HomeMy WebLinkAboutResolution 2004-007CITY OF LAKE ELMO
WASHINGTON COUNTY, MINNESOTA
RESOLUTION NO. 2004-007
A RESOLUTION AMENDING THE PERSONNEL POLICY RELATING TO
PERSONAL TIME OFF (PTO)
WHEREAS, the current personnel policy adopted by the Lake Elmo City Council
on July 20, 1999, amended February 5 and 19, 2002, outlines vacation and sick leave
benefits available to full time employees.
WHEREAS, at the December 30th workshop, the Lake Elmo City Council
reviewed a Personal Time Off (PTO) Policy that would replace the existing vacation and
sick leave policy.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Lake Elmo City Council
approves amending the City's Personnel Policy by deleting the "Vacation" and "Sick
Leave" sections in their entirety, and adding a new section entitled "Personal Time Off'
as attached and made part of this resolution.
ADOPTED by the Lake Elmo City Council on the 6`" day of Januani, 2004.
Lee Hunt, Mayor
ATTEST:
Charles E. Dillerud
Acting City Administrator
Labe Elmo
Agenda Section: City Administrator's Deport
No. 11B
City Council
January 6, 2003
A enda Item: Personnel Policy Amendment — Personal Time Off (PTO)
BacLkground Information for Janoarj 6, 2003:
At the December 30 Workshop the Council was introduced to and discussed a Personal Time Off (PTO)
Policy that would replace our existing vacation and sick leave policies. The Council appears to concur with
the sample PTO Policy that was presented — with some modifications. I have attached the Policy discussed
on December 30, with the following modifications:
I. The "Personal Time Off Schedule" has been modified to reflect the City's current vacation accrual
schedule + 6 days (rounded to even half hour accruals per bi- weekly pay period). As previously
directed by the Council, the Schedule has been set up to cap the maximum "vacation component" of
the PTO schedule at 25 days after 15 completed years of service. Since we have one employee
already accruing 30 days of vacation, a sentence was added to grandfather his accrual rate.
2. 1 have modified the dates of the `Benefit Year" from 3/1 - 2/28 to 4/1— 3/31. Not only do I dislike
the "leap year" consequences of a 2/28 date, this will also give employees with large existing
vacation banks (which will become PTO banks) an extra month to burn off some hours.
3. The "Extended Illness Bank" feature was added to address the existing employee sick leave banks.
The same "cash out" provisions as with current Policy were added as well (50% or 50 days after 5
years, whichever less), but I have deleted the present Policy clause to permits an employee to
convert sick leave in excess of 100 days into vacation leave.
(Continued on Page 2)
Person res 2onsible:
Action items:
Motion to approve Resolution #2004 -, Amending the City's
Acti b C' inistrator
Personnel Policy by deleting the "Vacation" and "Sick Leave"
sections in their entirety; and adding a new section entitled
"Personal Time Off'.
Attachments:
Time Allocated:
1. Draft resolution #2004 — Amending Personnel Policy
2. Draft Additions to Personnel Policy
(Continued from Page 3)
A clause of the Arden Hills Policy that we did not discuss on December 30 (which I have
Ieft in our draft PTO Policy) addresses "Exempt Employee Flex -Time Guidelines ". The
issue of Comp Time has been addressed, and the Policy has been tinkered with, a number
of times in the past 5 years. Although the Policy is still difficult to follow, it appears that
the current Policy for exempt employees is that they may accrue Comp Time at a rate of
1 hour for each 3 hours worked — to a maximum of 16 hours
Personally, I have never been a fan of a fixed Policy regarding Comp Time for exempt
employees. It has always been my belief that time on the job in excess of the 40 hour
week was considered in the higher salary scales for managerial and professional staff
members; and, the ability of those managers and professionals to manage their own time
responsibly— "flex ", if you will. Even though I had never been formally credited Comp
Time for the many night meetings I worked with prior public employers, the former
administrator insisted that I do so here. I did accrue Comp Time beginning my second
year here (at the administrator's insistence), but I suspended that practice on the departure
of the former administrator on December 10, 2002 — as has Tom Bouthilet. Maybe that is
a function of our age, and/or a different perspective as to what constitutes being a
manager and professional.
What I have done since December 14, 2002 is to occasionally "flex" my work time —
always during the same work week, and only when the work load has permitted. As was
the case with prior public positions, I have seldom. totally balanced to a 40 hour week —
and that isn't of concern to me. If I had chosen to flex over the entire 2 week pay period —
which is permitted for exempt employees in many cities — I could have done a better job
of balancing.
I believe the formalization of "flex time" in the public sector has grown out of the
realization that, in some cases, the (now dated, I guess) concept of managers and
professionals working until the job is completed has been tarnished a bit by the simple
math of converting uncompensated hours to income per hour worked. In some cases, the
actual hourly compensation of managerial and professional staff ends up less than that
subordinate staff without the education and experience investments that resulted in the
others becoming managers and professionals. Arden Hills decided the time had arrived to
formalize a flex time solution in Policy. Perhaps the time has arrived here to both
distinguish Comp Time (for non - exempt) from Flex Time (for exempt) and move the flex
time concept to a legal and formal system. The Arden Hills approach seems as fair as any
I have seen to accomplish these goals,