Feb. 15--Cleburne could lose Police Chief Terry Powell and other officials because of Tuesday's action by the Cleburne City Council addressing sick leave buyouts. The council's decision leaves a number of long-term employees with a big decision to make between now and Aug. 31.
City employees affected by the policy change can retire before then and receive the full sick leave buyout benefits they accumulated up to Dec. 31. Should they remain past Aug. 31, their buyout will drop to 75 percent of accumulated benefits over and above the 720 hours afforded to all employees. Provided the employee has earned and not used up to 720 hours of sick leave pay.
How many employees the city loses in the coming months remains to be seen, but Powell said on Wednesday that he and Deputy Chief Kent Glover may retire on Aug. 30.
Powell said he recommends Deputy Chief Amy Knoll be named chief after he retires but added that such decisions would not be made by him but rather by the city manager and the council.
Economic conditions necessitated changing the policy, city officials said, adding that it has grown too expensive to fund.
"The problem we had with this was the amount of money that it takes to pay these kinds of benefits out in the long run," City Manager Rick Holden said Wednesday morning. "That's how it came to city staff, from the council who told us to look at it about a year ago because it represents a significant amount of payout.
"It's a very good benefit. A lot of places don't have that level of benefit and I think in a staggering economy you have to look at ways to change your business model and sometimes have to make midstream adjustments to get where you need to."
The previous policy
Cleburne's policy on sick leave pay evolved through the years, Holden said.
By law, civil service employees, which include police and firefighters in Cleburne, must receive payment for a minimum of 720 hours of sick leave when they retire or quit provided they have accrued and not used that many hours. Otherwise they are paid for the number of unused accrued days they have upon leaving the city. To accrue 720 hours takes about six years of employment, Holden said.
In a move toward fairness the council years ago extended the same benefit to non-civil service city employees.
"That was the policy for everyone at one time," Holden said. "Several years ago that number bumped from 720 to 960 [for employees who reach 20 years] and then, about 12 years ago, they added the caveat for employees who have worked for the city 25 years or more where they were given an additional number of hours up to a maximum of 3,040 [hours] for their service."
That system led to huge costs, much of which is unfunded, Holden said last year.
In a move to cut costs council members two years ago changed the policy whereby employees hiring on after 2010 can only accumulate 720 hours of potential sick pay buyout over their career.
"Now they, or employees here before 2010, can still accumulate and use as many sick days as they can accumulate [over their employment]," Holden said. "But when [employees hiring on after 2010], the most they can get paid out for is 720 hours."
Controversy arose over what to do with city employees who were eligible for and had accrued sick leave hours in excess of 720.
Council members addressed but took no action on the matter in December. Instead they formed a committee of a cross section of city employees to study and make recommendations on how best to address the issue.
Several employees in December argued that the issue was placed on the agenda of a called meeting held close to the holidays, which left employees little time to study the issue or prepare a response. Others questioned the amount of unfunded liability claimed by the city and argued that the city benefited from long-term employees who chose to come to work and not use up sick days. Most agreed the city needed to address the situation because of cost issues, but also argued that employees who had been promised and worked toward such benefits should be honored for their loyalty.
A number of city employees praised Councilman John Warren's suggestion in December to form a committee of city employees to address the issue before the council acted on it.
Effective date
In voting on the new policy Tuesday, council members had a choice of two effective dates, either April 30 or Aug. 31. Consensus among numerous city employees in attendance during Tuesday's council meeting favored the August date, in large part to afford affected employees time to decide whether to leave and receive their full, pre new policy, payout or remain with the city and see that benefit reduced by 25 percent upon leaving the city.
Holden told council members that the April date would make the deadline effective under the current council and that pushing it to August would place it on a new council given that three council seats are up for election in May.
Past that Holden said, during Tuesday's meeting and on Wednesday morning, that he had no preference on the effective date.
"I was never against it [the August date]," Holden said Wednesday. "I know some people thought I was against it, but I just wanted the council to look at all the options and make a decision based on their policy making responsibility, and that's what they did.
"I'll do nothing less than commend them that put this together and the council for allowing that to happen. The council wanted that, a committee to look at it so they could get the variety of opinions and input and hopefully arrive at something that can work for everyone.
"These are the kind of divisive issues that are not necessarily fun for any of us, but as city manager I'm obligated, committed, to the employees, citizens and council to give options and some of the things I have to put on the table are not the most popular options."
CFD Lt. Allan Connell, who served on the employee committee, presented the recommendation, which the council approved.
The committee, Connell said, represented a true cross section of city employees all of whom appreciated the opportunity to play a role in the decision and all of whom worked toward crafting a policy fair to both city employees and the city.
The new policy will save the city money in the long run, Connell said, through attrition as employees hired before 2010 retire.
Police officer Matt Cox, who also serves as vice president of the Cleburne Police Officers Association, said CPOA supports the plan approved by council.
"First and foremost is that it was created with employee input," Cox said. "Second, it meets the needs of all the parties involved. The city has effectively stopped the bleeding and now has a solid dollar amount for the liability that it faces and so it can effectively plan around it.
"Finally, the old policy is put to bed permanently so the people that we all serve, the taxpayers, are having their tax money spent wisely."
Copyright 2012 - Cleburne Times-Review, Texas