Attachment F - Vacation rollover- CM response- Forwarded to CommissionFYI.
Thank you,
Donna L. Bartle
City Clerk
City of Atlantic Beach
800 Seminole Road
Atlantic Beach, FL 32233
(904) 247-5809
Florida has a very broad Public Records Law. Most written
communications to or from State and Local Officials and agencies
regarding State or Local business are public records available to the
public and media upon request. Your email communications, including
your email address, may therefore be subject to public disclosure.
From: Gerrity, Joseph
Sent: Friday, October 4, 2019 12:59 PM
To: Bartle, Donna <dbartle@coab.us>
Subject: RE: Vacation rollover
Donna-You are right. I would mention that to the Commission.
Joe G
Joe Gerrity
City Manager
City of Atlantic Beach
800 Seminole Road
Atlantic Beach, FL 32233
(904) 247-5806
From: Bartle, Donna
Sent: Friday, October 04, 2019 11:25 AM
To: Gerrity, Joseph <jgerrity@coab.us <mailto:jgerrity@coab.us> >
Cc: Elected Officials <electedofficials@coab.us
<mailto:electedofficials@coab.us> >; Varian, Cathy <cberry@coab.us
<mailto:cberry@coab.us> >; Corbin, Shane <scorbin@coab.us
<mailto:scorbin@coab.us> >; Hogencamp,Kevin <kHogencamp@coab.us
<mailto:kHogencamp@coab.us> >
Subject: RE: Vacation rollover
Dear Mr. Gerrity,
I’d like to start off by saying, thank you for following up with a
written response. I know we discussed this in depth already, but I'd
like to reiterate a few points.
I agree with your statement about being put in an awkward position. I
believe it is unfair to the city manager to have to decide on this type
of request from the city clerk when the city manager has nothing to do
with the city clerk's schedule or time off. For that reason, I
believe there is a disconnect between my contract and the current leave
policy. When my contract was written and approved, we had a leave sell
back program. Years later (in 2013) the leave sell back was eliminated
and the maximum was reduced from 960 to 680. During the transition,
anyone over 680 hours was cashed down to the new maximum of 680. So
basically, you had to use all future accrued leave hours or risk
forfeiting the excess. It is my understanding the when the city manager
receives a request for leave to be rolled over, each request should be
considered on its own merits and when there are circumstances where the
employee was unable to take off due to vacancies, important
responsibilities, workload, etc. their requests should be given fair
consideration. Otherwise, why would the option to request rollover be
provided in the personnel manual?. Much thought and time was put in my
request (see attached) and I do not believe it was given fair
consideration.
During our discussion Wednesday afternoon, you told me that you had not
allowed anyone to roll-over this year's excess leave and that you will
not approve my request because it would be unfair to the others if you
did. That was the only reason you gave me for your decision to deny and
I expressed my disappointment about your decision and the reason for it.
Since our conversation, I have discovered you did indeed approve a roll
over request this year (see attached) to an employee based on
circumstances not unlike my own.
There was an email sent out yesterday to the elected official (see
attached) where you stated, “ Last year I rolled over time for 4-5
employees with the warning that I would not do that again this year, and
they were directed to take their time off or lose it, (again as the
policy states).” My comment about that is you did not put that
condition on my approved roll-over (see attached).
You stated in your email below, “I am going to have to deny that
request since there are 10 employees that will lose some PTO due to the
not taking enough time off during the year, and if I do it for one
person I have to do it for everyone.” Based on that statement,
shouldn’t you approve my roll-over as well as roll-over for those other
employees?
Also in your email below, you implied there were several staff meetings
that you mentioned no roll-over was being granted. I have no
recollection of those conversations and am wondering if you know the
dates of those meetings and whether I was in attendance?
Please accept this as a request for reconsideration and allow me to
roll-over my excess leave hours.
Thank you for your consideration in this matter.
Sincerely,
Donna L. Bartle
City Clerk
City of Atlantic Beach
800 Seminole Road
Atlantic Beach, FL 32233
(904) 247-5809
Florida has a very broad Public Records Law. Most written
communications to or from State and Local Officials and agencies
regarding State or Local business are public records available to the
public and media upon request. Your email communications, including
your email address, may therefore be subject to public disclosure.
From: Gerrity, Joseph
Sent: Thursday, October 3, 2019 10:53 AM
To: Bartle, Donna <dbartle@coab.us <mailto:dbartle@coab.us> >
Subject: Vacation rollover
Donna-I received your request to roll over your excess PTO. I am going
to have to deny that request since there are 10 employees that will
lose some PTO due to the not taking enough time off during the year, and
if I do it for one person I have to do it for everyone. As you know I
said last year and several times this year at staff meetings that I was
not rolling over any PTO this year.
As we discussed, I feel this puts me in an awkward position, as you
are a Charter Officer and not one of my employees however your
employment agreement states that you will be treated as any other
employee.
If you decide to amend your work agreement you might want to clarify
that issue.
Joe G
Joe Gerrity
City Manager
City of Atlantic Beach
800 Seminole Road
Atlantic Beach, FL 32233
(904) 247-5806
a few points.
I agree with your statement about being put in an awkward position. I
believe it is unfair to the city manager to have to decide on this type
of request from the city clerk when the city manager has nothing to do
with the city clerk's schedule or time off. For that reason, I
believe there is a disconnect between my contract and the current leave
policy. When my contract was written and approved, we had a leave sell
back program. Years later (in 2013) the leave sell back was eliminated
and the maximum was reduced from 960 to 680. During the transition,
anyone over 680 hours was cashed down to the new maximum of 680. So
basically, you had to use all future accrued leave hours or risk
forfeiting the excess. It is my understanding the when the city manager
receives a request for leave to be rolled over, each request should be
considered on its own merits and when there are circumstances where the
employee was unable to take off due to vacancies, important
responsibilities, workload, etc. their requests should be given fair
consideration. Otherwise, why would the option to request rollover be
provided in the personnel manual?. Much thought and time was put in my
request (see attached) and I do not believe it was given fair
consideration.
During our discussion Wednesday afternoon, you told me that you had not
allowed anyone to roll-over this year's excess leave and that you will
not approve my request because it would be unfair to the others if you
did. That was the only reason you gave me for your decision to deny and
I expressed my disappointment about your decision and the reason for it.
Since our conversation, I have discovered you did indeed approve a roll
over request this year (see attached) to an employee based on
circumstances not unlike my own.
There was an email sent out yesterday to the elected official (see
attached) where you stated, “ Last year I rolled over time for 4-5
employees with the warning that I would not do that again this year, and
they were directed to take their time off or lose it, (again as the
policy states).” My comment about that is you did not put that
condition on my approved roll-over (see attached).
You stated in your email below, “I am going to have to deny that
request since there are 10 employees that will lose some PTO due to the
not taking enough time off during the year, and if I do it for one
person I have to do it for everyone.” Based on that statement,
shouldn’t you approve my roll-over as well as roll-over for those other
employees?
Also in your email below, you implied there were several staff meetings
that you mentioned no roll-over was being granted. I have no
recollection of those conversations and am wondering if you know the
dates of those meetings and whether I was in attendance?
Please accept this as a request for reconsideration and allow me to
roll-over my excess leave hours.
Thank you for your consideration in this matter.
Sincerely,
Donna L. Bartle
City Clerk
City of Atlantic Beach
800 Seminole Road
Atlantic Beach, FL 32233
(904) 247-5809
Florida has a very broad Public Records Law. Most written
communications to or from State and Local Officials and agencies
regarding State or Local business are public records available to the
public and media upon request. Your email communications, including
your email address, may therefore be subject to public disclosure.
From: Gerrity, Joseph
Sent: Thursday, October 3, 2019 10:53 AM
To: Bartle, Donna <dbartle@coab.us <mailto:dbartle@coab.us> >
Subject: Vacation rollover
Donna-I received your request to roll over your excess PTO. I am going
to have to deny that request since there are 10 employees that will
lose some PTO due to the not taking enough time off during the year, and
if I do it for one person I have to do it for everyone. As you know I
said last year and several times this year at staff meetings that I was
not rolling over any PTO this year.
As we discussed, I feel this puts me in an awkward position, as you
are a Charter Officer and not one of my employees however your
employment agreement states that you will be treated as any other
employee.
If you decide to amend your work agreement you might want to clarify
that issue.
Joe G
Joe Gerrity
City Manager
City of Atlantic Beach
800 Seminole Road
Atlantic Beach, FL 32233
(904) 247-5806