Members of the Athens City Council, administration and residents weighed in on the proposal aiming to solve the excess of vacation time accrued by some non-union city employees.
Councilman Jeff Risner, D-2nd Ward, said he understood that the proposal put forward to handle the uncapped vacation accrual of non-union employees will not please everyone and that was not his intention.
"With all the great minds in this room, we're still not going to please everyone," Risner said.
One of the people who was not necessarily pleased was Athens Mayor Paul Wiehl.
"If I don't like it, I'll veto it," Wiehl said.
Athens City Council members heard many opinions on how to resolve the financial liability aspects of the high amounts of vacation time that only a few city employees have accrued while keeping in mind the employees that will be affected by its decision.
"It's a balancing act, trying to make things fair," Risner said.
Risner, with the backing of the finance and personnel committee, put forth a plan that allows employees who have accumulated more than the three years' worth of allowed vacation time to take five years to use it.
However, the proposal does have one stipulation: One-fifth of the excess beyond the three years' worth limit must be used every year.
{{tncms-asset app="editorial" id="1970dcf6-7b59-11e5-8e9c-7fe4caab58ac"}}
Athens City Auditor Kathy Hecht, along with Deputy Auditor Laura Kreider, presented on their department's findings and recommendations for the proposal.
Kreider said out of the original 34 people who had accrued beyond the three years' worth of vacation time at the time when the initial memo was sent out in August, 11 people dropped off of the list in the past two months.
With two additional people joining the list in the same time period, the number of city employees remaining with vacation time past three years' worth stands at 25, Kreider said.
Only 16 of these 25 city employees are non-union, Kreider said, categorizing the rest as unionized employees of either the police or fire departments.
Further narrowing the scope, Kreider said four of the remaining non-union employees have, "large amounts of overage."
One of these employees, Kreider said, has been taking plenty of vacation time since the memo was sent dropping from 120 days to only 97 – resulting in 23 vacation days in the past two months.
"We feel that to give five years to take less than six days seems overreaching," Kreider said.
Of the 16 employees that are being discussed, nine of them have less than six days of vacation time accrued past the amount allotted, Kreider said.
"It’s just a handful of people and I think it’s a mistake to drag it out for five years," Hecht said.
Hecht and Kreider called for a sliding scale for these employees, but Robert Shostack, a practicing attorney in the Athens area, said five years was reasonable.
"We're dealing with this as if this is some sort of money issue, it's not," Shostack said.
He cautioned city council to keep the employees of Athens in mind and reminded council he would happily sue the city.
"You have deep pockets," Shostack said. "We (lawyers) like that."
Bill Todd, one of the city's two lab technicians, spoke to council as well labeling himself as "one of the people you all are talking about."
"My goal in life is to serve the citizens of Athens and I take that very seriously," Todd said.
And though he would accept whatever decision council comes to, Todd said, he does not want to lose the vacation time he worked hard to earn.
Hecht acknowledged there was no simple solution. Having to make recommendations toward a solution affecting employees she sees everyday has caused her to have some sleepless nights
"I have lost sleep over this," Hecht said. "I've been auditor for 12 years, I know these employees."
@kaitfoch
kf992915@ohio.edu
