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Decatur council presses staff for cost data as it debates holiday pay options for employees
Summary
Council spent the longest portion of the meeting debating two draft approaches to holiday and PTO policy: version A (holiday pay paid in-cycle, no banking) and version B (employee election/grandfathering). Chiefs said shift-work staffing, scheduling and incentives for working holidays require careful cost analysis; council asked staff to return with overtime and cost estimates.
The City of Decatur council devoted an extended discussion to proposed changes to the personnel policy (Chapter 4), focusing on holiday pay and paid-time-off (PTO) accruals as the city moves to 26 pay periods.
Staff presented two options: version A would pay holidays as they occur (pay-as-you-go), preventing employees from banking holiday hours; version B would let employees elect to keep the current banking model or move to the pay-as-you-go model (with new hires defaulting to pay-as-you-go). Staff emphasized the changes are intended to stabilize PTO accruals and simplify budget administration.
Police, fire and public works leaders described operational challenges: rotating shift schedules mean roughly half of shift personnel will work certain holidays in a multi-year cycle, and chiefs said employees who do work holidays need an incentive to avoid staffing shortages and overtime. The police chief described conversations with officers who said they prefer an option that does not reduce their current benefits; a department head reported that among 16 operations employees, 10 preferred to keep time off while 6 preferred cash.
Councilors floated possible incentives: a uniform eight-hour holiday supplement when an employee actually works a holiday, time-and-a-half overtime in some scenarios, or a mandated scheduling rule to reduce year-end PTO piling. Council repeatedly requested more data: (1) historical overtime costs tied to holiday scheduling, (2) a modeled cost comparison of paying overtime vs. providing an 8-hour holiday-work incentive, and (3) clearer presentation of accrual math (26 pay periods versus 24). Staff agreed to return with more detailed figures and recommended returning the full Chapter 4 packet for clearer review, with a target of the second December meeting for follow-up.
No formal policy decision was made at the meeting; council directed staff to gather the requested data before adopting changes.
