State supervisors get expanded comp time

TDarrel Rowland

housands of non-union, overtime-exempt state employees — generally supervisors and the like — have picked up a perk that could pay off in tens of thousands of dollars.

The amount of compensatory time off that supervisors can bank for working after normal hours has doubled to 240 hours — or six weeks, Dispatch reporter Randy Ludlow discovered.

Department of Administrative Services Director Matthew Damschroder approved the change to bring the comptime policy for managers in line with that generally granted to unionized employees, a spokeswoman said.

The ability of supervisors to stash more time off for later use is part of an “appealing benefits package” and “allows the state to attract and retain quality state employees,” the revised policy states.

The comp time must be taken within a year of being earned or it is forfeited. It cannot be cashed out, and agency directors are not eligible for comp time.

The increase will allow state supervisors to take comp time off instead of burning vacation days, which can be saved for years, resulting in big checks when they retire or resign.

With a perk that is generally not available in the private sector, state employees with 24 years of service, for example, can bank up to 18 weeks of vacation and then cash it out.

‘I don’t get paid unless you get paid’

Major litigation ain’t cheap.

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost is asking the State Controlling Board on Monday to approve a $1.07 million contract to hire the Columbus office of the Perez & Morris law firm as special counsel.

The cash for the coming fiscal year would pay the firm to represent state agencies responding to discovery requests from opioid manufacturers and distributors as part of the state’s damages lawsuits. The firm was paid $225,824 last fiscal year.

The larger contract involves the trial lawyers the state has hired to litigate the lawsuits, Ludlow found. All the law firms are working on a contingency basis — “I don’t get paid unless you get paid,” as one local lawyer intones in his TV commercials.

If the state wins at trial or reaches settlements, the trial lawyers are in line for big bucks. Their agreements with the state in each lawsuit jointly award them $2.5 million of the first $10 million won, and beyond that, a sliding scale kicks in. It would take a huge award to the state to reach it, but the total for contingency fees in each suit are limited to $50 million.

Guarding the Guard

Dispatch assistant metro editor Jim Wilhelm spotted an interesting public notice: The Ohio adjutant general is seeking bids for armed security-guard services to protect the Ohio National Guard’s Beightler Armory on the Northwest Side.

Private guards were first hired after 9/11 to protect the armory and its Guard employees, said National Guard spokeswoman Stephanie Beougher.

The Guard now spends $405,000 a year on civilian guards to protect the citizen soldiers and their military equipment, with the federal government reimbursing the cost, she said.

Hiring and assigning Guard MPS to watch over the armory would be more expensive, Beougher said.

drowland@dispatch.com @darreldrowland