Health department workers to get back two-thirds of sick leave; building floods after water heater leaks

By GORDON D. FIEDLER JR. Salina Journal | Wednesday, January 22, 2014 2:00 AM

Saline County Health Department employees received good news and bad news Tuesday morning.

The good news was a favorable decision by county commissioners on workers' sick-leave policy. The bad news, at least for those housed in the former Rema Bakeware facility on East North Street, was showing up for work after a three-day weekend and finding several inches of water on the floor from a burst water heater.

Back to the good news.

Sick leave bank

In action that Commissioner John Price termed "crazy generous," county health department workers who had at least five years of service with the former city-county department at the end of 2013 and who were paid for a third of their accrued sick leave now will have the other two-thirds placed in a "time bank" for use after exhausting sick leave accrued beginning Jan. 1, when their services were absorbed into Saline County.

The sick-leave issue had been hanging for some months, and commissioners wanted staff to hash out tax, legal and bargaining issues that might be associated with sick-leave adjustments.

During their study session before their official 11 a.m. meeting, commissioners heard from Human Resources Director Marilyn Leamer.

"The hours would be put into a sick-leave credit," Leamer said. "Those hours would be made available to that employee."

She used a hypothetical example of an employee with 1,500 hours of accrued sick leave who was paid for a third of those hours, in accordance with Salina-Saline County Health Department policy, leaving 1,000 hours.

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Health department workers to get back two-thirds of sick leave; building floods after water heater leaks