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Michigan City parks board adopts citywide handbook changes, approves holiday and sick‑leave updates
Summary
The Michigan City Parks and Recreation Board approved multiple personnel-policy changes on Jan. 7 that align park staff benefits with a new citywide employee handbook, including three personal days, altered holiday scheduling and a revised sick‑leave sell‑back process.
Melissa Henderson, the city’s director of human resources, told the Michigan City Parks and Recreation Board on Jan. 7 that the city is preparing one employee handbook to make benefits uniform across departments and to address morale concerns stemming from different policies for parks staff.
Henderson said the handbook committee added birth and placement leave, created three separate personal days and adjusted sick‑leave administration so employees still receive 12 sick days but with clarified rules for use. On health insurance, she said medical, dental and vision eligibility will move from 90 days to 30 days of employment and life insurance will begin on day one.
Henderson said the changes also reduce overtime and holiday-pay liabilities for the city by replacing some fixed holidays with floating personal days. "So we're all doing the same thing. We're 1 city, 1 family, so we all need to be governed by the same policies," she said.
Board members pressed staff on details. Roscoe Hoffman, participating remotely, asked whether election days would be treated as holidays. Henderson replied, "We will be closed for all elections," and added that employees also have the option to come in late or leave early on election days.
A major point of clarification concerned the sick-bank cap and sell‑back rules. Henderson explained the city caps the sick bank at 40 days; once an employee reaches that cap they may request to sell back up to 12 sick days annually. "When you get up to your bank, you just sell them back," a board member said, describing the practice as a cash‑out rather than a forfeiture.
Henderson acknowledged the handbook contained contradictory language about holiday observance when a holiday falls on a weekend and said the committee corrected that inconsistency in the packet. She noted that Christmas and Christmas Eve remain holidays.
After public comment praising the clarity of the presentation, the board voted to approve the packet of personnel-policy changes in a series of motions. The board approved Policy 305 (holidays) with editorial edits to remove a redundant asterisk and to mark employee‑birthday scheduling, approved Policy 307 (sick leave) to change reporting increments to half‑hour to match city practice, approved Policy 312 (personal days) and later approved Policy 318 (health and welfare benefits) to shorten the insurance waiting period.
What happens next: staff said the handbook committee hopes to finish the full citywide handbook within about two months before presenting it for final approval.
