Tuesday night during a discussion about the 2017-2018 budget proposed by Town Manager Kip Padgett, the questions from commissioners were about the proposed changes in personnel policy which
*add a floating holiday each year that the employee may take at any time.
*add a paid six weeks of parental leave for the birth or adoption of a child.
*add a paid six weeks of elder care leave to care for parents, grandparents, spouses and legal guardians who raised you as a child.
*add 120 days of sick leave when the employee begins his or her fifteenth year of service and adds another 120 days of leave when the employee begins his or her twenty-fifth year of service.
*add management leave for fulltime exempt (salaried) employees who spend extra hours working on behalf of the town without receiving additional salary or time off.
Human Relation Director Virginia Jones said the changes are needed for the town to be “an employer of choice” in an area where Wake Forest is competing for employees with Raleigh, Cary, Wake County and the private sector. Benefits such as these make Wake Forest a “much more attractive employer. Employees are overwhelmed with happiness that the town cares so much.
Jones said the town has 36 employees who could benefit from the additional sick leave and retire early if they choose. “It is a financial benefit for the town,” Mayor Vivian Jones said. “These are retirees at the top of the pay scale” who can be replaced by younger people at a lower salary.
Department heads would have to approve some of the paid leave, such as the floating holiday. Employees could take the six weeks of parental or elder care leave either at one time or in increments as small as an hour.
“Wouldn’t the management leave cover high-paid employees who were told when they were hired that they would have to work more than forty hours a week,” Commissioner Margaret Stinnett asked. Virginia Jones said it would.
“The one I like the most is the floating holiday,” Commissioner Greg Harrington, the town’s former police chief, said.
Stinnett asked about the cost, and Virginia Jones said, “It should not have that much of a direct impact. We do a pretty good job of covering when a person is out. It has a positive impact on the employees.”
Employees do not get any vacation during their first six months except the town’s twelve holidays. After a year, an employee gets eleven vacation days plus the holidays.
“If I am off for a week, somebody’s got to answer my phone,” Commissioner Jim Thompson said.
The mayor suggested Virginia Jones could return in a year and tell them how much it has cost.
“I’d love to take twenty-five days off a year,” Commissioner Brian Pate, who is self-employed, said. If the new benefits do not work out or are too costly, he said, “there is no way to go back and take this away. That’s my concern.”
Virginia Jones asked the commissioners to consider the quality of life for their employees, and Thompson said he was looking at the cost “if we have to hire people to cover when others are out.” Jones said, “I worked for an organization that had all of these and we never had any problem.”
Pate wondered if employees could accrue lots of vacation days and other time off, but Finance Director Aileen Staples said the only time off employees can accrue is sick leave. She also said employees will have to have approval for time off. “We will monitor this closely.”
Police Chief Jeff Leonard joined Jones and Staples at the podium to add his support for the benefits. “It’s not a matter of what’s going to be the cost,” he said. “There is no actual cost [to the town] unless it’s overtime pay.”
“It leaves more holes to fill which means that someone else has to do it,” Thompson said, and the mayor said, “I don’t think it will cost that much myself. It’s not like you have the freedom to do what you want. A supervisor has to approve.” The two will be candidates for the office of mayor in November.
When the meeting ended, Padgett told the commissioners the Holding Park Pool project is moving along and they should be able to approve the bids at their August work session “to move forward with construction.” The original construction schedule had to be lengthened because of the need to include a new pump house in the project. The goal still is to be able to open the pool in May 2018.
For a full explanation of the budget proposed for next year, see the May 3 issue of the Gazette or enter “budget” in the front page box for an archive search.
