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Youngstown council members won’t fight the mayor’s policy on paying some city employees who work extra hours
YOUNGSTOWN
Rather than argue with Mayor John A. McNally over his decision to change how some 100 nonunion city employees are compensated for extra hours of work, city council decided to see how it goes.
McNally’s administration asked council about six months ago to consider a policy detailing which nonunion workers are eligible for accumulated time and compensatory time when exceeding 40 hours of work in a week. When no action was taken, McNally decided two weeks ago to implement the policy, effective Saturday. That raised the ire of some council members.
At a Wednesday council finance committee meeting, McNally said department heads will provide him with reports of employees’ extra-hours pay in order to keep better control over those dollars. The mayor said he would forward those reports to council members.
“I’m going to give it a chance and see how it works,” said Councilman T.J. Rodgers, D-2nd, who expressed concerns about the policy. “I’m not happy with all of it, but I’m willing to get reports. There’s too much discretion by managers about who gets what. It can lead to abuse. Somebody can play favorites” granting extra-time benefits.
Councilman Janet Tarpley, D-6th, who also didn’t favor the policy, said Wednesday, “We want to monitor it. We’ll come back in three months and make sure everyone is doing what they’re supposed to be doing.”
Certain managers will receive accumulated time – which allows them to keep up to 80 hours at any given time that can be cashed out at a pay rate of time and a half – and others will get compensatory time – days off with pay at time and a half for working more than 40 hours in a week.
Though pleased that council isn’t fighting his directive, McNally said the legislative body couldn’t overturn it as it’s an executive branch decision.
“I think it’s a great resolution,” he said. “The responsibility is with the department heads. They’ll have to keep an eye on those folks. If people need to clamp down [on extra-pay abuse], they will. We’ll see some cost savings, and it won’t be as bad as council thinks.”
Council President Charles Sammarone, a former mayor, said these payments are “not the responsibility of city council” and “I don’t think there’s anything to vote on.”
City council members and the administration also discussed Wednesday problems with residential garbage collection.
Waste Management of Ohio Inc. has handled that work for the city’s 22,000 residential trash customers since April 1, 2014, charging the city $8.45 a month per customer.
But council members and McNally said the service is not good. “In the past week, we’ve received numerous complaints about entire streets and neighborhoods being missed,” McNally said.
He later said, “Not picking up trash has been a problem all year.”
The city signed a two-year contract with Waste Management that expires March 31, 2016. There’s also a two-year mutual option.
Charles Shasho, deputy director of the city’s public-works department, recommended that the city not pick up that option and seek another company for its garbage collection contract. Tarpley agreed.