2003-02-26 CC Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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, tervi[[e 'EstaGLlsfiecf .1857 STAFF REPORT DATE: February 26,2003 TO: Honorable Mayor and City Council Kim Moore-Sykes, City Administrator ~ PTO and Educational Reimbursement FROM: RE: ......................................................................... At the February 10th Council worksession, the Council directed Staff to put language together that could be incorporated into the recently adopted Personnel Policy regarding Personal Time Off (PTO) and education reimbursement. Attached for your information is language that Staffhas put together for your review and most of the language used comes from the cities of New Hope and Shoreview. There are issues with PTO that Staff needs direction from Council on, particularly with accumulated sick time. There are three employees who have been with the City longer and have several hours accumulated that would exceed the proposed maximum accumulation ofthe PTO plan. Staffis looking for a way to distribute these hours, understanding that the Council is interested in limiting the City's future financial liability with accumulated leave. Staff is proposing to pay these employees for their accumulated leave through December 2002 and start their accumulation for the purposes of PTO as January 2003, if approved by Council. As part of the discussion I had with the Finance Director about converting sick leave, another concern was raised in regard to the accumulated sick leave. As you know, sick leave accumulation runs the gamut from those who use all their sick leave to those who save it in case it's needed. The concern is based on this idea that if an employee has a medical situation that requires an extended absence from work, the accumulated sick leave could be used. If that accumulation is restricted, as proposed, then there is no opportunity to save leave time for that an emergency or unforeseen situation. New Hope and Shoreview both provide short and long term disability as part of their PTO program for such a situation. While this type of insurance was discussed among employees and Council, a decision was made not to pursue it due to cost. But when comparing the cost of the long term disability insurance to the cost of paying employees for accumulated sick leave, the cost seems minimal. Long term disability insurance is also a way of protecting the City's employees from unexpected medical situations that could keep them from work for weeks.