Your City Employees Now Get More Time Off Than You Do

I just took a look at the November 22^nd city council packet and listened to the meeting. I’m livid that our city manager deliberately misled the city council. And our city council members have no flipping clue about how much things cost (and don’t seem to care either). The end result is that after less than two and a half minutes of discussion at the November 22^nd city council meeting, your city employees now have fourteen paid holidays to add to the boatload of their other paid time off.

Until now, I’ve given our city manager the benefit of the doubt. When he’s said things that aren’t true, I’ve tried to avoid saying he’s deliberately lying. But I’m beginning to think that not only is this constant misleading of city council and the public a pattern, it’s also deliberate. I’ll lay out the “inconsistencies,” and as always, you can decide for yourself.

Being a lawyer is my second career. The first was in human resources. I worked in the pharmaceutical and automotive industries at the plant, division, and corporate levels, starting at an entry-level position and working my way up to a management-level position within a relatively short period of time. I’ve been on the management side of the table at union contract negotiations, and I’ve also been a dues-paying union member. Other than the union membership, all this experience was gained while working for non-government employers, where people are actually held accountable for the bottom line. After law school, I worked for two large private law firms and the two largest local government organizations in the state where my practice included employment law, commercial litigation, municipal personal injury defense, and general municipal law. I’m sharing this so that you know that I have a rather broad perspective as well as specific training when it comes to employment-related issues.

On November 22^nd, the city manager asked the city council to vote on changes to the policies and procedures manual. There were three proposed changes, and without putting too fine of a point on it, two of them were inconsequential bullsh*t. It’s kind of like going to the store and buying a personal item that you’re slightly embarrassed about so you buy all kinds of things that you don’t necessarily need to make it less obvious to the cashier why you really went to the store.

The first proposed change was to update the names of the city council members on the title page. We have council member name changes almost every year after November elections, but I don’t recall that the city manager has ever felt compelled to change the policies and procedures manual because of it. Searching within the previous council packets on the city’s website, I found that the last change was proposed on July 9, 2018, when Steven Percival was mayor and Sharron Catallo, Rick Detkowski, Eric Haven, Jason Kniesc, Scott Reynolds, and Sue Wylie were council members. We’ve certainly had changes to the city council roster since then.

The second proposed change was to more accurately reflect the days that the administrative office is open, which is Monday through Thursday. We’ve had these office hours ever since the city council approved them two and a half years ago on June 24, 2019. At the November 22, 2021 meeting, the city manager told the city council that that the office hours were reduced as a cost-savings measure, suggesting that was the primary reason for the change. The city manager’s statement was mostly false. The June 24, 2019 resolution, titled “Administrative Staffing Proposal” and presumably drafted by the city manager himself, states the following as its first purpose: “Whereas, the City Manager is proposing the following Administrative Staffing changes to address two recent retirements and the need to offer competitive compensation for purposes of employee retention.” The city manager’s proposal eliminated all Friday hours, which at that point were only 9:00 a.m. until 12:00 p.m. To the extent that the proposal to raise salaries and reduce the office hours amounted to a $4,000 “cost-savings measure,” it was incidental and because the city manager sacrificed office hours for constituents and taxpayers to offset the employee salary pay increases that he was asking for (including a raise that the city manager personally received, bringing his annual salary from $30,000 to $34,000 per year as a result of his own proposal, a 13.3% increase). I’ve linked to the resolution here: 20190624 – Resolution, Administrative Staffing Proposal. (As of July 1, 2021, just a couple years later, the city manager’s salary is now $40,000 per year.)

Clearly, neither of these two changes were driving the city manager’s sudden desire to modify the policies and procedures manual. The obvious reason that the city manager wanted to put these proposed changes to the manual in front of the city council on November 22^nd was because he wanted another day off next year and every year thereafter (because having every Friday off is so yesterday, you know?).

We have three salaried employees (city manager, treasurer, and clerk) and one hourly employee (administrative/treasurer assistant) who work in the city’s administrative office. The office is open to the public Monday-Thursday. Our two DPW employees work a normal five-day week outside of the physical city office. I’d like to say up front that I have never, ever quarreled with salary increases for city employees (though I will be writing about one glaring problem with the city’s salary structure and the city manager’s false statement to the council and the public about actual pay in the future).

So, what holiday did the city manager want to add? Juneteenth. Now let me start by saying I have zero – absolutely zero – objection to adding Juneteenth as a city holiday. Juneteenth recognizes and celebrates a historical event in our nation’s history, marking the closure of an ugly chapter the effects of which still echo to this day. My objection is that a different, less important holiday wasn’t eliminated in the process, as other government and private sector organizations have done. For example, Wayne County, Michigan is in the process of eliminating an existing holiday and substituting Juneteenth in its place; once all collective bargaining agreements expire and are replaced, this change will be final across the entire county. Trading one holiday for another would be a win-win – we could recognize an important historical event with no additional cost to the taxpayers – just as Wayne County is doing.

But that’s not how we do things in Clarkston! Let’s just ignore the fact that we have NO MONEY to even fix our sidewalks.

After the Juneteenth holiday was added, your city employees now have FOURTEEN HOLIDAY DAYS OFF. Here is the new list, as found at page 8 of Clarkston’s Policies and Procedures Manual:

1. 1. New Year’s Day
   2. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
   3. President’s Day
   4. Good Friday
   5. Memorial Day
   6. Juneteenth (weirdly referred to by the city manager as June 19teenth)
   7. July 4^th
   8. Labor Day
   9. Veteran’s Day
   10. Thanksgiving Day
   11. Day after Thanksgiving
   12. Christmas Eve
   13. Christmas Day
   14. New Year’s Eve Day

(You can read the holiday list for yourself by clicking this link: http://www.villageofclarkston.org/DocumentCenter/View/1149/Policy-and-Procedures-Manual-11-24-2021?bidId=)

I would wager that you don’t have this many holiday days off, even if you are a government employee. This is because every other public and private employer not named “City of the Village of Clarkston” realizes that paying people for not working has a bottom-line cost attached to it.

Earlier this year, during the June 28, 2021 city council meeting when the new holiday was first proposed, the city manager said the following: “This structure is based on national holidays, and as I’m sure you are aware that this past week or two, Juneteenth was identified as a federal holiday, so we’re following, continue to follow the federal holiday structure and so we’ve added that here, June 19^th, as a holiday starting next year.” You can listen to that recording by clicking on the link below:

http://216.11.46.126/VOD/3571-CityCouncil-6-28-2021-v1/vod.mp4 (beginning at time mark 0:52:10)

What reasons did the city manager give for the requested paid day off five months later on November 22nd? He said that June 19^th is a new federal holiday that was “accepted” by the State of Michigan, which in turn was “accepted” by Oakland County. I would note that the entire discussion took about two and a half minutes. You can listen to that recording by clicking on the link below:

http://216.11.46.126/VOD/3624-ClarkstonCityCouncil-11-22-2021-v1/vod.mp4 (beginning at time mark 0:52:28)

If you take the time to look at what the other identified governmental bodies are actually doing, you’ll see that “accepted” was a weasel word deliberately chosen by the city manager to mislead the council into thinking that “accepted” = “additional paid holiday for government employees.”

Federal government: A historical list of federal holidays can be found on the Office of Personnel Management’s website that I’ve linked to here: https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/federal-holidays/#url=Historical-Data. From 2011 to 2020, there were 10 recognized federal holidays – New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, President’s Day (referred to as Washington’s Birthday), Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day. Juneteenth National Independence Day was added in 2021, and if you’re lucky enough to work in Washington, D.C., you also get January 20^th off every four years on Inauguration Day. Federal employees who don’t work in D.C., like your hard-working letter carrier, have 11 holidays every year. The 2021 holiday schedule is linked here: https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/federal-holidays/#url=2021

State of Michigan: The State of Michigan has not added Juneteenth as a paid holiday for state employees. The State of Michigan recognizes 12 holidays in odd-numbered years – New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, President’s Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving Day, Day after Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Eve Day. State employees have 13 holidays in even-numbered years, because they receive the November General Election Day as a holiday. Governor Whitmer has declared Juneteenth as a “Celebration Day” for the last several years. The list of holidays generally, and for 2021 and 2022 specifically, can be viewed by clicking on this link: https://www.michigan.gov/som/0,4669,7-192-29938-90605–,00.html

Oakland County: Oakland County has not added Juneteenth as a paid holiday for county employees. The list of holidays for 2021 and 2022 can be found here: https://www.oakgov.com/Pages/Holiday-Schedule.aspx. This year, county employees have 12 holidays – New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, President’s Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving Day, Day after Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Eve Day. They will have 13 holidays in 2022, because Oakland County apparently follows the State of Michigan practice in even-numbered years by giving their employees the November General Election Day off. In 2021, Oakland County Commissioners designated Juneteenth as “National Freedom Day.”

So, of the three entities the city manager mentioned – federal, state, and our local county – only the federal government has added Juneteenth as a paid holiday. The State of Michigan and Oakland County have, using the city manager’s word, “accepted” Juneteenth by giving special recognition to that day, but they have not added an additional paid day off. (FYI, my research took less than ten minutes.)

I don’t think anyone needs to wonder why the city manager didn’t suggest that Clarkston follow the State of Michigan’s and Oakland County’s lead and give special recognition to Juneteenth, as opposed to giving himself an extra day off. And, if the city manager wants to “follow the federal holiday structure” as he told the council on June 28^th, then why haven’t we seen a proposal to remove three paid holidays from the Clarkston holiday schedule? We all know why – because the city manager falsely told the city council in June that we “follow” the federal holiday schedule, that’s why.

Let’s look at the other paid time that our city employees receive and add things up. If you look at page 8 of the policies and procedures manual that I linked above, you see that our city employees receive vacation on the following schedule:

After 1 year:       1 week (5 days)
After 2 years:    2 weeks (10 days)
After 5 years:    3 weeks (15 days)
After 10 years:  4 weeks (20 days)

For the sake of argument, let’s assume that all employees have worked for the city at least 2 years but less than 5 years and get 10 days of vacation time per year. We have a lot of turnover, but I think that everyone working for us now falls within those parameters.

Our city employees receive 6 sick days per year, and they can carry 2 over into the next calendar year. This is pretty much a guarantee that all the employees are going to use at least 4 days per year whether they’re sick or not because they’ll lose those days under the policy (“use it or lose it”). I’m going to assume that for the most part, these days are taken up with all the normal stuff that goes on in a year – doctor’s appointments, feeling ill, etc.

You’ll note that the language of the vacation policy, defining a week of vacation as 5 days rather than one regular work week (and 2 weeks as 10 days, etc.), translates into more than one week off for the 4-day per week employees. For each week of vacation, they receive 100% of one regular work week plus 25% of another regular work week off work, which is the equivalent of 5 days. (You’ll note that the city manager didn’t adjust the policy to consider 4-day work weeks by removing the reference to the number of days of vacation he receives as a 4-day per week employee.)

Let’s add things up. 14 holidays + 10 vacation days + 6 sick days = 30 days of paid time off for less than five years of employment. All employees receive a day off if the holiday falls on a weekend. And, given the recent holiday schedule posted by the city manager for the administrative offices, where he’s indicated he’s closing the office on December 23rd and December 30th (because December 24th and December 31st – the scheduled holiday days off – occur on a Friday), it’s clear that he defines the weekend for the 4-day employees as Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

What does this mean for actual employee work?

• • Our full-time DPW employees only work about 88% of their scheduled 52 work weeks after holidays, vacation, and sick time are factored in, receiving the equivalent of 6 weeks of paid time off per year, working a 5-day week.
  • Our 4-day employees, who already get every Friday off, work about 85.5% of their scheduled 52 work weeks after holidays, vacation, and sick time are factored in, receiving the equivalent of 7.5 weeks off per year, working a 4-day week.
  • The treasurer, who works some number of hours less than 32 in a week is eligible to receive vacation time, sick time, and all holidays under the terms of the policies and procedures manual because he’s a salaried employee (without knowing the number of hours he’s actually working, I can’t calculate time off as a percentage or the number of weeks).
  • We have one office person who is paid hourly and works 15-16 hours per week; she’s not eligible for any of the paid time off bonanza that the others receive.

The additional one-day holiday closure that was just added – which is more generous than any other government or non-government office that I’m aware of – impacts the delivery of government services. Since mid-2019, the city office is only open 4 days per week, Monday through Thursday, or 208 days per year. This has now been reduced by an additional holiday, meaning that there are further limitations on when taxpayers can visit the $400,000 office that they’re paying for. Unless a holiday falls on a Friday, the office will be closed on a day that it otherwise would not have been closed.

We constantly hear our city manager complain about the city staff having too much to do and too little time to do it. Maybe if the city manager and city council weren’t adding even more time off, there would be more time to do work? Just a thought. 🤔

You know, at some point, the city council needs to exercise some fiscal responsibility and give some consideration to the needs of their constituents as opposed to the wants of their employees. And maybe the city council members also might want to stop taking the city manager at his word and do some research of their own. Clearly, it was false to say that Clarkston follows the federal holiday schedule. It was also false to imply that the State of Michigan and Oakland County have “accepted” Juneteenth as a way to support adding an additional paid day off of work for Clarkston employees. The State of Michigan and Oakland County have appropriately honored the day, but they also have not added a paid day off to their holiday schedules. I suspect that if either the State of Michigan or Oakland County were to add Juneteenth as a paid day off in the future, they would exchange that day for another so that there is no net loss to the taxpayers, just as Wayne County is doing.