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Regular City Council Meeting <br />January 12 , 2004 <br />Page 24 <br />Councilman Plata said that he felt like they should use or lose their vacation in <br />that year. Councilman Bell said there was discussion about the 45 days being <br />too much, but since there was no limit, the committee felt like the 45 day limit <br />was a step in the right direction. Councilman Bell said that sometimes an <br />employee taking off can cause a gridlock, because no one else can do that <br />employee’s job. He used Shawn Napier, City Engineer, as an example, who <br />had to come in on one of his vacation days to execute some documents. City <br />Manager Malone said that when he became city manager, there were five <br />engineers and now there is one. Councilwoman Neeley said a lot of these things <br />have been caused by cutbacks in the departments. Mayor Fendley said a lot of <br />these kinds of things can be handled with proper planning. <br />Councilman Guest said the City has two retirement plans. One plan is for <br />regular employees with the Texas Municipal Retirement System. There is <br />mandatory participation where the employee contributes 6% of their pay and <br />with a 2 to 1 match by the city. He stated that the annual cost to the city was <br />$1,124,007.00 and the average employee contribution was $3535.00. <br />Councilman Plata asked why there was mandatory participation. It was the <br />consensus that it was a state law. Mr. Anderson stated that the city opted into <br />TMRS sometime in the sixties and the same state law says that once you are in <br />the plan, you have to stay in it until all obligations are fulfilled. Councilman <br />Bell said some cities were looking at private plans, in which case, those city <br />would have to offer both plans. <br />Councilman Guest said the next plan was the FRRF, which covers the firemen. <br />The firemen contribute 10% of their pay with an 11.1% match by the city. This <br />costs the City $220,569.00 annually. The employee receives a City <br />contribution of $3869.00 annually. Councilman Guest discussed legislation <br />recently passed concerning non-statewide retirement programs, which <br />preserves the benefits at the current contribution levels. Mr. Anderson said that <br />current TMRS legislation had reduce the amount of years for vesting from 10 <br />to 5. He also stated that under the Fire Department system, they have to have <br /> <br />