Agenda

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12.

City Council Regular Meeting

Meeting Date:

12/03/2019

BACKGROUND

The City’s current vacation leave policy was approved in 2008. Many tenets outlined in the policy are outdated and inconsistent with current practice. In particular, the vacation accrual rates for Fire must be updated to be in compliance with Local Government Code Chapter 142, Section 0013, which requires Police and Fire department members to receive 15 vacation days each year beginning after one year of employment. Currently, the City is only providing 9.6 days, or 144 hours, of vacation to Fire department members with 2+ years tenure. To be compliant, the number of hours needs to be increased to 180. Vacation accruals for the Police Department are currently in compliance with the LGC.

Additionally, 142.0013(c) of the Local Government Code, which requires that a firefighter receive the same number of days of vacation as any other municipal employee. The City is currently only providing firefighters with 11+ years tenure with 16 days, or 192 hours, of vacation leave while other municipal employees with 11+ years are receiving 20 days. To be compliant, the number of hours needs to be increased to 240 hours.

The City made an adjustment to leave accruals for Fire and Police Department members in October of 2016 with the understanding the adjustment would be compliant with the statute. Unfortunately, the adjustment made was not fully in compliance with the statute.

The attached draft policy seeks to remove outdated or irrelevant information or procedures and revise accrual rates in accordance with Chapter 142.0013 as outlined above. It would be effective immediately (with Council approval).

A redlined and clean version of the policy are attached, but the main policy points are highlighted below for quick reference:

Leave Accrual Start Date:
Current: Vacation accrual for regular eligible employees begins on their date of employment in a full-time position (i.e., at the end of an employee’s probationary period, the employee will have accrued vacation leave back to the date of original employment, the beginning of the employee’s probationary period).

This language may be read that a part-time employee who converts to full-time would begin accruing vacation leave on the date that they were originally hired, as a part-time employee. However, part-time employees are not eligible to receive or accrue vacation leave.

Proposed: Vacation accrual for eligible employees begins on their date of employment in a full-time position.

Leave Requests:
Current: Requires approval by City Manager, and specifies an exact number of days in advance the request must be submitted.

Proposed: Leave requests will be approved by Department Heads (or designees). Timeframes for leave requests have been removed to afford flexibility to both employees and supervisors.

Accrual Rates:
Current:

	# Hours Per Year	Maximum Hours Allowed To Accrue
Fire:
During 1st year of service	120	-
2 – 10 years of service	144	288
11+ years of service	192	384

Police:
During 1st year of service	96	-
2 – 10 years of service	120	240
11+ years of service	160	320

EMS:
0 – 5 years of service	120	-
6 – 10 years of service	144	288
11+ years of service	192	384

All other Full-Time Employees:
0 – 5 years of service	96	-
6 – 10 years of service	120	240
11+ years of service	160	320

Proposed:

Year of service is equal to total number of years with the City of Schertz.	# Hours Per Year	Maximum Hours Allowed To Accrue
Fire Protection Personnel assigned to Operations and EMS Personnel assigned to 24-hour shifts¹:
During 1st year of service	144	-
2 – 10 years of service	180	360
11+ years of service	240	480

Licensed Peace Officers(Sworn Officers)/Fire Protection Personnel assigned to Admin²/EMS Admin³/EMS Personnel assigned to 12-hour shifts⁴:
During 1st year of service	96	-
2 – 10 years of service	120	240
11+ years of service	160	320

All other Full-Time Employees:
0 – 5 years of service	96	-
6 – 10 years of service	120	240
11+ years of service	160	320

¹A day for a 24-hour shift employee is defined as 12 hours.
²Definitions for "Fire Protection Personnel" and “Licensed Peace Officer” can be found in Section 142.010 in the Local Texas Government Code.
³EMS Admin does not include the Administrative Assistant and the Billing Office.
⁴A day for a 12-hour shift employee is defined as 8 hours.

GOAL

Update policy to reflect current practices and comply with Local Govt Code Chapter 142.0013.

COMMUNITY BENEFIT

Update policy to reflect current practices and comply with Local Govt Code Chapter 142.0013.

SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDED ACTION

Staff recommends approval of the vacation policy as proposed.

Additionally, since the City became aware of the statuary requirements for vacation accruals for Fire personnel in 2016, City staff, in conjunction with legal, recommend crediting leave hours owed dating back to October 2016, as well as, adopting the leave accrual rates as proposed in the revised policy.

Staff also recommends adopting the same accrual rates for EMS as for Fire.

The updated leave accruals have been approved by legal.

FISCAL IMPACT

The adjustment to retroactively (since 2016) credit leave to Fire employees would be a total of 4,576.73 hours, with an estimated value of $125,631 (cost only realized if employees separate from City). Staff recommends removing the annual cap for affected firefighters for 5 years to allow them the opportunity to utilize these hours. If all of these hours are able to be used during that time, actual cost realized could be $0 if no positions would be backfilled when the leave is used.

The financial impact of adopting the same accrual rate for the EMS Department as Fire would be an increase of $51,000 in vacation leave annually (again, only realized if employee separates from City).

The impact of revising the # of hours that a Firefighter with 11+ years tenure receives is an additional 1,560 hours each year (again, cost only realized if employees separate from City).

RECOMMENDATION

Staff recommends approval of the vacation policy as proposed.

Additionally, since the City became aware of the statuary requirements for vacation accruals for Fire personnel in 2016, City staff, in conjunction with legal, recommend crediting leave hours owed dating back to October 2016, as well as, adopting the leave accrual rates as proposed in the revised policy.

Staff recommends adopting the same accrual rates for EMS as for Fire.

The updated leave accruals have been approved by legal.

Attachments
Resolution 19-R-166
Current Vacation Policy