Kendall County Times

Village of Oswego Committee of the Whole met Sept. 3.

Here are the minutes provided by the committee:

CALL TO ORDER

President Ryan Kauffman called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m.

ROLL CALL

Board Members Physically Present: President Ryan Kauffman; Trustees Tom Guist, Kit Kuhrt (attended at 6:02 p.m.), Karin McCarthy-Lange, Karen Novy, and Andrew Torres (attended at 6:20 p.m.).

Board Members Absent: Trustee Jennifer Jones Sinnott.

Staff Physically Present: Dan Di Santo, Village Administrator; Jean Bueche, Asst. Village Administrator; Tina Touchette, Village Clerk; Jason Bastin, Police Chief; Jennifer Hughes, Public Works Director; Andrea Lamberg, Finance Director; Rod Zenner, Development Services Director; Joe Renzetti, IT Director; Kevin Leighty, Economic Development Director; Phil Tartaglia, Public Works Deputy Director/Engineer; Bridget Bittman, Communications Manager; Maddie Upham, Management Analyst; Alejandro Hardaway, Management Analyst; and Dave Silverman, Village Attorney.

PUBLIC FORUM

Public Forum was opened at 6:00 p.m. There was no one who requested to speak. The public forum was closed at 6:00 p.m.

OLD BUSINESS

There was no old business.

NEW BUSINESS

F.1 Non-Union Employee Benefits Presentation

Asst. Village Administrator Bueche addressed the Board regarding non-union employee benefits. The Village’s current compensation philosophy is to maintain the 50th percentile and/or average among comparable communities. Beginning in June 2024, Administration Staff conducted a survey of non-union employee benefits and perks from several Illinois municipalities which include Batavia, Carol Stream, Downers Grove, Geneva, Glen Ellyn, Elmhurst, Huntley, Lockport, Lombard, Montgomery, Oak Park, Plainfield, Romeoville, St. Charles, Wheaton, and Yorkville. The municipalities were chosen based on comparative population size as well as geographic location. With the estimated population growth Oswego is expecting, larger communities like Wheaton and Oak Park were included to establish a possible road map for the future. The Oswego Metropolitan Alliance of Police, Sergeants Agreement, and the Local 150 Unions were also included in this study to reflect the broader standards employees look to adopt after bargaining contracts are settled upon. The categories surveyed included: holidays, floating holidays, personal days, sick time, vacation, bereavement leave, continuing education/professional development/tuition reimbursement, flexible hours, remote work, gym access and fitness classes, vehicle allowances, cell phone stipends, insurance opt-out incentives, and longevity bonuses.

The Village remains at the average or median regarding continuing education/professional development/tuition reimbursement, flexible hours, remote work, gym access and fitness classes, vehicle allowances, cell phone stipends, insurances opt-out incentives, and longevity bonuses. One area of note where the Village is average, but slightly above the median is regarding holidays, floating holidays, and personal days.

PTO Recommendations

1. Sick Accrual: remove the tiered system and allow for all employees to accrue 8-hours per month. This would affect approximately 27 (including two currently open positions) employees who have less than five years of service.

2. Vacation: create a new accrual schedule that mirrors the Sergeant’s Agreement. This would provide an additional week of vacation time for nine employees who currently have over 20 years of service and a slight increase to employees with 4, 5, 6, or 10 years of service.

3. Bereavement: increase bereavement for up to a maximum of 4 or 5 days with department director and human resources approval.

4. Paid Parental Leave: 12 weeks of paid parental leave.

Benefits Recommendation

Over the next two months, staff will explore whether a retirement health savings plan, such as a 115 Trust, or if a sick time buy-back program would be in the best interest of the Village and its employees.

With the Board’s consensus, all recommendations will be incorporated into the Village’s Personnel Policy Manual which will be presented to the Board for final approval in December to go into effect January 1, 2025. Staff will also discuss the costs associated with all recommendations at the Budget Workshop in November.

Board and staff discussion focused on why not looking at union comparables; surprised we don’t have parental leave; whether leave is paid at 100%; depends on the municipality; Naperville pays 100%; emerging trend in last 10 years; seeing a change in the workforce; whether we are proving people are sick; three or more days off sick requires a doctor’s note; if staff sees a pattern, it is addressed differently; working from home; calling in is an inability to do your job; seems counterintuitive to have sick and vacation time; target is to be in the average; not looking at asking for above average, asking up to market value; short term disability does not kick in until after four weeks; would have to go a month without pay; keeping a consistent sick accrual and standardize for others; extra week for those at 15 years; whether vacation hours are use it or lose it; vacation paid out at retirement; vacation max is annual accrual plus 40 hours; a lot of information to take in; fix command staff vacation time; six employees affected by vacation time accruals; 27 employees affected by sick time accruals; eight hour sick time accrual would get us to 50% or better at market; should start with eight hours each month for sick time instead of six hours; accruals build year after year; cap on sick time is 260 days (1 year); have no form of buy-back for sick time; we are the only comparable community that does not offer a buy-back; others front load sick time; taking sick time is not just for the employee, it could be for family members; can use up to 24 hours of sick time each year for personal time; personal time policy is unique to Oswego; not the norm; usually have personal time separate from sick or vacation time; what is the cost difference; staff will review costs and bring back more information to the budget workshop; sick leave buy-back is the only real increase in costs; will bring back more details; we have a policy that you can’t use unlimited time off to get to your retirement date; not holding a position open for someone to use their vacation and sick time; non-union police employees need to work longer; how often is staff using sick time; would like to incentivize people working versus taking sick time; don’t want people to take a sick day if they are truly sick; there is a fine line; too complicated to separate PTO if they work from home; short term disability rates saved by employees using sick time versus going on disability.

Staff will formulate policies, get numbers and bring back data on sick time usage at the November 2, 2024 Budget Workshop. Village Board to vote on the policies at a Board meeting after the workshop. There was no further discussion.

CLOSED SESSION

A motion was made by Trustee McCarthy-Lange and seconded by Trustee Torres to enter Closed Session for the purposes of discussing the following:

• Pending and Probable Litigation

• Appointment, Employment, Compensation, Discipline, Performance, or Dismissal of Personnel

• Collective Bargaining, Collective Negotiating Matters, Deliberations Concerning Salary Schedules

• Sale, Lease, and/or Acquisition of Property

Aye: Tom Guist               Kit Kuhrt

Karin McCarthy-Lange   Karen Novy

Andrew Torres

Nay: None

Absent: Jennifer Jones Sinnott

The motion was declared carried by a roll call vote with five (5) aye votes and zero (0) nay votes.

The Board adjourned to Closed Session at 6:42 p.m.

The Board returned to open session at 7:09 p.m. A roll call vote was taken. All Board members were present physically for the roll call.

ADJOURNMENT

The meeting adjourned at 7:10 p.m.

https://www.oswegoil.org/home/showpublisheddocument/7245/638623535366230000