12-21-2020 Regular CCM - Laserfiche WebLink

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0 City Council Minutes December 21, 2020 Page 9 burden on the taxpayers. She added multiple times since she has been on the Council staff has requested extensions to carry over excess leave and questioned why we would consider providing more vacation at the beginning if using it is a problem. Mr. Portner indicated he would propose starting new employees at a higher accrual rate but lowering the amount they can carryover. He noted this would not apply to current employees. Council discussed an acceptable cap for new employees. The Council was interested in seeing vacation for new hires capped at 80 or 120 hours. Ms. Wipper indicated an employee used to be allowed to carryover the amount they earned in a year, but it was changed to 240 hours a few years ago but she's not sure of the reason. Councilmember-elect Beyer commented that receiving 15 days upon employment is a heck of a starting vacation compared to corporate America. Ms. Wipper stated some city benefits are different than the private sector because cities cannot provide bonuses. Council consensus was for staff to draft new vacation language and bring it back. Council was interested in reducing the carry over balance for sure. Mr. Portner indicated he would like to change the sick leave donation policy. Current policy requires an employee to donate an equal amount of sick and vacation time up to 16 hours. He would propose allowing employees with sick leave balances under 960 hours to donate up to 16 hours of solely sick time and require employees with a sick leave balance of over 960 hours to donate equal shares of sick and vacation up to 16 hours. The Council concurred. The council discussed a Parental Leave Policy and asked to have a draft policy prepared to discuss further. 10. Adjournment There being no further business, Mayor Dietz adjourned the meeting of the Elk River City Council at 9:57 p.m. Minutes prepared by Jessica Miller. Tina Allard, City Clerk I"■EIEI 1} NATURE