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Council approves employee handbook changes chiefly affecting holiday pay and fire payroll schedule
Summary
Council reviewed proposed changes to the employee handbook that would eliminate ‘holiday comp,’ pay eight hours of holiday pay to all employees and align the fire department payroll with the city’s biweekly schedule; staff said adoption is time-sensitive to align pay cycles next month.
City staff presented proposed amendments to the employee handbook that include removing a “holiday comp” practice, paying eight hours of holiday pay to all employees, and aligning the fire department’s payroll schedule to the city’s biweekly pay cycle.
Samantha, a city staff member who presented the changes, summarized the key points: “We’re gonna get rid of holiday comp… and we wanna pay out 8 hours of holiday pay to all employees. 8 hours holiday pay plus all hours worked at straight time,” she said, adding the change is intended to simplify budgeting and reduce overtime hiring needs in police and fire.
Samantha also said current regional practice for public safety holiday pay can be double time and the city may return to council in the future to consider that. She described another proposed change to move the fire department from a 27-day payroll cycle (where overtime kicks in after 204 hours under the FLSA) to a biweekly schedule to align pay with other city employees.
Staff stated that Feb. 17 is the date when the 27‑day and two‑week cycles align; if council did not approve the change now, the parties would wait approximately one year for the schedules to realign. The presenter said the city has to adopt the change at this meeting to capture the alignment.
Council included the handbook item among a set of resolutions presented for approval later in the meeting; the group vote approved the docket of resolutions that included the handbook amendments.
