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Ordinance committee hears proposal to shorten waiting period for vacation and add personal days; item continued
Summary
A proposed ordinance would reduce the waiting period for earning initial vacation from one year to 90 days, add four personal days for ordinance employees (use-or-lose July 1–June 30), and allow mayoral discretion to credit prior municipal service; committee asked for related contract comparisons and continued the item.
City staff presented an ordinance amendment that would change vacation and personal-day rules for ordinance employees to improve recruitment and retention.
Andrew Barbetto, a financial analyst filling in for Chief Financial Officer Dr. Troy Clarkson, said the proposal has three parts: reduce the waiting period for new employees to earn two weeks' vacation from one year to 90 days; add four personal days for ordinance employees that would not carry over beyond a 12-month period; and authorize the mayor to grant additional vacation time to new hires based on prior municipal or relevant experience. "This order really has 3 parts," Barbetto told the committee.
Barbetto recommended awarding the personal days on a July 1–June 30 cycle to mirror union practice and ease payroll administration. He said the personal days would not accrue if unused after 12 months and that the proposal, as drafted, has no identifiable fiscal impact because personal days would not be paid out as accrued leave.
Committee members asked whether the proposal matched benefits for department heads and existing unions. Councilor Griffin asked for confirmation that personal days are awarded July 1 and do not carry over; Barbetto confirmed. Councilor Agarwal asked that the ordinance be coordinated with the department-head contract to maintain equity. Several committee members requested the department-head contract and suggested legislative council draft specific amendments that would align benefits across groups.
The committee voted to continue the item to a future ordinance committee meeting so staff could provide the department-head contract language and a revised ordinance draft for review.
