Hurley to clarify overtime policy

By TOM LAVENTURE

[email protected]

Hurley — The Hurley City Council will hold a workshop to clarify an overtime rule in the employee handbook, according to business at the regular meeting on Tuesday.

Mayor Jay Aijala said he wanted the matter added to the agenda because the misunderstanding doesn’t seem to have an obvious solution. Employees of the city Department of Public Works were called in to clear snow for five hours during late hours on Dec. 30. The department claims the hours are overtime while the city clerk said the work hours are regular, according to the employee handbook.

“I wanted to bring this to the council and see what his (Scott Santini, director of public works) role is as department head and who decides overtime or not,” Aijala said.

Stacey Wiercinski, city clerk and treasurer, said the employees had 22 regular work hours for the week due to New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day holiday pay. The holiday hours do not count toward the 40 hours work required before overtime is allowed, she said.

“We talked about this when we wrote the employee manual, this is not coming out of the sky,” Wiercinski said.

Santini said the practice has been that the department determines when employees are working overtime. Situations occur when employees have not worked 40 hours but are required to work “emergency” hours outside of the regular schedule that is eligible for time-and-a-half, he said.

The department uses the term emergency to determine when an employee must report for work or face possible disciplinary action, he said. An emergency situation exists when the work cannot wait until the regular hours of the next business day, he said.

Wiercinski said the handbook is clear on overtime when there is paid time off and paid holidays during the week. Those hours do not count toward the regular time total, she said.

Council discussion ranged from the need to provide incentives for employees to work overtime, the need for department directors to determine what is overtime work — to the need for the city to follow the guidelines of the employee handbook to the letter to avoid problems with inconsistency.

Ray O’Dea, city attorney, said the agenda item was to deal with the circumstance of the Dec. 30 overtime specifically. That needed to be dealt with first before moving on to consider the policy questions.

The board 5-0 approved the time-and-a-half employee overtime for the five hours worked on Dec. 30. The board then approved 5-0 to schedule a workshop to work on clarifying the employee handbook sections on overtime pay and department authority.

Prior to approving the workshop the council was required to follow through on a motion that was already seconded to authorize department heads to determine situations where employees are paid time-and-a-half overtime. The motion failed 3-2 with alders Steve Lombardo, Robert Lanctoe and Stephanie Innes-Smith voting against and Jamey Francis and Thomas Conhartoski voting for the authorization. Alderwoman Joanne Bruneau was not present.

The council approved a presentation for the March meeting by AMCO Insurance Company, a federally certified surety company in Minnesota. The company is offering refinancing of the city’s larger bonds for water and sewer projects.

A company official said refinancing could save the city approximately $2 million from the current bond financing through 2044 with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Office of Rural Development, according to Wiercinski. The bonds are among the city’s largest monthly payments, she said.

In other business, the city council approved:

—Lead Line Service Replacement grant and administration agreement for up to $5,000 per residence.

—Going into executive session to negotiate collective bargaining strategies with no action taken back in open session.

—The Wisconsin Department of Transportation Functional Classification System update.

—Directing the city police department to determine if existing ordinances prohibit businesses from displaying any banners or only above a certain size.

—One bartender’s license.