Board of Aldermen 1-02-2020 Page 8
What | don’t support is the ability of employees to cash out that unused sick leave. | think if you are sick,
you should use the sick leave; if you are lucky enough not to be sick, | don’t think you should be able to
cash that out. It’s like an insurance policy, if your house burns down unfortunately the insurance comes in
and pays to rebuild the house. If your house doesn’t burn down, the insurance company doesn’t pay you a
bonus for your house not burning down. That’s the way | view this benefit for our employees.
The City had this policy where employees could accumulate a maximum of 135 days of sick leave and
upon death or retirement they could cash that out up to 90 days. So in 2003, the City made a change and
said for people who were hired before that time, that would stay the same. The people who were hired
after that the amount that they could cash out would be limited to 20% of their unused sick time, up to 90
days and in exchange for that, that limitation, they were given an unlimited amount of sick leave. They
could accumulate an unlimited amount of sick leave, so that if they became sick, as much sick leave as
they had, they could use, they were not limited. Not to introduce a volatile phrase but a quid pro quo, that
was the quid pro quo in exchange for limiting the amount that they could cash out, they would the ability to
use their sick leave in an unlimited fashion if they were sick.
This contract that came before us in September increased the amount from 20% to 35%; this is for the
employees hired after September of 2003. It increased the amount that they could cash out from 20% to
35% and that is why | was against it. And six others of you voted the same way and | am assuming that
you had the same reason.
So when this came back to us this time, | was under the impression that this had been fixed. My bad, |
didn’t really review the contract in detail, and | Know the Mayor talked about it but | really, | didn’t review it
myself, | wasn’t sure about it, so | voted with the rest of you to approve it. Now that the Mayor has vetoed
it, | have gone back and looked at this contract in detail and | see that what we have before us now, the
35% has been changed back to the 20% that existed before but it added not only can they cash out at
death or retirement, but they would be able to cash out if they resign after 15 years of employment, if they
choose to resign.
Now I’ve been, up until now, | won’t be any longer, | was the liaison to the Police Department and I’ve
heard them talk about how difficult the situation they find themselves in where they have got good people
that go through the excellent training that the State Police provides and we provide internally. After they
have had some experience with what is recognized as one of the best Police forces in the country; they
then find a better position somewhere else, they resign and leave. And to allow them to cash out their
unused sick time in that situation seems, you know, it seems like we are not doing ourselves a favor by
allowing people to resign and get this cash payout. | would think that we would want to discourage them
from resigning. So | don’t understand why we would be doing that.
As | look at this and | hear the Mayor talking about how if we sustain his Veto we will be continuing to
negotiate with the Police. You know I’ve heard the Police Chief talk in more detail than ever before about
the contract and the reasons that he has presented what he has presented. As the Mayor says, if we
sustain the Veto we will still have the opportunity to explore this in more detail, get more information and
not necessarily by sustaining the Veto, we are not necessarily rejecting the efforts of the Chief to try to
bring this to a resolution. | think it will keep the door open; | hear what the Mayor is saying about the
demands on our budget going forth, largely because of the health costs going up. | hope that we can come
up with some way of dealing with that.
Personally | have to take the side of the Mayor on this one and vote to sustain his Veto and keep the door
open for further negotiation.
Alderman Tencza
Thank you. And so | too when this contract first came around was concerned about the payouts for the sick
leave bank and | don’t think that is a trend that is sustainable for the City. But as | look at this contract now,
first | think these are civilian employees. | think right now the Police Department has a tougher time training
