Carbondale Reporter

Jackson County Human Resource Subcommittee met June 21.

Here is the minutes provided by the Subcommittee:

Call to Order (5:00 pm):

Members Present: Endres and S. Bost

Members Absent: Erbes

Also Present: Susie Kilquist, Grant Guthman, Maureen Berkowitz, Dan Brenner, Analisa Parker, Robert Burns

Approval of Minutes:

I. 17-2587 September 22, 2016 minutes

A motion was made by Endres, seconded by S. Bost, to approve the September 22, 2016 minutes as presented. The motion carried by unanimous vote.

II. 17-2588 Personnel Policy Revisions

S. Bost began discussion with a brief history of the process to get the policy handbook to the point it is at now, he then opened the floor to Brenner. Brenner stated that he believes Huffman did a great job but there are still a few issues. Brenner suggested removing the sections in the opening that make reference to collective bargaining, they are unenforcea ble and could be contemptuous; eliminating them would eliminate the conflict. S. Bost inquired about legal requirements that are not specifically mentioned in the collective bargaining contract; Brenner stated that all the agreements follow Federal and Sta te law. Discussion moved on to Section 1.1 specifically the parts that relate to elected officials. Brenner recommends adding a sentence that says "this handbook does not apply to elected officers". With out these suggested changes the elected officials can not adopt the policy due to concerns with the fundamental way some offices are ran. Brenner moved on to section 6.2 payment of wages; the county recently changed the way that everyone is paid so this section will need to be updated to show that everyone is paid in arrears. Then Brenner mentioned with background checks and drug testing it is important to follow the letter of the law and he can assist with providing waivers. The subcommittee discussed the section on medical marijuana, lactation rooms, "ban the box", and "at will" status. Berkowitz discussed the section on dress code for work, the snow day pay, and taking accrued time in increments of 1/2 day at a time. Then the subcommittee discussed the number of hours in a week and the different amounts that the different bargaining agreements have and the possibility of this being something that is discussed during collective bargaining. S. Bost asked how everyone handles FMLA and was informed that each office handles their own with the help of Brenner. Burns stated that he likes some parts of the policy and plans to use them in future Sheriff Department policies but he agrees with Brenner that there should not be the requirement of having elected officials sign off on the document. Guthman requested that the words regular be added to differentiate between regular full time and full time employees. He also suggested adding "at the discretion of department head" in the section that requires a months notice for taking vacation time; with regard to taking time off in 1/2 day increments he would like to see it changed to hourly increments to accommodate when someone needs to attend a funeral or doctor appointment; the past practice allows for the carry over of more than four weeks of vacation time each year; the highway department works 40 hours a week not the 35 that is stated in the draft policy, and in Section 5.1 he would like "or comp time" to be added. Kilquist pointed out that grandchildren are not included in the list of approved FMLA family. Then the subcommittee discussed the fact that funeral leave has been removed from the new draft policy handbook; the consensus is to see about adding bereavement leave. The committee coordinator pointed out that the comp time allowance is only 12 hrs and that does not match past practice. S. Bost concluded the meeting by informing everyone that once the suggested changes have been made the policy will be sent for review and another meeting will be held.

Old Business

New Business

Adjourn (6:00 pm)

S. Bost adjourned the meeting.

http://www.jacksoncounty-il.gov/Home/Components/MeetingsManager/MeetingMinutes/ShowPrimaryDocument/?minutesID=1408&isPub=True&includeTrash=False