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Commissioners adopt updated emergency closing policy outlining pay rules for essential staff during weather and facility closures
Summary
Scott County commissioners amended the personnel handbook to adopt an updated emergency closing policy clarifying notifications, pay rules for full‑time employees when the county closes for emergencies, and special pay and compensatory rules for highway, EMS, dispatch and sheriff operations.
The board adopted an amendment to the county personnel policies handbook to revise the emergency closing policy for county facilities. Commissioners said the updated policy reflects input from department heads and aimed to create a uniform process across departments when weather, power failures or other emergencies require closing county facilities.
Key elements of the adopted policy include: when an emergency closing is declared before the workday begins by the board of commissioners, full‑time employees affected by the facility closing will be paid for the scheduled work time. Employees who report to work and are later sent home because the county closes will be paid for a full workday and will not have to use paid time off or compensatory time for that period.
Employees who are on approved paid time off at the time of an emergency closing will be charged their scheduled paid time off. Employees who are not scheduled to work that day will not receive compensation for the closure.
Employees in essential operations — specifically highway, EMS, dispatch and the sheriff’s department — may be required to work during official closures. Pay rules for those classifications were clarified: highway and sheriff employees who work during the closure will receive regular pay for hours worked and an additional paid day off at a later date; EMS employees required to work will be compensated at their normal rate for hours worked and will receive additional flat‑rate hours for the closure day (without overtime accumulation for those flat hours); dispatch employees required to work on an officially declared emergency closing will be compensated at 1.5 times their normal rate for all hours worked on that day regardless of hours worked in the pay period.
The policy also clarified notification methods (county website, department group texts and local radio) for communicating a closure to employees. Commissioners voted to pass the ordinance amending the personnel policy; the motion carried on first and second reading during the meeting.
