Members of the Board of Finance want a policy review that could settle the issue of unpaid vacation, sick and comp time once and for all.
Opinions on how involved the Board of Finance should be in that process were mixed.
“You are here to spend money, you are not here to legislate. I do not think you can set a personnel policy. It is way beyond your authority,” said resident Robert Kennedy.
The comp time issue arose Jan. 20, when police Chief Michael Metzler submitted some 400 hours of comp time to the town’s police commission.
Frank Loda suggested during public comment that the board consider adding a comp time policy into any personnel policy review that might be performed.
Loda said the board should consider adopting a formal policy because otherwise they are going to have to pay for unused vacation and comp time whenever the issue arises.
The issue arose at the Board of Finance when First Selectman Paul Roy requested a transfer of funds to cover the cost of unused vacation time for the previous administration’s assistant.
Roy had donated back a portion of his own pay as First Selectman to cover three weeks of unused time claimed by former First Selectman Bob Koskelowski.
However, Koskelowski’s assistant still had two weeks on the books that had not been compensated. Members of the board joked with Roy about his willingness to give back more of his pay to cover the assistant’s unused time.
The possibility for comp time is not something generally factored into a department’s budget.
In response the Board of Finance brought up the possibility of some sort of policy review, as they were uncertain when the last one occurred.
It was established at the Board of Police Commissioners that even the existence of an actual policy governing the compensation of comp time is speculative. While some believe it does exist, no one seems to have actually seen it.
As has been noted by several people, this is not the first time the lack of a clearly defined policy on time compensation has come up. The last time comp time had been an issue, an agreement was reached to require the parties to take the accrued time off instead of banking for a payout later.
