Accrued sick leave vexes city leaders
Texarkana workers have time beyond state’s 90-day limit, mayor says
TEXARKANA — The Texarkana Board of Directors must tackle what to do with thousands of hours of sick leave accumulated by city employees beyond the maximum allowed by state law, Mayor Allen Brown told members during a workshop last week.
Although the city’s personnel policy aligns with state statutes, in practice city employees have been allowed to bank more than the legal maximum of 90 days of sick leave for “as long as anyone can remember,” City Attorney George Matteson said. The result is more than 400,000 hours of accrued sick leave worth about $9.2 million, and the possibility of a lawsuit no matter what the board does to resolve the matter, according to Brown.
Brown met the problem head-on Feb. 13 with a draft ordinance that would erase any sick leave accrued beyond the limit. Being out of compliance with state law “is the most severe thing that I can think of,” he said.
“I’m the head dog that’s got to try to find a way to fix it,” Brown said, adding that he “will not serve as mayor under any circumstance” if the city is acting unlawfully.
But after hearing counterproposals from Fire Chief David Fletcher and Assistant Mayor Linda Teeters, he chose not to ask that his proposed ordinance be considered by the board at its next meeting. Brown’s decision to withdraw his proposal drew applause from a standing-room-only audience mostly consisting of firefighters and other city employees.
Brown made clear that moving forward, responsibility for solving the problem lies with the board.
“It will be up to this board to come up with an acceptable resolution ASAP. I will not be involved in that,” he said, cautioning that keeping illegally high accruals on the books could result in a taxpayer lawsuit.
“Those hours are and were being accrued at this point in time not within state statute. They’ve been that way for the past 25 years, and they should not have had them. That’s where we’re at,” he said.
Fletcher proposed a compromise. His ordinance, which he said he developed with city staff members, would grandfather in employees at or above the legal maximum, letting them keep the sick leave they have so far accrued.
Future accruals would be capped at the state limit.
Fletcher raised the possibility of a lawsuit if the board takes away any accrued leave.
“We’ve heard it’s illegal to accrue sick leave hours over the state-mandated maximum. The question needs to be asked regarding this: Would it be legal to strip away those sick leave hours we’ve earned and accrued over the years? Would a court consider the way we have operated over decades to be an unwritten contract? If we were to take legal action against an attempt to take away this earned sick leave, could it possibly lead to the city having to pay out the full amount that we’re over?” he said.
Teeters also proposed letting current accruals stand and keeping them under the maximum from now on. That’s how Sherwood chose to solve a similar problem, which the Arkansas Municipal League told her is the best course of action, Teeters said.
The parallel with Sherwood underscores that no one on the current staff is to blame for getting the city into these circumstances, Teeters said.
“We are not the only city” dealing with mistakes made in the past, she said.
The firefighters union on the Arkansas side of Texarkana supports Fletcher’s proposal, local president Jeff Pritchett said in a statement.
Because of the “natural order of retirements,” 139,000 sick leave hours will drop off the books in the next four years, and the issue will resolve itself in about six years under Fletcher’s plan, Pritchett said.
“No laws will be violated in doing so, and this is cost-neutral to the city,” he said.
Any ordinance addressing the issue must meet the approval of city department heads and City Manager Kenny Haskin to be placed on the board’s meeting agenda. Any objection triggers a workshop meeting and requires at least two board members’ approval to put the measure on the agenda.