IN YOUR CORNER

Although taxpayers have generally been well served by the changed

philosophy of the new commissioners, some actions still warrant taxpayer

concern.

The Public Employees United (PEU) labor agreement, which was passed

prior to the last election, states in Article 22 that "a county team

will be established comprised of an equal number of representatives from

both the county and the union for the purpose of exploring the potential

and need for a paid time off program to replace the existing sick and

vacation leave programs. If the team determines that a paid time off

program is feasible, a consensus recommendation will be made to consider

for Board adoption on or before the expiration of this agreement." The

term feasible opened up a subjective can of worms.

A paid time off (PTO) program, by definition, is one that does not

segregate time off based upon the character of use. Currently, the three

classifications of time off are sick leave, vacation time, and personal

leave. These would be aggregated into one "account" allowing maximum

flexibility for employees to use and manage their leave, subject to

supervisory approval.

The county team did some research and discovered that the Clerk of

Circuit Court and the Martin Memorial Hospital have PTO programs,

although with different parameters regarding the accrual of time off and

the mandatory leave requirements. The Martin County team then selected

the most desirable aspects of their existing program and combined them

with the best features offered by the Clerk's Office and Martin

Memorial. This was finalized by consensus, and a report was presented to

the County Management.

The County Administrator and his two assistants then reviewed these

findings, and developed an alternative program proposal that encompassed

PTO concepts, but reflected more fiscal restraint. At the July 17th

meeting of the County Commission, the Administration proposals were

included in the agenda packet; unfortunately, they were totally ignored

and never even discussed by Commissioners. Instead, the Commissioners

voted approval of the County teams recommendations even though they were

warned of a potential annual liability estimated to be about $252,000.

Our representatives were dismayed with the entire process from concept

to implementation.

We would hardly call gathering information from Martin Memorial and the

Clerk's Office a proper area survey from which to base a recommendation

upon. Surely total compensation packages of competing

businesses/governments should be examined. Benefit packages must be

viewed as a whole; to compare isolated individual benefits was a

mistake. Furthermore, a survey does not consist of finding another

entity that does what you want to do.

Why would the Commission not fully explore the County Administrator's

alternative proposal before voting to "do the right thing for our

people"? That alternative (Option B) would have only cost us an

estimated fiscal liability of $105,000. Lets face it, savings is

savings.

It is also curious to us that this particular item was segregated from

the rest of the employee benefits package and negotiated on its own.

For the information of our readers, the county has approved a plan that

would grant their employees 8 hours of vacation time per one month's

service through 5 years, 10 hours/month's service for 6-10 years, and 4

weeks of vacation after 15 years of service.

An employee's sick time would be accrued at a rate of 8 hours per month.

An employee's personal leave amounts to 16 hours per year for all

seniorities, but allows (under special circumstances) employees to

convert unused sick time into additional personal leave up to an

additional 24 hours.

If you find this to be generous, there's more. The PTO program

consolidates these hours into a single "bank account" for each employee

where hours will accrue to a maximum of 600 hours. Once that cap is

reached, employees will receive pay for additional hours accrued (not

used) up to 160 hours. That ends up being one extra month's pay per

year.

In addition, under this new plan, it is estimated that, in the second

year, 70% of county employees will have the maximum 600 hours in their

"banks" representing a fiscal liability of $252,288 per year to be paid

if, as, and when employees terminate their employment. This number will

only snowball in future budgets. How many businesses in Martin County

could survive if required to duplicate the compensation package of our

county?

While a PTO program may be appropriate in certain circumstances, the

county's has not been developed objectively. Clearly the need for this

complex program was not proven; results were a team "wish list" approved

and implemented, ignoring the recommendations by the county's fiscal

management and it's long term costs to taxpayers.