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STAFF REPORT <br />DATE: December 17, 2024 <br />REGULAR <br /> <br />TO: Mayor and City Council <br />FROM: Karissa Goers, Administrative Services Director <br />AGENDA ITEM: Approve City of Lake EE Handbook Updates <br /> <br />BACKGROUND: <br />The updates to the employee handbook were discussed at the Lake Elmo City Council workshop <br />on December 10th. At the workshop we discussed increasing the year end vacation hours cash out <br />option from 40 hours to 100 hours. <br />Council feedback was that 40 is preferable, 60 could be an option, but 100 is too high. Some of <br />our comparable cities have the following carry overs: <br /> <br />Mendota Heights = Sick 600 hours, PTO 320 hours, Vacation 200 hours <br />Hugo = PTO 520 hours <br />Oakdale = PTO 500 hours <br />Stillwater = Vacation 80 hours <br />Forest Lake = Vacation 200 hours, Sick 1000 hours <br />North St. Paul = 240 vacation, 1000 sick <br />Vadnais Heights = PTO 320 hours <br /> <br />These cities allow an annual cash conversion of leave time: Stillwater, Mendota Heights, and <br />Oakdale. <br /> <br />Considering the feedback from the city workshop discussion, feedback from the finance director <br />and city administrator, and looking at comparable cities, staff recommends keeping the conversion <br />option to 40 hours per year but increasing the balance carryover by 20 hours. <br /> <br />It was asked at the workshop if the unused ESST hours could be cashed out into the MSRS HCSP, <br />but upon further discussion with the Finance Director we don’t feel that there will be a large <br />liability in ESST hours, due to trend of current PTO use by city employees. Because frontloading <br />48 hours of ESST as of January 1st and cashing out any unused hours at the end of the year was <br />one option provided under the MN ESST statute, staff does not recommend moving those hours <br />to the MSRS HCSP and recommends keeping the cash out option for unused ESST hours. <br /> <br />The ESST and vacation leave policies in the redlined version attached reflect these <br />recommendations. <br /> <br />ISSUE BEFORE COUNCIL: <br />The ESST law that went into effect in 2024 had amendments made to it in May, which affect our <br />current annual leave (PTO) policy. Staff recommends separating out the annual leave (PTO) <br />policy into two new policies: Vacation Leave and Earned Sick and Safe Time (ESST). Staff have <br />assigned numbers to the policies and updated the layout of the handbook, making it easier to