03/04/2003 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of 3/4/2003 ^ He has been attending Council meetings for about 10 years and sat through three Service Directors. Two of those Service Directors attended these meetings faithfully, and he can't imagine Council having to pass a piece of legislation to get them to show up. He recalls the directors solving a lot of problems as was noted earlier. He has heard the Mayor toot the horn of the current Service Director as to what a wonderful, terrific choice she was. He thinks a picture is worth a thousand words. Tom Jenkins, 5717 Barton Road ^ He has picked up on an air of fear in the community in regard to speaking out against Mr. Musial or Mrs. Creadon. With regard to the use of comp time by the Service Director for sick leave, he wants to question the Mayor about that as he is someone who left with 1,500 hours of comp time. Mayor Musial said the Service Director would be using comp time during her extended absence. Law Director Dubelko spoke to the issue by saying it was the subject of a recent legal opinion. The Finance Director had requested he provide an opinion as to whether or not the Mayor could, through administrative policy, provide for his appointed directors to accrue comp time and to use it in such instances as medical leave. His opinion was that, in the absence of legislation by City Council, that was a matter of administrative discretion that the Mayor could do it. He cautioned the Finance Director to document that the excess time was actually taken and being used. Mr. Jenkins inquired as to how much sick time the Service Director had, and the Mayor said it was between 30 and 40 hours. Mr. Jenkins questioned as to whether a comp time policy was under consideration. Mayor Musial said a policy has been discussed among the directors but has not been signed. He is reviewing the policy in his mind in regards to the question as to whether or not directors should be entitled to comp time. He is leaning in the direction of allowing comp time for directors. As the former Safety Director, Mr. Jenkins said he used a spreadsheet to track his time in a professional manner. He expressed concern that the Service Director was going to receive her salary for two or three months through use of comp time. He asked whether the comp time was being legitimately recorded, perhaps turned into the Finance Dept. so that is accumulated in a proper accounting procedure. The Mayor said he considers directors professional people as they track their own comp time and provide him with a report upon his request. Mr. Jenkins wondered if the State Auditor would agree with that accounting method. Finance Director Copfer stated that her oi~ice did not have the ability to accrue, maintain and track compensatory time. She would prefer that that this be handled by departments until a centralized collection system can be used rather than an Excel spreadsheet. Mrs. Kasler said that she had previously expressed an objection to comp time being given to salaried employees and asked for the Mayor's policy. In December, the Mayor distributed to Council a memo regarding a policy which was under review. In her mind, the city is void of a policy at this time. With alI due respect to Mr. Dubelko's legal opinion, she finds it difficult to understand how the Service Director can be paid for comp time without a policy in place. Mr. Jenkins said this matter was about the public trust. These are dollars being spent on an employee who is not putting in hours at work. If the Mayor is going to pay compensation to one employee, he ought to look at some other people who have put in work well beyond 40-hour weeks. 11