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Home My WebLink AboutIR 7655 INFORMAL REPORT TO CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS No.7655 October 20, 1992 dod ° To the Mayor and Members of the City Council Page 1 of 5 • f Subject: REVIEW OF PROPOSED REVISION TO POLICE OFFICERS LEAVE PROGRAM BacLUound. The Fort Worth Police Officers Association recently recommended that the City Council revise their leave program by allowing police officers each year to convert up to 5 days of unused family leave to vacation leave. No changes have been requested in sick leave benefits. CURRENT LEAVE BENEFITS FOR CIVIL SERVICE EMPLOYEES Vacation. Police and Fire Civil Service employees accrue 15 days vacation leave per year in accordance with the State Civil Service Law. Local jurisdictions may increase the number of authorized vacation days. Employees are allowed to maintain up to 60 vacation days in any given year but must use sufficient leave during the year to limit available leave to no more than 45 days by December 31st of each year. Upon termination for any reason, sworn police and fire employees are paid for up to 30 days of accrued vacation. Sick Leave. Under the State Civil Service Law, Police and Fire Civil Service employees accrue 15 days of Sick Leave per year with no limit on accrual. As with vacation leave, local jurisdictions may increase authorized sick leave days. The average use of sick leave by sworn police employees was 6.6 days in 1991; sworn fire employees used an average of 9.5 days. Upon termination for any reason, sworn police and fire employees are paid for up to 90 days of accrued sick leave. Family Leave. Police and Fire Civil Service employees are provided 7 days Family Leave per year under current City policy. Accrual is limited to 7 days per year with no accumulation from year to year. Employees may use Family Leave for illness, injury or death in the immediate family (e.g. , spouse, parents, children, in-laws, and grandparents) . The average use of Family Leave by sworn police employees was 1.75 days in 1991; sworn fire employees used an average of 1.8 days. Survey of Leave Practices. The 1991 Texag Clgaringhouse Regort, published by the City of Dallas Personnel Department, provides a survey of vacation leave practices in Police and Fire Departments of other Texas cities. The full survey is shown on endix A. OFFZC'TFT.ISSUED BY THE CITY MANAGER FORT INFORMAL REPORT TO CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS No. 7655 October 20, 1992 To the Mayor and Members of the City Council Page 2 of 5 Subject: errs REVIEW OF PROPOSED REVISION TO POLICE OFFICERS LEAVE PROGRAM Below is an analysis of the Clearinghouse survey of vacation leave along with the City's current policy and the proposal from the Police Officers Association. Ft. Worth Texas Texas Texas Current merge Min, Max, 1 Year Service 15 days 15 10 16 20 5 Years 15 16 14 17 20 10 Years 15 17 15 22 20 15 Years 15 18 15 22 20 20 Years 15 20 15 25 20 It appears from the survey that the prevailing practice is to provide a graduated leave program, with the number of leave days increasing based on years of service. For example, the City of Dallas has the following leave accrual program: First year 15 days After 5 years 17 days After 10 years 18 days After 15 years 20 days After 20 years 23 days CITX OF FT. WORTH PERSONAL LEAVE PROGRAM POR GAVE EXPLOYEES. In July 1983, the City Council adopted a major change in the City's policies governing vacation, sick, and family leave for general employees. Prior to the change, general employees had a leave program similar to the leave program provided police and fire sworn employees shown above. The new Personal Leave plan gave employees more flexibility in deciding how to use their earned time and provided monetary rewards for accumulating time while reducing the opportunity for abuse. It was projected that after a transition period there would be a substantial savings to the C` — reduced absenteeism and increased productivity. An estiffab RWRO CITY SECRETARY ET. WORTH, TM EL BY THE CITY MANAGER FO , INFORMAL REPORT TO CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS No. 7655 October 20, 1992 To the Mayor and Members of the City Council Page 3 of 5 Subject: REVIEW OF PROPOSED REVISION TO POLICE OFFICERS LEAVE PROGRAM to 1000 employees participated in the review and development of the policy. The major provisions of the Personal Leave Policy included the following: • Personal Leave replaced vacation, sick, and family leave. Instead of 10 to 15 days of vacation leave, 15 days of sick leave and 7 days of family, employees were given 17 to 30 days of personal leave per year, depending on their number of years of service. Personal leave can be used for whatever reason the employee chooses -- vacation, sick, family, personal business. • Major Medical Sick Leave (MMSL) was a new form of leave created to serve as disability insurance. Employees are able to use Major Medical Sick Leave only after they have been on personal leave, prior accrued sick leave, compensatory time or leave without pay for seven (7) consecutive days due to illness. • Personal Leave is accrued on a graduated basis determined by years of service. Accrual rates for Personal and Major Medical Sick Leave are given below: Major Medical Service Time Personal Leave Sick Leave 0 - 7 years 17 days per year 15 days per year 8 - 15 years 22 days per year 15 days per year 16 - 25 years 25 days per year 12 days per year 25+ years 30 days per year 7 days per year • Employees may sell back a portion of their personal leave each year or the entire unused portion upon termination or retire- ment. • Employees must use 10 days of personal leave during the following 12-month period if they have 50 days of Personal Leave accrued as of January 1 each year. OFFIC�11, RECORD UY SECRETARY Ff. WDDTN T . ISSUED BY THE CITY MANAGER FO INFORMAL REPORT TO CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS No. 7655 * October 20, 1992 To the Mayor and Members of the City Council Page 4 of 5 r s Subject: REVIEW OF PROPOSED REVISION TO POLICE OFFICERS son LEAVE PROGRAM + Upon retirement, unused MMSL may be counted toward credited service. it is difficult to compare the Personal Leave Plan for General Employees and the Vacation/Sick Leave Plan for Sworn Police and Fire Employees. In 1983, when the Personal Leave program first was proposed, the concept was not accepted universally by all employees. Sworn Police and Fire employees were not included in the program because their vacation and sick leave accruals are mandated by the State Civil Service Law. Police and Fire Association representatives opposed the plan. FISCAL IMPACT OF POLICE ASSOCIATION PROPOSAL. In measuring the fiscal impact of the Ft. Worth Police Officers Association's proposal, actual family leave data from calendar year 1991 was used. During 1991, the average number of police officers was 966. These officers used an average of 14 hours or 1.75 days of family leave. Assuming that the proposed revision was in effect in 1992, 966 police officers would have been eligible for an additional 5 days or 40 hours of vacation leave. Therefore, computing the number of officers X 40 hours, there would be 38,640 hours of family leave to be converted to vacation leave. The loss in hours worked equates to approximately 19 full-time equivalent positions. While this would represent a certain productivity loss, any loss in terms of cash expenditures is more difficult to compute. If the hours lost were to be totally offset by the employment of personnel on an overtime basis, the estimated approximate cost would be $960,276. If the Police Department were simply to add an additional 19 officers to offset the loss, the annualized cost would be approximately $563,312. It is conceivable that there could actually be only minimal additional cash outlays associated with the increased vacation hours if the department were able to adjust resources in a manner to accommodate officers on leave without compromising essential services to the public. CITY MKIARY FT. WORTH, TM J ISSUED BY THE CITY MANAGER FORT WORTH,TEXAS INFORMAL REPORT TO CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS No. 7655 Goer 20, To the Mayor and Members of the City Council Page 5 of 5 Subject: REVIEW OF PROPOSED REVISION TO POLICE OFFICERS nrn LEAVE PROGRAM emom. The City Manager's Office, at this time, is making no recommenda- tions with respect to changes in leave policy. Should the Council choose to pursue this matter, the staff will provide any requested information concerning the Police Officers Association's proposal or any other leave change options. If serious consideration is given to increasing leave benefits for sworn police personnel, the Council might also wish to consider extending the same benefit enhancements to sworn fire personnel. Including fire personnel, however, would likely increase the number of occasions when down- staffing and company deactivations must be instituted. The staff will await further direction on this matter from the City Council. C"Q . Bob Terrell •' City Manager BT:n ORICIAL RECORD MY KCROARY FT. WORTH, TOL ISSUED BY THE CITY MANAGER FORT WORTH,TEXAS Appendix A VACATION ALLOWANCE ------------------------------------------------------------- One Five Ten Fifteen Twenty city Year Years Years Years Years ---- ---- ----- ----- Abilene 3 3 3 3 4 Amarillo 3 3 4 4 5 Arlington 3 3 3 4 4 Austin 3 3 3 3 .2 3 .2 Beaumont P: 2 2 .8 3 .2 3 .8 4.4 F: 3 3 3 3 3 Carrollton 3 3 3 3 3 Corpus Christi P: 3 3 3 3 . 4 4 F: 3 3 3 3 . 6 4 . 2 Dallas P: 3 3 .4 3 . 6 4 4 . 6 F: 3 3 3 . 6 4 4 . 6 Dent cn 3 3 3 . 1 3 . 5 4 n Paso 3 3 3 . 6 4 . 2 4 .8 For-, Worth 3 3 3 3 3 Garland 3 3 3 4 4 Grand Prairie 3 3 3 4 4 Houston 3 3 3 3 4 Irving 3 3 3 3 4 Lubbock 3 3 3 3 4 Mescuite 3 3 3 4 Odessa 3 . 2 3 .2 4 . 4 4 . 4 4 . 4 Pasadena 3 3 3 4 5 Plano 3 3 -1 . 6 1 3 . 6 4 . 8 R i c hart s 0 n 3 3 3 4 San 3 3 3 4 2 2 3 3 . 5 4 Waco 3 3 3 3 3 wic1tita -7alls ------------------------------------------------------------- Police: Weeks consist. of 5 working days. One vacation day C.L.- 8 hours is eaual to 0 . 2 weeks . *----llv shifts are converted to equivalent -,-.!ee}:s . One vacation day o:; 12 hours is equal to 0. 2 weeks. OMCIAL RECORD CITY SECRETARY FT. WORTH, TEL