County employee pay issues studied

Jefferson County supervisor chairman Stephen Burgmeier brought out two issues in the county employee?s handbook Monday.

?It says employees can carry-over up to 120 hours of compensatory time. That?s a lot of time; that?s three weeks,? he said. ?I think it should be less.?

He also wanted clarification about time-sheet policies.

A number of employees and department heads attended Monday?s supervisor?s meeting for input on other issues.

An employee from the auditor?s office asked the supervisors not to cut the amount of compensation hours allowed. The elections employee works many hours of overtime during elections, especially presidential elections.

Supervisor Lee Dimmitt, reading the handbook page in question, said the language specifies that non-exempt employees will be paid time-and-a-half for overtime hours.

?According to the handbook, employees are in control of this process,? he said. ?Overtime pay is the standard, and comp time can be granted with the approval of the supervisor in lieu of overtime pay.?

Some of the department managers present said needing to pay overtime could skew a department?s budget.

?But the compensation time off is figured at time-and-a-half, is it not?? Dimmitt asked.

Compensation time is figured at time-and-a-half, but no extra money is spent, pointed out another manager.

?We always assume employees want more money,? said county engineer Tom Goff. ?But actually, given a choice, most employees want the time off.?

Supervisor Dick Reed said most county employees like their jobs and want to keep them and are willing to take compensation time off instead of overtime pay.

Burgmeier reiterated his original point that carrying 120 hours forward was a large amount.

He also said practice among county employees did not follow policy regarding time sheets.

?The handbook says employees must submit time sheets,? said Burgmeier. ?The easiest way is to have employees write down their hours. But that?s not what?s happening. Do we want to change it??

One employee said it?s easier to write down the times an employee is gone.

After some discussion, Burgmeier handed a copy of the page in the handbook dealing with time sheets to Jefferson County assistant attorney Pat McAvan at the meeting.

?Can you write this up and make it cleaner?? asked Burgmeier.

McAvan handed it back, re-worded as ?Employees will fill out time sheets provided by the employer and submit them to their manager for review and approval.?