After months of debating the technicalities of revising the township’s Paid Time Off (PTO) policy for the fire department, the Addison Board of Trustees voted 4-3 last Monday to research changing the policy for all township employees.
Supervisor Bob Koski, and trustees John Sutphin and Claudia Von Drak cast dissenting votes, stating that the time-off policy for the office should be left how it is.
‘If it’s not broke, why are we fixing it?? Von Drak asked. ‘If there’s nothing wrong with the current system, then why are we fixing it??
Currently, the township office staff receives time off benefits based on how many years they’ve worked.
If they were to change to the PTO system, like the fire department has, they would accrue a certain increment of time off for each base hour worked during a regular work week, excluding overtime.
Although township Clerk Pauline Bennett said there would really be no added benefits in changing to a PTO policy, Treasurer Dan Alberty said the change would bring about a sense of equality between fire department employees and office employees.
‘When you have one group of employees one way, and another the other, somebody always feels that the other one is getting something better than the other,? he said.
Trustee Von Drak suggested the board research what the cost would be to the township to switch to a PTO system before they make any decisions.
Also discussed at the meeting was how to reduce the amount of carryover the fire department personnel receives by capping their PTO time to one year’s pay.
No board action was taken because the trustees want to find out the exact amount of money the township has paid out for carryover from last year.
It will be discussed further at their next meeting, Monday, March 17.