting I will be prepared to discuss with the Council a plan for addressing the vacant department head positions. In addition, I am bringing forward a proposal for Council consideration that would help alleviate the difficulty that the elimination of overtime and mandatory use of compensatory time have created. The first and most important item is determining how to proceed with the open department head positions. It takes a minimum of three to four months to fill a department head position;therefore,making a decision soon is critical to getting someone hired before the end of the year. These department head positions are important leadership roles that provide decision making,guidance,and policy direction to departments to improve our delivery of services and to provide creative and efficient, economical solutions to the difficult decisions that are ongoing with the severely limited budgets under which we all function. Unfortunately, our budget situation does not allow us to fill all department head positions at this time. However, assuming that there are no additional revenue reductions in 2011,which is reasonable because there is no longer any state aid included in the budget, two of the positions can be filled within the existing budget. In addition,if the positions are filled at an entry level,there will be a budget savings of around$15,000 for each position. Second,there were several steps the Council has had to take to balance the budget that have affected staff and staff's ability to provide the same level of service as in the past. One such item is the elimination of overtime for all employees except police public safety response and the overtime required to be paid by policy or contract. Employees are still required to put in extra hours,but those hours must be taken as compensatory time off. This places an additional burden on affected departments because in many cases their staff has already been reduced and now there are fewer employee hours available to do the work because of the requirement to take compensatory time off in lieu of pay. One way to ease this burden without affecting the budget is to allow additional vacation carry over for non-union employees and union employees whose contract does not contain specific vacation carry over language. Currently,employees are allowed to carry over as much vacation as they can earn in a year;any vacation time in excess of the carry over amount is lost if not taken by year end. Increasing the carry over amount would allow employees to use their compensatory time off in lieu of vacation time thereby providing more productive work hours to the department. In other instances where an employee doesn't have compensatory time but it is difficult for that employee to arrange to take all of the vacation time, or for a supervisor to authorize use of the time,because of reduced staff and increased work load, this would eliminate any penalty to those employees. There is no immediate financial impact to allowing the vacation carry over to increase as the vacation time could be taken in the future. Allowing additional carry over would increase the compensated absences liability in the financial statements until the time is used or paid at termination;however,the increase is not significant and it would not affect the City's cash position. If the Council agrees to this proposal,the change would affect current non-union employees and union employees whose contract does not contain specific vacation carry over language by allowing the employee to carry over up to two times the amount of vacation the employee is eligible to earn in a year. This could either be a temporary change with a sunset date by which the additional vacation must be taken or a change in the Personnel Manual. Either way both the City and employees would experience benefit from the change. City Council Minutes Page 6 June 7,2010 ---------------------------- Councilmember Gumphrey asked how durable the ceiling was and if it could withstand being hit by a hockey puck. Mr.Czech stated the ceiling would be high enough where it probably wouldn't be hit by a puck but if it were he felt confident in its durability. MOVED BY COUNCILMEMBER GUMPHREY AND SECONDED BY COUNCILMEMBER WESTGAARD TO AWARD THE LOW EMISSIVITY CEILING CONTRACT TO R&R SPECIALTIES AS OUTLINED IN THE STAFF REPORT.MOTION CARRIED 5-0. 7.2. Discuss Staffing/Personnel Items Ms.Johnson presented the staff report,starting the discussion with allowing vacation carry over. MOVED BY COUNCILMEMBER MOTIN AND SECONDED BY COUNCILMEMBER WESTGAARD TO ALLOW VACATION CARRY OVER FOR CURRENT NON-UNION EMPLOYEES AND UNION EMPLOYEES WHOSE CONTRACT DOES NOT CONTAIN SPECIFIC VACATION CARRY OVER LANGUAGE WITH AN END DATE OF DECEMBER 31,2015 AS OUTLINED IN THE STAFF REPORT. MOTION CARRIED 5-0. Ms.Johnson continued the discussion regarding the open department head positions and how the council wanted to proceed with filling these positions or keeping them open. Councilmember Motin stated he didn't want to fill any of the positions at this time. Mayor Klinzing and Councilmembers Zerwas and Gumphrey felt it important to fill the vacant parks and recreation director position but to hold off on filling the other positions until next year. It was decided to open an aggressive search for the next director and allow current employees the opportunity to apply. 7.3. Discuss Council Worksession Agendas Ms.Johnson presented the staff report.The topic`goal visioning proposal'was added to the June 14 worksession. No items were added to the July 12 worksession. It was discussed that July 12 could be a possible date to reschedule the joint meeting with the County Board.Ms. Johnson will contact the County Board to determine their availability. Council considered cancelling the July 6 council meeting due to the holiday and items on the agenda could be heard at the special meeting on June 28. 8. Other Business There was no other business. 9. Council Updates There were no council updates.