4.4. SR 05-28-2002 - Laserfiche WebLink

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MEMORANDUM Item 4.4. TO: FROM: DATE: SUBJECT: Mayor and City Council Pat Klaers, City ~d~/~,t~r May 28, 2002 Snow Plowing Policy Change On December 6, 1999, the City Council discussed about twelve city personnel policy changes. One of the issues discussed related to vacation and sick time no longer counting towards "hours worked" for the purposes of overtime. On December 20, 1999, the City Council approved this hours worked and other personnel policy changes and amended the personnel ordinance. (Compensation time was not part of this discussion as the city, for at least the past ten years, has netted out comp hours on a weekly basis.) Of all the city departments, this hours worked policy change impacts the Street/Park employees the most and the activity that has brought this issue forward for more discussion is snow plowing and specifically snow plowing on weekends. In a recent meeting with the Street/Park employees it was clearly stated that this group has a strong desire and preference to have this policy changed back to the pre December 20, 1999, status. This pre December 29, 1999, status was that all hours - regardless if it was vacation time taken, a holiday, or sick time taken - be counted as hours worked for the purposes of overtime. The Street/Park employees stated to me at our meeting that they believed their feelings regarding the hours worked and overtime policy are citywide and does not just pertain to their department. I have heard concerns from other employees regarding this policy but the impact to other departments is not a common occurrence. The city changed its hours worked policy for a number of reasons. One reason was that the new policy was more consistent with federal law. The city can be more lenient or generous than federal law but we can't be more stringent and provide fewer benefits. (We were more generous than federal law before December 20, 1999, and still are more generous, as we count holidays as hours worked and this is not required by law.) With this policy change Elk River was following the lead of other metropolitan cities and the larger Elk River's work force gets, then the larger the financial impact is due to this policy. The Street/Park Department employees discussed numerous other economic issues in their meeting with me including decreasing the number of steps to the top of the pay plan, increasing starting pay, allowing on call employees to work two hours of overtime each day, an early start bonus, plus other financial requests. They also wanted to know if they had any appeal process available to them if I didn't support their requests or present them to the City Council.