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17-A Benefits Sub(12-09-03)MINUTES OF THE CITY OF PARIS CITY COUNCIL BENEFIT SUBCOMMITTEE DECEMBER 9, 2003 The City of Paris City Council Benefit Subcommittee met in special session, Monday, December 9, 2003, 10:00 A.M. at Paris Junior College, Bobby R. Walters Applied Technology, Building Room 1208, 2400 Clarksville Street, Paris, Texas. Chairman Jay Guest called the meeting to order with Councilman Joe E. McCarthy and Councilman Jim Bell being present. Also present were City Manager Michael E. Malone, City Attorney Larry W. Schenk, and City Clerk Mattie Cunningham. Chairman Guest announced that they had previously gotten to Agenda Item No. 5, discussion and possible recommendations concerning Attendance Holidays and Optional Holidays. Chairman Guest said they were talking about attendance holidays yesterday and the city presently has 10. Mr. Anderson advised that the city has 10 holidays they are not attendance holidays. He said that attendance holiday is defined in the Personnel Policy Book that if an employee does not miss any time during a quarter, and that employee has less than 10 years of service they earn an extra holiday. Mr. Anderson said there are 10 regular holidays and an employee has the potential of having 4 attendance holidays if that employee has been here less than 10 years, and they are not civil service. Councilman Bell said he was assuming that this was implemented to encourage attendance; as opposed to, if they do not attend to come to work, the employees in the real world are fired if they miss work. Mr. Anderson replied if they missed too much the city would also fire them. Chairman Guest asked what is the purpose of that. Melba Harris, Personnel Officer for the City of Paris, said the incentive is, an employee may wake up with a headache, and there are times you can work with a headache, but the incentive is, if the employee can make the day, then for three months that employee will receive another day off. She also pointed out that there is sick and there is sick that you need to be home. Councilman Bell said that if the employee takes a sick day, the employee would not receive an attendance day for that quarter. Mr. City of Paris Council Benefits Subcommittee December 9, 2003 Page 2 Anderson said the attendance holidays cannot be received by an employee if they have taken sick leave, military leave, funeral leave, leave without pay, maternity leave, injury leave, or vacation pay in lieu of sick leave during the work quarter. Mr. Anderson said that the only thing that can be taken is a vacation day. Chairman Guest asked Mr. Anderson what is the Optional Holiday. Mr. Anderson told the committee this does not apply. He said when the book was originally written, there were five regular holidays and there were these three optional holidays. In 1988, the City Council came back and made the optional holidays into regular holidays, which were the Friday following Thanksgiving, Memorial Day, and the day before Christmas. Mr. Anderson said this section does not now apply and it can be eliminated in the new handbook. Councilman Bell said that there were three holidays that have been added and wanted to know what the other two were. Mr. Anderson advised that they were Good Friday and Memorial Day. Councilman Bell wanted to know if there was a way to get a list of employees in the city that have accumulated over so many sick days and over so many vacation days. Mr. Anderson said it could be generated. Chairman Guest said he had originally asked how many people have vacation days more than 30 days and it was indicated that there were more than 50 city employees. Mr. Anderson said that they looked yesterday about putting the 45 day cap on that and there were 30 employees that have 45 days or more. Councilman Bell wanted to know if the committee could get a list of those employees and how may days they have. Mr. Anderson said they can generate a list. Councilman Bell said in conjunction with that, does the city have any information as to each year when they buy back vacation and/or sick days, do they have some sort of accounting that will tell how much the city is spending for that. He wanted to know how that is reflected on the budget or financial statement. Councilman Bell said for example, if Gene Anderson buys back 10 days, 5 vacation and 5 sick days that he is selling back, and that is added up with 35 or 40 people where is that actually reflected that the City Council to look at it to see where it is, and either one or two things, how reasonable it is, how negligible it is, or excessive it is. He said that he could see City of Paris Council Benefits Subcommittee December 9, 2003 Page 3 that payroll is a little bit higher, and that could be a combination of several things such as giving step raises, but where is this reflected in the budget, and should the Council be looking at this it might be a negligible deal. Mr. Anderson advised that the number gets put into the budget based on what the previous year's actual was, and it is rolled into the salary number in terms of the budget line items. Councilman Bell asked that Mr. Anderson look at this and bring it back to the committee. Councilman Bell said in his mind this needs to be brought back and explained when they discuss this with a full Council. These are the questions that they try to get to so they will have the information and they may not have an impact, but they need to let the Council that this is a negligible item. Chairman Guest asked if the attendance holidays can be carried forward. Mr. Anderson said the number gets rolled into their holiday leave balance. Once it gets rolled into their holiday leave balance, it is not distinguished from any other holiday. He said they did not track it as to what year they earned it. They just have a total balance. Chairman Guest said there is a limit on sick days of 135. Mr. Anderson said there is not a limit on sick leave under Civil Service. City Attorney Schenk said the attendance holiday is an incentive to keep the city from losing productivity. Chairman Guest asked Melba Harris what is paid time off? She advised that is any vacation leave, sick leave, and comp time. He asked what is comp time? Ms. Harris said it is when a person works other than their regular scheduled work week and a person may work extra time or a holiday. They can choose to be paid or take the time off at time and one-half. Councilman Bell asked what the city is allowed to do regarding military leave? City Attorney Schenk said most of that is dictated by State and Federal laws. That is why they city's policy is written that it will comply with State and Federal laws. Councilman Bell said that technically, military leave would be exempted. City of Paris Council Benefits Subcommittee December 9, 2003 Page 4 City Attorney Schenk advised that what it says is anyone who is a member of the National Guard, Military Reserve or a military unit of the United States has the leave of absence right and reinstatement rights applicable to State and Federal laws. He said he was going to get with Mr. Anderson and see if there are any other changes that need to be made, but this is the best way to address this matter by placing this type clause in the Personnel Policy Book. Mr. Anderson advised that the city has had employees called up for active duty and when they come back, it is like they never left. The city holds their jobs as required by law. Councilman Bell asked Mr. Anderson to go back over, one more time, what an employee can accumulate and sell back in lieu of sick and vacation time. Mr. Anderson advised that on vacation time, if you are not a civil service employee, you are allowed to sell 5 days back once a year at 75% of the previous year's pay rate. Sick leave, if they are non civil service employees, it does not specify that an employee can sell back like it does in vacation. It just requires that you have at least 30 days left after you sell back. He said depending on what the employee's balance is when they sell back, that determines at what rate an employee will be paid. Mr. Anderson said that if you have less than 90 days left you get paid at 50% of the previous year's pay rate. If you have 90 days but less than 120 days you, get paid at the 75% rate, and if you have 120 days left after sell back, the employee will be paid at 100% of the previous year's pay rate. Councilman Bell wanted to know if there are employees that have 120 days sick leave accumulated. Mr. Anderson said there are two or three in that range. Councilman Bell requested a list of those employees over the 89 days (the top two brackets). Mr. Anderson advised that an employee could not sell back attendance days because it does not fall into the sick time, because they can only take sick time if they are sick. The employees cannot sell back attendance days as it is similar to a reward. Mayor Pro Tem McCarthy stated that if a person wants an incentive to come to work, it should be a pay check. Karl Louis, Police Chief, said if you look at this issue from an economic City of Paris Council Benefits Subcommittee December 9, 2003 Page 5 standpoint if you reward somebody, but if an employee misses a sick day, the city will have to have someone to fill that slot and pay them overtime. So, it is probably from an economic standpoint, it will save the city money if this employee comes to work for a full quarter. You do not have to pay someone to fill his spot and pay that person time and one-half and you would save the city money. Mr. Anderson said motivating employees is a complex thing to do and money does not always do it. Mayor Pro Tem McCarthy said an employee motivates himself. City Attorney Schenk said the employee, the job, the position, the pay and a whole lot of other things are the motivations. Mr. Anderson said this is just like corporations, they give all types of incentives such as jackets and little extra things to reward their employees for doing a good j ob. It is the same motivation. City Manager Malone said the position of the city is, employees use sick leave only if they are sick and that is the only position there is because the policy is in effect. Unless they change the policy, that is the policy of the city. Councilman Bell said it is in the policy manual and if we go back and address that it was if an employee is off more than three days, the city could request them to get an excuse from the doctor, or do you have the right to request it. Mr. Anderson said that the city can request it for one day, but the employee is required to get it after three days. Mayor Pro Tem McCarthy asked if there is such a thing as an attendance policy. Ms. Harris asked if he was talking about after a person misses so many days, there is some type of disciplinary action. Mayor Pro Tem McCarthy asked is there a set number of days that an employee can miss per year. City Attorney advised they have to miss for a cause. Mr. Anderson said you either have to schedule it like vacation. In the case of sick leave, the employee has to justify it and it is either acceptable or it is not acceptable based on what they tell the department head. If the department head does not think it is acceptable you tell City of Paris Council Benefits Subcommittee December 9, 2003 Page 6 them to come in or go get a doctor excuse. Chairman Guest said that under non civil service employees, you could have a no sick leave policy. City Attorney Schenk said if you want to have a disparate policy. Chairman Guest said there is nothing that they can do to ever bring parity, once a city has adopted civil service employees, short of recalling that in an election. He said they cannot continue to run the city for the rest of their lives trying to bring parity to civil service. City Attorney Schenk said as an example the city made an adjustment to the retirement fund and he will say, you are right, it was because of a different situation. Chairman Guest said and the circumstances that they know now, that might not have happened, especially given the circumstances that they learned last night. City Attorney Schenk said he thought the argument here, but the problem is it creates problems with the merit system. He advised that since he has been in this business, cities in general, try to come up with some means of at least trying to address parity or equity in what is being done. The City Attorney advised that it is not so much as necessarily parity as it is equity because sometimes you cannot equal what they have, but you have something else that is an offsetting or compensating factor. Chairman Guest said that the Emergency Medical Service is not Civil Service, but on the organizational chart the EMS is shown to be under the Fire Department. Fire Chief Grooms advised that they are not civil service. Chairman Guest said that was because they were not in existence when the civil service election was done in 1948. City Attorney Schenk said it is a different system and it is the way the statutes are set up. If a person is a dispatcher or a clerical person in the Police Department, they are not civil service. Chief Louis said that some of them are also firemen and they have joint training. City Attorney Schenk said that by and large the city does not have a level of expertise and he did not think the city has the j oint function that you have when you have them identified separately between the two functions. That is a policy choice. Terry Townsend, Director of Public Works, explained that in his departments, he follows the policy book. Mr. Townsend informed the board that he has taken disciplinary action several times and if he sees any type pattern the employee is City of Paris Council Benefits Subcommittee December 9, 2003 Page 7 reprimanded. Mayor Pro Tem McCarthy asked what would someone charge it to when they call in. Mr. Anderson advised that person would probably be charging it to sick leave if he has any. Chief Louis said that anytime there is a reason or suspicion of an invalid call in sick, they check it right then. They do not have to wait, they can check it out right then. Kent Klinkerman said if that employee shows up at another j ob, that would be a big factor for him. He said it is also a big factor in promotion. Councilman Bell wanted to know if they knew how much sick leave cost the city each year, how many people have taken sick leave. Mr. Anderson said he would try to get that for him. He was not sure he could get it all by tomorrow. Councilman Bell also requested the cost of the buy back, sick leave and vacation and the number of employees that are in the top two brackets of the sick leave 89 day or above. Councilman Bell said that he thought that these are questions that need to be brought before the public hearing side of the City Council's portion of this. Chairman Guest said take maternity leave for instance, which is one of the Family Leave Acts, but they do not get paid. He said you could employ an employee for two years and that employee does not take any sick leave and goes on paid maternity leave for 30 days, couldn't they do this as that employee has accumulated 30 days. Mr. Anderson explained thatyou have to have justification, even for maternity leave. He said that if the doctor does not give that employee a written statement that says he had to be off work, then that employee will have to come back whenever the doctor says he can. City Attorney Schenk said that FMLA allows much more but it is unpaid, but the city's policy, over the FMLA policy to where an employee qualifies under the city's policy for paid leave, you can count that towards the FMLA leave in terms of aggregate number of days it is double time. If an employee is off and it is aqualified event of the city's sick leave policy, that employee will get paid a certain number of days and if that triggers the stop, and the employee is no longer qualified under the city's maternity leave portion of our sick leave policy to be paid, they can still be off the rest of those days that they have under FMLA without pay. City of Paris Council Benefits Subcommittee December 9, 2003 Page 8 Mr. Anderson said that any sick leave has to be medically justified. The doctor has to say what the medical reason is for when a person needs to be off work. Mr. Anderson said that normally on pregnancy six weeks is all they are going to get unless there are complications. Mr. Anderson said if they have the time accumulated, they will be paid. Chairman Guest said then it makes FMLA a moot point, no one is using it. Mr. Anderson said the danger the city runs into with FMLA is if they are out of time and don't overlap it, they can tie up that slot for another 12 weeks or whatever it is so that you can't fill the position. At 11:06 A.M. Chairman Guest called for a short break. The meeting was reconvened at 11:16 A. M. Terry Townsend, Director of Public Works, said they had been talking about several issues and he knew that solid waste collector and the comparison including the Police Chief and some of the ones in this room and position that they may hold, but one of the bigger factors of the whole thing is that he has 86 employees. Mr. Townsend said that 60 of those people are divided as M1 and M2's who make $898.00 biweekly. They have families and they take $110.00 out of that just for their insurance, and when everything is taken from their pay, they probably take home $500.00 or $600.00. Mr. Townsend said that the people in this room have been successful and probably spend more than that in gasoline a month. These people live on that. Mr. Townsend said that the city has some very good benefits, but if we did not have those benefits, the city could not keep those employees. Councilmen Bell said that he was comparing himself to the upper management after he pays for medical insurance, and he does not have a car allowance. Mr. Bell said that he has looked at the City of Paris so many times, Tommy brings things from time to time that compares things from one city to another, and he felt that is the way they are going to have to do this is by comparing these things. When he looked at some of the jobs and the pay scale the benefits compared to what people are doing within the City of Paris. In fact, these are City of Paris Council Benefits Subcommittee December 9, 2003 Page 9 very desirable jobs and because of that he felt that the city is getting a higher quality employee in any of those jobs, because he could not match it. Mr. Anderson advised that the city has not seen any statistics. No one in the private industry will give the city any information. Mr. Anderson said that he had j ust told Councilman McCarthy that he would like to see a copy of Kimberly- Clark's personnel policy book, but they do not want to share it and he could understand that. It is easy to say it is better than this, or it is not as good as this, but we do not have the luxury of seeing any evidence or any way of doing any kind of comparison. City Manager Malone said the city can't even get that information from the Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Anderson advised that he asked for the information from the Chamber for their information and they would not give it to him. Councilman Bell said he found that very interesting. Mr. Anderson said the biggest part of that is funded by tax dollars and he still did not get the requested information. Councilman Bell said that should come under the Freedom of Information Act and the city should be able to get it. City Manager Malone said it is, but they still can't get it. Chairman Guest asked what the city needed. Mr. Anderson said he would like to have an economic survey or something that has been done for Industry A, B, C, D, this is what the pay scale is for certain types of jobs. Mayor Pro Tem McCarthy said he knew for a fact that it is out there. Mr. Anderson asked for directions where he could get it that he would be glad to look at that. Councilman Bell said he assumed that the next time they have a visit by a Corporate Authority from the Chamber of Commerce or PEDC that the City Council ask for that information in a public forum. He asked Mr. Anderson to tell the Council what they need to ask for. Mr. Anderson said he would contact them if the Chamber has the information, but he has sent letters as far as asking the Chamber for their information and they did not respond at all. He asked personally at a meeting where he happened to be at the same location and he was told that they are a private concern and they were not going to give it to the city. Chairman Guest said that, basically, what Mr. Anderson needed is a wage and City of Paris Council Benefits Subcommittee December 9, 2003 Page 10 benefit survey, information that is available from the Lamar County Chamber. Mr. Anderson said that he needed information from the Chamber of Commerce themselves. Chairman Guest said it may be better to send a letter of request to the Executive Board of the Chamber of Commerce and if they refuse, he felt that would be a little bit difficult to explain. Chairman Guest called for discussion and possible recommendations concerning the Employee Retirement Plan. Chairman Guest said there are two different retirement plans for city employees. City Attorney Schenk explained that generally what happened at one of the special or regular sessions, there is legislation adopted that called for a constitutional amendment. He said the substance of that constitutional amendment was to address non-statewide retirement programs. The purpose of that amendment was, in part, to require political subdivisions whose employees receive retirement under non-statewide retirement system to the effect lock in or preserve the benefits that those employees are receiving subject to a single opportunity for the political subdivsion to place compliance with that constitutional amendment on the ballot in May. That law is in effect because that constitutional amendment did pass. It was a single opportunity for political subdivisions affected by this, to place the manner of compliance with that requirement all on the ballet in May for the electors to say no they are going to preserve the local option and local control. City Attorney advised they believe that the City of Paris has a retirement system that is covered by this amendment. The second statement was that TMRS is not covered. That leaves only the possible retirement for the City of Paris which they believe is covered by the amendment and that is the Firemen's Retirement Plan. Councilman Bell stated that there are two departments in the City of Paris that are Civil Service. The City of Paris has the Fire Department and the Police Department. Councilman Bell said the Fire Department is under a retirement plan and the Police Department is civil service under TMRS. City Attorney Schenk indicated that was correct. Councilman Bell said the Firemen's Retirement Fund is not considered a statewide fund and, therefore, would be City of Paris Council Benefits Subcommittee December 9, 2003 Page 11 considered under this constitutional amendment. City Attorney Schenk said that TML agreed that TMRS is a statewide system; and, it has been determined that the Firemen's Retirement Fund is not considered a statewide fund and would come under this law. Councilman Bell discussed the options. The city could do nothing or have an election and the citizens could vote to maintain local control. The city can vote to increase or decrease retirement benefits to the Firemen's Retirement Fund. He asked if the city forfeits by not placing it on the ballot, or if it fails, either way, does the city lose total control. City Attorney Schenk said the difference would be is that the city, by not doing anything, would not in any way diminish or decrease the benefits that are received under that retirement. Councilman Bell said the city would still be in full authority to increase benefits. City Attorney Schenk stated that if the City Council does not pass a resolution calling for an issue to be placed on the ballot in May, then the city would not have the option to decrease any benefits. Councilman Bell asked by placing this on the ballot, how will they get it to pass, because the tendency of many voters is to vote no. Councilman Bell said that how you put it on the ballot is very important. Mr. Anderson said you educate people that it is a local control issue instead of a state issue. City Attorney Schenk said how it is worded on the ballot has to be totally neutral. There can not be any sort of comment as to the effect of voting for or against the proposition. The City of Paris cannot expend funds as an organization to favor or to oppose the position. The city can educate with regard to the impact of a particular proposition on a ballot, but it cannot urge the people to vote one way or another. Individual council members can because that is their right to speak to the issue. The city cannot run an advertisement that says vote "no" on this proposition. City Attorney Schenk said he was still going to pull every string and resource that he knows of to get a further reading on the impact of this. He said he had a call into TML right now to find out if they know what the legislative background on this was and if it is consistent with the intent. The City Attorney said that a fair reading, and based on the information that TML has sent the city, is we do have a retirement program that is potentially impacted by this. City of Paris Council Benefits Subcommittee December 9, 2003 Page 12 Councilman Bell said there is a plan for the TML. The city allows the employee to contribute 6% and the city contributes 11.1 which is referred to as a 2 to 1 contribution. He said the difference is because the plan is actually earning more because of other employees that withdraw before the benefits are paid. That is why the difference is not 12%. Councilman Bell wanted to know what constitutes the limit of the 6% that the employee contributes. Chairman Guest advised that it was salary. Councilman Bell wanted someone to define salary for him. Chairman Guest said it was base pay. Councilman Bell asked base pay, or total pay, does that include if he is paid for vacation and sick leave. Mr. Anderson said it could be certificate pay if he is a police officer, overtime, vacation time, car allowance and sick leave. Mr. Anderson said anything that shows up on their W2 form unless it is a car allowance. Councilman Bell asked if that was a requirement by law or by city policy. Mr. Anderson said that is a requirement by law. Mr. Anderson said that the TMRS law says it is a percentage of an employee's gross salary. Councilman Bell said that he would like to analyze how the city does that based on what has been furnished them. It is one of those plans they either chose 5%, 6%, or 7%. He said he got the opinion that it Council's idea that they were not going to 7% anytime, but he did not know that. That would be the City Council's decision. Councilman Bell advised that the only other thing about this plan would be to discuss whether or not to stay in TMRS. Councilman Bell asked if the city has ever looked at an alternate plan, what were those plans, and when did we consider them, and should they consider them now. If not, this is a moot point. Mr. Anderson said he was not sure that the city could withdraw from TMRS. Kent Klinkerman advised that during the down turn it was one of only two retirement systems in the county that did not have a negative return. Chairman Guest advised that they were not concerned with their performance. They are concerned with the city's contribution. Mr. Klinkerman said the employees are concerned with their performance. Councilman Bell said he assumed that TMRS dictates how the compensation is figured, how it is paid and this is not a Council option. The Council either City of Paris Council Benefits Subcommittee December 9, 2003 Page 13 chooses this plan and lives with the TMRS rules puts out, or the city gets out of TMRS and goes to something alternate. He wanted to know if the city has ever considered it. City Manager Malone advised that most of the cities in this area are with TMRS. Chairman Guest said the confines of it might be questioned, and what he meant about that is there is no option to cap this "in" the private sector that they keep referring to there is usually always a dollar cap. Mr. Anderson said there is not an option to cap. Chairman Guest said he did not understand that because all plans have to be qualified and how does a plan keep from being top heavy without these caps. Councilman Bell said every employee participates in the program and has 6% deducted from their salary and the city is going to put aside 11.1 Mr. Anderson said he was assuming because it is a state-wide plan they had to limit the number of things that can be done in order to prevent a bureaucratic nightmare for the manager. Councilman Bell said if he can manage the current holiday, vacation, sick leave schedule, them he should be able to manage something here. If he had ever looked at this plan, and he ever had a problem, look at this, and this may be the best, but what he sees is the words that Chairman Guest used "top heavy." The guide that may need more contributions from the city would be the lower ones on the scale. Put more in the plan for that employee and place a cap on the maximum contribution, but that is not an option. A motion was made by Councilman Bell, seconded Mayor Pro Tem McCarthy, for adjournment. The motion carried 3 ayes, 0 nays. JAY GUEST, CHAIRMAN City of Paris Council Benefits Subcommittee December 9, 2003 Page 14 ATTEST: MATTIE CUNNINGHAM, CITY CLERK