Council opens broad discussion on leave rollover, payouts and grant‑records retention

JERSEY VILLAGE — A prolonged council discussion Wednesday focused on employee leave policies and city practices for maintaining grant application and administration records.

Council members raised concerns after the city made a large budget amendment earlier in the year to cover payouts tied to two long‑tenured retirements. Council member (who introduced the item) asked whether existing rollover and payout caps create fiscal risk and whether policy changes should apply to current employees or only to new hires.

HR director Laura (presenting staff analysis) explained that police and fire schedules differ from other employees — police work 12‑hour shifts; firefighters operate on a 24‑hour schedule — and that the city conducted a PTO survey of comparable jurisdictions to inform its policy. "Police and fire are different. Their schedules are different," Laura said, describing why leave accruals and rollover amounts differ by classification.

Councilors discussed several policy options: adopt payout caps expressed as a dollar limit; limit accrued hours by employee category; create an employee leave‑pool for critical illness donated by peers; or limit changes to employees hired after any new policy’s effective date. Many members favored a full work session to gather data — including payout history, comparative benchmarks and operational impacts — before making any immediate change.

Separately, a council member raised concerns that the city lacked a centralized log of grant applications and draft work product. Legal counsel and staff reviewed the city’s records‑retention obligations under TSLAC and the Public Information Act. Counsel recommended staff update the records‑management policy to better capture grant applications and administrative materials and to address third‑party portal hosting and redaction protocols. Staff said the city has passed federal audits for granted projects and will present a proposed records policy amendment for council review.

What’s next: Council asked staff to prepare a work session on compensation and leave policies with relevant data and to draft updates to the records‑retention policy to cover grant applications and draft materials. No immediate policy changes were adopted.

Context: Staff estimated the high pension/leave payout earlier this year was a relatively rare occurrence tied to two long‑tenured employees; council emphasized balancing fiscal stewardship with maintaining a positive workplace culture.