The Reporter covers Miller, Morgan and Camden County in Central Missouri's Lake of the Ozarks and is published once per week on Wednesdays.

 

Published September 3, 2014

City approves policies, procedures update

 

By Jeff Thompson
LAKE OZARK - Changes to they city’s personnel policies and procedures manual was given final approval by the Board of Aldermen last Tuesday night but not without a dressing down first from a local resident.

Ron Lunsford spoke to the board at its regular meeting August 26 about its initial public reaction to the proposed personnel policies changes on August 12.

During that earlier meeting Aldermen Betsey Browning and Judith Neels voiced their concerns with policies affecting “exempt” (or salaried) employees, specifically time off for working over and above their regular hours.

Browning had suggested adding the phrase “with approval from the mayor” for receiving “comp time” while Neels questioned the actions of future employees.

“I know it’s an honor system (but) who knows if the work is done,” Neels had said.
Lunsford took the board members’ comments to task.

He said he was unaware of anyone on the board with human resources experience, then spoke of the old proverb of it being better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.

“Why then do we have several people who prove that point,” Lunsford said.

He noted that the policy changes not only reflected salaried employees but also dealt with holiday pay for regular city employees including police officers.

“Why did comp time off become such a sticking point?” Lunsford said.

He said there was only one person sitting with the board members with any human resource (HR) experience: City Administrator Dave Van Dee.

“Why not let the individual with HR experience make the decision?” Lunsford said.

After his comments, city officials once again discussed the matter.

Browning still wanted an approval clause for salaried employees’ comp time.

“Unless it’s way above and beyond (their normal scope of hours), they don’t get to decide that,” Browning said, “they need to go to someone (for approval).”

“That already happens,” Van Dee said. “We coordinate our days off.”

Van Dee noted that there had been one time when he was on vacation when City Clerk Rachel Kelley had been called away on a family emergency, leaving City Hall with only hourly employees.

“I have full faith in our front office staff,” Van Dee said, adding that if anything had come up that they couldn’t handle, he was only a phone call away.

The board gave final approval to the policy changes, amending the comp time provision to add “with approval of the supervisor or his/her designee.”

The August 12 discussion between the aldermen had veered off from comp time into situations where a salaried employee may collect overtime pay (despite Section 803-05 denying that opportunity.

Alderman Tony Otto - a member of the personnel manual committee - had admitted to some frustration with the discussion after working on the changes since the first of the year.

Alderman Larry Buschjost had agreed.

“We’ve been with this thing since January,” Buschjost had said. “We’ve been from committee to (city) attorney, back to committee - attorney - committee and then to the board.”

However, Neels had advised caution.

“We’ve never really gone through this,” Neels had said, adding that she thought the board hadn’t been given enough time to review all the personnel changes by the August 12 meeting.

Otto had suggested having a first reading of the changes and bringing the ordinance back at the August 25 board meeting. The board had voted 5-1 for a first-reading approval with Neels voting against the measure.

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