by CONNIE TABBERT
Editor
COBDEN — Whitewater Region managers may be allowed to bank 90 hours of overtime in 2015, which is an extra 20 hours from previous years, if a recommendation from the corporate services committee is accepted at next Wednesday’s council meeting.
A discussion about increasing the banked overtime hours to 90 from 70 took place at the Nov. 4 committee meeting.
Deputy-clerk Erica Rice provided a report noting most managers have exceeded the allotted 70 hours due to having to attend evening committee and council meetings. Prior to this current council taking office last December, senior staff were able to attend the committee meetings, which were held during the afternoon, without accruing overtime. However, when the current council came into office last December, all council and committee meetings were changed to evening meetings because of the work schedules of the council members.
Also, the amount of banked overtime is based on what Renfrew County provides for its managers, but, it has daytime meetings. Along with attending the meetings, there’s a two-hour gap between the end of the work day and the start of the evening meetings. Some staff are using that to do work they didn’t complete during the day, and adding that to their overtime.
Ms. Rice noted the managers discussed the overtime and brought forward a motion of increasing the hours from 70 to 100.
Councillor Daryl McLaughlin agreed with the staff recommendation.
“There’s no monetary value in it,” he said. “It’s just time-for-time. The taxpayer isn’t paying any more money.”
He wanted to put forward a motion that the banked time be extended to 100 hours.
“We have to bend to daytime hours, which we did before,” he said. “To be fair to our staff, we need to move to the adoption to raise it to 100 hours for this year, and start, at the first of January, something new.”
Councillor Charlene Jackson said the county put in the 70 hours for its department heads because it recognized some worked outside of their regular hours. It had nothing to do with whether there was an evening meeting or not, she added.
According to the report provided by Ms. Rice, Coun. Jackson pointed out that all of the municipalities have evening meetings, and for the Town of Renfrew, not all of council sits on the committees, which do have day time meetings. She questioned how staff came up with an increase to 100 hours. Reviewing the report provided by Ms. Rice, she pointed out there is no overtime in Admaston-Bromley. Instead, there is time in lieu for meetings held outside working hours and there’s no overtime for regular meetings. It’s about the same in Killaloe, Hagarty and Richards, Laurentian Valley, Madawaska Valley and North, Algona, Wilberforce townships.
“It was just another suggestion to reduce the overtime,” said Chief Administrative Officer Christine FitzSimons.
Coun. Jackson noted she is the treasurer for Laurentian Valley and is capped at 70 hours.
“Wouldn’t I just love to be capped here at 100 hours, so I can go back to my council and say, well, Whitewater has capped theirs at 100 hours, now let’s match them,” she said. “It would benefit me to vote for it. And I will not vote for it.
“There is a certain amount of time that goes into your salary…and the salary is based on what you work and what your responsibilities are, and the responsibility to attend council meetings is included in that,” she said, adding, “Employment standards does not allow for department head overtime.
“It is not a requirement, it’s a bonus.”
Along with not agreeing to the increase in banked time, Coun. Jackson was also against returning to day time meetings, which was also a suggestion.
Councillor Chris Olmstead said, “I don’t think we can stick our heads in the sand and say there is not an issue here.”
This council is forcing the managers to work overtime because the meetings were changed from day to evening, he said.
“There are 72 hours just to attend evening meetings,” he said. “This council created our own issue.”
He noted this is the fifth Wednesday meeting in a row.
“We do go over 24 meetings in a year,” he said.
As an example, Coun. Olmstead said if council wants to continue to promote growth and development, the Chief Building Official is going to have put in overtime.
“Just look at his overtime,” he said. “I suggested he come in at noon, but he said he’d get nothing done.”
Reeve Terry Millar agreed with Coun. Olmstead, adding, “I think our staff should be allowed this leeway because of how this council operates, and they should be well paid for that effort. I think we can afford that.
“This issue isn’t going to go away.”
Mayor Hal Johnson said when he was the road supervisor for Whitewater Region, he kept track of his hours and admitted he never went over 80 hours. But, he pointed out, he attended many day meetings.
He suggested the banked overtime hours be increased to 80, saying “100 hours is too ritzy right now.”
Coun. Jackson agreed it just wasn’t possible for her to agree to an increase in banked hours, especially to 100.
“That is a huge increase,” she said. “I understand that people are putting the overtime in, but it’s not council who is requesting staff attend, it’s the CAO’s request. There are staff who come to council meetings who are not
necessarily needed for that particular night. But, there are lots of times when they are needed.
“It’s a difficult situation,” she added. “I’m just not prepared to exceed the 70 hours. We have to understand that part of their salary is inclusive of attending those meetings.”
CAO FitzSimons said she asks only those staff to come to a meeting if she feels council may have questions for them or if it’s in the best interest of the staff person to be at the meeting.
Coun. McLaughlin agreed it’s important for staff to be at the meetings. He recalled a recent meeting when he wanted to discuss an environmental services issue, but the manager was not in attendance at the meeting.
“It is necessary we have these people here to get our answers,” he said. “I’m thinking 100 is too much. I’ll go for 90.”
He motioned that the staff banked overtime be increased to 90 and that this issue be discussed in the new year.
Councillor Cathy Regier agreed, saying, “Our staff go above and beyond what we request of them.
“It’s important they be here with us.”
It was also agreed that CAO FitzSimons will amend the current list of which managers can bank the time.
In a recorded vote, the motion will be recommended to council, with Coun. Jackson being the only dissenting vote.
As for changing when meetings are held, Coun. Regier suggested it could get confusing for everyone if they are changed.
“We have to remember our citizens,” she said. “People know we are here Wednesday night. When we start moving around meetings to day time to this time to another time, it’s confusing for them.”
The committee agreed to recommend to council that the committee meetings for January, February and March be held the first Wednesday at 1 p.m., with Coun. Jackson and Reeve Millar not agreeing to the time change.
