#07 - Payroll and Compensation Policy Update

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STAFF REPORT DATE: June 4, 2024 CONSENT TO: Mayor and Council Members FROM: Karissa Goers, Administrative Services Director AGENDA ITEM: Approve Payroll and Compensation policy update BACKGROUND: Staff is seeking approval to make updates to the payroll and compensation policy. We have employed career firefighters for just under a year and continue to learn what procedures and policies may need updating as appropriate. Our career firefighters are the only employees required to work regular shifts on holidays. Public Works employees may work on holidays but only if emergencies arise and require on-call or call back shifts. On Memorial Day we encountered a first, where a firefighter was working a regular shift, but had a few overtime (OT) hours because of some additional training required earlier in the month. Career Firefighters only receive OT hours if they go over 159 hours in their 21-day work cycle. We currently pay employees 1.5 times their regular pay rate for time worked on holidays or OT hours worked. We had not yet established what the rate of pay should be for OT hours worked on a holiday. After consulting with other city fire departments on how they pay for these hours, the Fire Chief, Finance Director, and myself concurred that an additional rate of .50 times the hourly rate for OT hours worked on a holiday is fair compensation. This equates to double (2) times the hourly rate for the employee. ISSUE BEFORE COUNCIL: Should the Council approve the Payroll and Compensation update? PROPOSAL DETAILS/ANALYSIS: A red and green-lined Payroll and Compensation policy has been included in your packet. The green edits are just items that have been moved to a new location in the policy. Red lined items are changes that have been deleted or added to the policy. The following changes have been made: • Update the times for the pay period • Clarify that Expense reimbursement checks for city expenses will be paid to staff through direct deposit. • Add clarifying language to allow individuals to understand the policy more clearly. • Specify the pay rate for overtime hours worked on a holiday for career firefighters. • Update regular pay and reimbursement procedures for jury duty. FISCAL IMPACT: The career firefighters don’t have overtime (OT) above their 159 hours in the 21-day cycle very often. But when this happens it will have a minor impact on the budget as firefighters working overtime (OT) hours on a holiday will receive .50 times extra pay for those OT hours. OPTIONS: 1) Approve the updates to the Payroll and Compensation policy. 2) Do not approve the updates to the Payroll and Compensation policy.