INFORMATION #2 10-13-2003 - Laserfiche WebLink

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MEMORANDUM TO: FROM: DATE: SUBJECT: Mayor and City Council Pat K la ers, City Ad m~~~~ October 13, 2003 '~ ~7~ Comp Time The city needs to change its compensatory time policy for exempt employees. The current comp time policy states, in part, that exempt employees may take no more than four hours of comp time off in one day and no more than ten hours of comp time off in one week. In my opinion, this policy no longer treats all of our exempt employees fairly. (The city has 24 exempt employees excluding the Police Sergeants.) In too many cases there has been times when an employee will have ~vorked a "huge" week and then that employee needs and deserves to take a day off, but can use no more than four hours of comp time off in one day because of our policy. Another reason to make a change in our comp dme policy is that the city must make sure that it is in compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The easiest, cleanest, and best way for the city to ensure compliance with FLSA, and in order for the city to be fair to all employees is simply to eliminate the recording of comp time. This will not impact how ~ve do business or work as city employees, it will only impact how we record hours. The city will only record hours worked, vacation time taken, sick time taken, and holidays. We will no longer record compensation time earned or taken. This is not an uncommon practice for municipalities. This issue was discussed (again) at the September 23, 2003 department head staff meeting and the consensus reached was that it is best for the city to eliminate comp time being recorded as earned or taken. Use of comp dme is a management and supervisor issue. Use of compensation time relates to whether or not an employee is required to be at work for a particular assignment or duty and, overall, whether or not the employee's work is getting completed. In this regard, both the employee and employer need to have a clear understanding of the expectations and responsibilities of the position. If problems exist with an employee's work performance or hours worked, then this is a management or supervisory issue and needs to be addressed. A second comp time issue that needs Council review is related to the comp hours which employees have built up and have "in the bank" at this time. Some employees have a large amount of comp time built up while other exempt employees have a very modest amount. The city has not capped the amount of comp time that can be carried over from one year to the next and has simply kept a running