After repeated unfulfilled requests for a detailed report surrounding city employees’ medical leave and compensatory time, Alderman Charlie Jenkins said it’s time for his appeals to be met. If they can’t, he said the party responsible should either be disciplined or fired.
“I am going to ask that it be put in our next report,” Jenkins said, during a recent Board of Mayor and Aldermen meeting. “If it is not in our next report, someone will be written up, or a motion will be made to fire them.”
Jenkins said he has requested that a detailed report of the medical leave and compensatory time taken by city employees be provided to the city council. However, he said that request has never been provided. He brought the matter to the table again when it came time for the city council to approve the payroll docket.
“I am back at my regular stance about this,” Jenkins said. “I am looking at the accrued time for sick leave and comp time. We are showing 167 hours of sick leave. Who took sick leave? We are looking at 20 hours of comp time taken. Who took it?”
Pertaining to medical leave, the recent board meeting was not the first time Jenkins brought the matter before the remaining board members. Based on the July 14 board minutes, “Jenkins requested that the record reflect that he did not understand how an employee that had been on medical leave received a full paycheck when he does not believe a full week was worked and was previously told no leave time remained for that employee.” During that meeting, Alderman Jammie McCoy and Alderwoman Elizabeth Thomas opposed approving the payroll docket.
Also, those minutes do not name the employee.
When Mayor David Starling asked City Clerk Kaneilia Williams about the documentation requested by Jenkins, she said she printed it and provided it to the mayor.
“I need you to print it again, and don’t give it to me,” Starling said. “Email it so that it can get to the aldermen.”
Jenkins said he would prefer a hard copy of the report to be placed within the aldermen’s agenda packet prior to each board meeting.
“This is something that I have been asking for ever since we’ve been here,” Jenkins said. “It just seems like it is not going to happen. We can make everything else happen. I think we ought to be able to see who is taking time and who accumulates time.”
Jenkins then asked what city employees are currently on sick leave.
“You are on the phone with one,” Starling said, referring to Williams, who was telephonically attending the board meeting.
“You can’t say the names in an opening meeting,” added Board Attorney Lilli Evans-Bass.
The council tabled approving the payroll docket until after executive session.
“A lot of these things don’t match,” Jenkins said. “It is simple to put it in our report. I feel like this is something that is being neglected, overseen or just ignored. And I don’t like it. I don’t think I should have to ask for this continuously.”
