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Sheriff's Office recommending the Board allow non-exempt, sworn sheriff personnel to cash out their unused "comp time" during pay period 26 or 27, whichever can be accommodated by the Payroll Division, due to confusion about when the payout could occur.
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FUNDING: N/A
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DEPARTMENT RECOMMENDATION
The Sheriff's Office is requesting that non-exempt, sworn Sheriff personnel be allowed to cash out their accrued, unused "comp time" from 2015 during pay period 26 or 27.
DISCUSSION / BACKGROUND
The MOU between the County and the El Dorado Sheriff's Association provides that "upon the written request of the employee, the County will pay up to the full amount of accumulated CTO time in the 25th pay period. It shall be the empolyee's option to determine whether all or part of the CTO is paid." The Sheriff's Office has a form that staff submits by pay period 25 if they wish to exercise their option to cash out "comp time" (CTO).
Ordinarily, pay period 25 concludes in December. However, this year pay period 25 ended early, on November 27. This led to confusion with some employees. The confusion was exacerbated by the fact that the Sheriff Department's time keeping system is based on a calendar year, and does not synchronize easily with the County's payroll system when the County pay period covers two calendar years. Sheriff personnel therefore see a different pay period number than actual County pay period.
Six sworn non-exempt personnel recognized their error after the conclusion of pay period 25. The Sheriff asked the Auditor to allow the cash out to occur in pay period 26. However, the Auditor does not have authority to make payments that contradict the clear language of County Contracts, including MOUs. Therefore, the Auditor sought a legal opinion from County Counsel.
The Board has the authority to waive a procedural requirement imposed by the MOU for employees to receive payment for lawfully incurred expenses. The employees worked authorized ove...
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