Saturday, October 27, 2007

Bosque Farms Council has concerns about vacation hour accrual plan

Clara Garcia News-Bulletin Staff Writer; cgarcia@news-bulletin.com

Bosque Farms An effort to increase the maximum accrued vacation hours for Bosque Farms employees died last week when no one from the village council voted to approve advertising a proposed amendment to the personnel policy.

Last month, the council discussed increasing the number of possible accrued vacation hours from 120 to 240. The issue was brought before the council because several employees were having a hard time using their vacation hours and were losing them when they reached the maximum 120 hours.

During last week's meeting, several members of the council voiced concerns about potential financial hardships the village's budget could encounter if the governing body increased the number of vacation hours.

After Councilor Dolly Wallace made a motion to approve the advertisement and second was made, Mayor Pro Tem Robert Knowlton said the number of hours was based on what neighboring municipalities offer their employees.

"If we had multiple employees leave the village in any given year, we could be out in the order of $10,000 or more," Knowlton said. "I understand it's not a lot of employees in our staff that accrue more than 120 hours, but from a financial standpoint, I'm a bit concerned about loosening it up."

Knowlton said he was also concerned about a new clause to the amendment that reads that an accumulation above 240 hours must be approved by the clerk-administrator prior to the end of the calendar year and hours in excess of 240 must be used within six months.

"I'm not in favor of that clause at all," he said. "I think if we're going to have a cap (on the maximum accrued vacation hours) then we should have a cap and not extend it. I think we need to be a little more accommodating to our employees to try to get them to take their vacation hours.

"Most of the jobs that I've had in my career ... management is always encouraging people to take their vacation — it's especially good for morale."

Wallace, who pointed out that she made the motion to approve for discussion purposes, said she too was concerned that the village clerk-administrator would have the ability to approve additional hours. She said she was also apprehensive about the number of hours employees could bank and then possibly quit.

"If we have two or three people that decide that they want to move on, it could really hurt us financially," Wallace said.

Councilor Virgil Proctor also noted his apprehensions.

"I don't want to make it to where employees lose their time, because a lot of them are dedicated ... but I'm not sure how we can do it and show them how much we appreciate them staying with us and at the same time not make it a financial burden on the village," Proctor said.

Mayor Wayne Ake said that the village would not be encouraging any employee to accrue 240 hours, but rather it was to give them an opportunity not to lose vacation hours as they are now doing with the maximum accrual of 120 hours.

"But we have to face it, if we have a mass mutiny and everyone walks in at once and quits, where are we going to get the money to pay that?" Ake said. The mayor said there are not a lot of employees who are exceeding the current 120 maximum vacation hours, mostly supervisors and police officers.

When Ake called for a vote on Wallace's motion to approve advertising the amendment to the personnel policy, all four councilors voted in opposition. The mayor asked if anyone wanted to make another motion, but no one did.

In other business: