Council backs half‑day New Year’s Eve holiday, moves to reconcile vacation accrual policy

Montgomery councilmembers reviewed proposed amendments to the city’s Policies and Procedures Manual on holidays and vacation leave and gave staff direction on how to reconcile the written policy with current payroll practice.

On holidays, council favored adding a half‑day for New Year’s Eve. Councilmembers said the office is rarely used that afternoon and that a half‑day would be convenient to employees; staff said the change would increase paid holidays to 12.5 days. The council agreed to bring the revision back for formal action at the July 22 meeting.

On vacation accrual, staff explained the discrepancy: the policy language currently reads as if employees earn 8 hours of vacation per month, but the payroll system actually accrues vacation per pay period (3.7 hours per pay period, 26 pay periods per year), which results in the same annual total but creates mid‑month differences for employees who leave mid‑period. Council members raised concerns about mid‑month hires and separations and asked whether changing practices or policy would be simpler.

The council’s direction was to modify the written policy to mirror payroll practice (accrual per pay period) so that the policy and the payroll system align. Councilmembers also discussed accrual caps: staff recommended removing an active accrual cap (so employees would not stop accruing once they hit a ceiling) while retaining the separation payout cap at 192 hours (the policy‑book maximum payout upon separation). The council emphasized that requests for time off must still be approved by supervisors and that the city wants employees to take vacation rather than accumulate excessive balances.

No final ordinance or policy adoption took place at the workshop. Staff will prepare a redline of the policy amendments—holidays and vacation accrual language plus the treatment of carryover and separation payout—for the July 22 council meeting that will be the formal action item.