Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

JPs to consider new personnel policies

Members of the Nevada County Quorum Court will likely be asked to approve changes in the countys personnel policy during the May meeting of that body. The changes are being recommended by members of the courts personnel policy committee and several were suggested by county employees.

One of the major changes up for consideration is the number of days an employee has off with pay for the death of a family member. The former policy allows three days and limits that to immediate family members only.

According to Justice of the Peace Bob Cummings, immediate family has a very limited definition.

Three days might not be enough for some situations, said JP Myrna Waters.

According to the policy now in effect, employees have one day off for the death of any other family members not included in the immediate family clause.

Nevada County Judge Baker Butler called one day, mighty slim.

Committee members said that one to three days may not be sufficient for the grieving process.

And a lot of times, you have a lot of business to take care of, said JP Susie Key.

The fact that a death in the family often requires travel time was also discussed.

The committee plans to recommend that employees have up to five days for immediate family, and have expanded that definition to include parents, spouse, children, brothers, sisters and parents-in-law. Three days will be allowed for all other family members.

Vacation time was another point of discussion and the committee will likely be asking the quorum court to approve an new vacation schedule.

According to the existing policy, an employee who has been with the county for six months is entitled to a week of vacation time. Waters said she favored allowing a week of vacation only after an employee has been with the county for a full year.

One year is an incentive to stay, Waters said. There are too many people who would take advantage of that.

Another point is that the most vacation time an employee can obtain under the current policy is three weeks.

If we keep someone for 20-plus years, I think we should throw another week in there, Cummings said.

He said a person who has been continuously employed by the county for more than 20 years has proven their dedication.

Another change is that employees will have vacation time based on the date of employment. Under the current policy, employees are granted vacation time based on calendar years of employment. An employee must work for the city for one full calendar year before they are eligible for vacation time. That means a person who was hired in February of 2005 would not be eligible until they had worked the entire year of 2006 because they didnt work the full calendar year of 2005.

The committee plans to recommend that be changed so that an employee becomes eligible for vacation time on the anniversary date.

Committee members cited the fact that county wages are not in line with typical company wages as the reason for making the changes as lenient as possible.

We cant pay them what theyre worth, Cummings said. We need to give them what we can.

The quorum court meets the second Monday of each month at 5:30 p.m. at the Nevada County Courthouse.