Abby gives employee handbook final OK
It took 40 minutes and multiple motions to get it done, but Abbotsford’s city council on Monday was finally able to work out the kinks in the city’s newly revised employee handbook.
Back in October, the council approved several major revisions to the handbook, based on the recommendations of a special committee that met multiple times during the summer of 2019. However, over the past four months, several issues kept popping back up, and the council had to revisit the topic several times before they could be put to rest.
One of the most-discussed questions was whether salaried managers can earn “comp time,” which is time off for working over 40 hours in one week. Since managers are exempt from overtime requirements, they do not qualify for time- and-a-half pay or comp time under the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Still, council members recognized that DPW Craig Stuttgen and other managers often work well over 40 hours one week and should be able to take time off the following week if their workload is less.
Ultimately, the council voted to allow Stuttgen, city administrator Dan Grady and utility operator Josh Soyk to manage their own hours based on the amount of work that needs to get done.
“So, that means the person might work 30 hours, but the next week, it might be 50 or 60,” Grady said. “As long as the work is completed, it doesn’t really matter. ” In a related issue, the council voted to allow non-salaried employees to roll over up to 16 hours of comp time from one year to the next, plus any comp time that is earned in the months of November and December. Otherwise, employees must use their comp time within the same year they earned it.
Other issues revolved around the transition from the old handbook policies to the new.
The revised handbook reduced the maximum amount of unused sick time employees can accumulate, from 480 to 240 hours, which will lower the city’s financial liability in the future when employees retire. A couple of longtime employees had already accumulated as much as 480 hours under the old policy, so the council wanted to make sure they could keep those hours and re-accrue them in the future.
Newer employees — including the entire city hall office staff — had not accumulated more than 240 hours of unused sick time when the handbook was revised, so they will be limited to 240 hours, as will all future employees.
The council passed a motion to grandfather in employees who had accumulated more than 240 hours as of Jan. 1, 2020, so even if they use some of those hours, they can re-accrue them at rate of 3.7 hours per two-week pay period. Council members and city employees in attendance also went back and forth about the new definition of “paid-time off” (PTO), which will encompasses everything from vacation to sick time.
To avoid confusion, the council passed a motion to include all time-off benefits as PTO, with a maximum cap of 304 hours — the combined total of vacation, sick time and holiday pay an employee can earn.
Also, in response to a request by employees, the council adopted a motion allowing holiday hours to be used in determining overtime pay. So, if an employee works more than 32 hours on a week with an eight-hour holiday, he or she will get paid time and a half if called in by their manager. Ald. Frankie Soto voted against this motion.
The council will also have to vote on a resolution at its next meeting, allowing employees up to three years to use their benefits accumulated under the old version of the handbook. This would be done so employees aren’t compelled to use up all their benefits in 2020, which could leave the city with inadequate staffing at the end of the year.
_ The council approved a temporary beer license for the Abby Festival, May 29-30, in downtown Abbotsford.
_ The council approved a motion to name the new road off STH 13 leading into the city’s future industrial park as “Opportunity Drive.” Alds. Soto and Mason Rachu voted against the motion, with Soto objecting to breaking with the tradition of naming all east-wood roads after trees.
_ The council voted to release David Williamson, owner of A-Team Machine, from having the city listed as a beneficiary on his life insurance policy. The requirement was part of a 2012 deal in which the city spent $75,000 in order to help procure a building in the industrial park for his business.
_ The council accepted an $11,900 offer from Whirlwind Sweeping of Marshfi eld to do three leaf pickups throughout the year and one street sweeping in the spring. Normally, the city’s public works crew handles leaf pickups, but DPW Craig Stuttgen said the city should be able to save thousands of dollars in fuel and free up hundreds of man hours by having Whirlwind do it.
If the council had chosen to hire Whirlwind just to do two street sweepings, the cost would have been $8,350, which was lower than a competing offer from Precision Sealcoating of Princeton.
_ The council voted to hire D& D Sealcoating of Wausau to do crack sealing on city streets. The company submitted the lowest of three quotes, at $1.15 per pound of sealant.
_ The council authorized the public works crew to pulverize Hemlock Street, from Fifth Avenue to Hiline in front of Abbotsford schools. Stuttgen said his goal is to grind up what’s left of the roadway into gravel this year in preparation for re-paving it in 2021.
_ The council approved alcohol operator’s licenses for Sheila Briski and Josh Umbs, both at Abbotsford Travel Stop.
_ The council approved a $750 contract with MSA Professional Services for preparing a “phosphorus optimization report” for the Wisconsin DNR by a March 31, 2020. The report is a yearly requirement to ensure the city is working toward reducing phosphorus in its wastewater effluent.
_ Engineer Dan Borchart of MSA said his company has submitted 90 percent complete plans for this year’s Safe Routes to School street project to the Wisconsin DOT. Grady said he spoke to someone at the DOT recently who said the city should qualify for 50 percent funding for the work planned on West Spruce Street, but there’s no guarantee at this point.
