Submitted By
Cara Pavlicek, Village Manager
Reviewed By
LKS
Agenda Item Title
Title
A Motion to Accept Staff's Recommendation to Overhire Police Officer and Firefighter/Paramedic Positions in FY18
End
Overview
Overview
Staff is seeking approval to hire new police officers and firefighters when there is a pending retirement/resignation of an employee combined with another long-term employee disability where said employee is not expected to return to work for an extended time period, resulting in overtime expenditures to fill the "vacancy" when minimum staffing levels in public safety positions require. This program was first approved in FY17 by the Village Board and staff is seeking to continue in FY18.
Body
Staff Recommendation
Approval.
Fiscal Impact
None. The overhire of positions would be permitted only if the cost of doing so would be covered in the existing budget appropriation and/or reduce overtime costs.
Background
The Village has experienced a number of instances, particularly in the Police and Fire Departments, where it has knowledge of staffing changes such as a pending retirement/resignation necessitating hiring and cross- training a replacement employee prior to the departure of the existing employee or backfilling a position for an employee on long-term disability where the employee is not expected to return for an extended period of time.
Prior to July 2017, the Village did not have a method to address these types of issues. In the two scenarios above, we would have to wait until the pending retirement or separation occurs to fill the position and would not be able to fill the position vacated by an employee on extended leave. The result is overtime wages at a minimum of 1.5 times the hour rate.
The use of an "Overhire" program allows for the hiring of a police officer of fire fighter and assumes that a department experiences several position vacancies during a fiscal year, and that the salary and fringe benefit savings from...
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