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Lake Elmo council approves payroll change to protect firefighters' scheduled pay
Summary
The council voted to change payroll policy effective Aug. 1, 2026, to count ESST, vacation and floating holiday hours as hours worked when calculating overtime for full-time firefighters, a move staff said will prevent shift trading and reduce end-of-year payout liabilities.
City staff proposed updating the payroll and compensation policy to count ESST, vacation and floating holiday hours as hours worked when calculating overtime for full-time firefighters on the department's 21-day shift schedule. Staff said the change preserves firefighters' normally scheduled pay, reduces incentives to trade shifts, and aligns the city with practices used by comparable municipalities. "We would like to change the policy allowing ESST, vacation and holiday hours to be considered as hours worked when calculating overtime hours for firefighters," staff said during the presentation.
Some council members expressed concern about paying benefit-equivalent overtime for hours not actually worked and suggested pairing the change with limits on carryover or payout amounts to encourage use of time off. Staff said the budget for base pay was already accounted for and that the change could reduce year-end cash-outs. Councilmember motions carried and the policy change was approved by the council (motion passed by voice; clerk recorded the motion as passing 3-0).
