(11/11) The Taneytown City Council approved at their November 9 meeting reimbursing the city manager for leave-time that he was unable to use during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Being an essential employee by definition and in practice, City Manager James Wieprecht was required to be on-hand to perform his municipal duties, and thus he was unable to use his leave-time to that he had earned and accumulated
Wieprecht told the council, "Since I’m unable to use the leave-time that I have accrued, I’m respectfully asking to be paid-out for it at the end of the year," noting that he has accrued 271.88 hours of annual leave, which amounts to $11,620, based on his salary of $43 per hour.
It was noted at the council’s November 4 work session that if the city manager carried over 80 hours of the 272 hours of leave, it would reduce the $11,620 end-of-2020 pay-out to $8,200. However, the council subsequently approved paying the full $11,620 figure.
The city manager said, "When we talked at the workshop, we talked about my carrying over 80 hours of annual leave which in 2021, considering the amount of comp-time that I’ve also accrued, it’s very unlikely that I’ll be able to use the annual leave that I earn next year, or any significant amount of that comp-time."
He thus requested that he just be paid-out for all his unused annual leave this year. Accrued unused comp-time is to also be carried over through all of next year, and any comp-time unused by the end of 2021 would be forfeited.
In October, the City Council approved payouts to police for the same reasons that necessitated the payout to the city manager – police having to work extended hours as essential employees during the coronavirus event and sacrificing leave-time in the process.
The council ultimately voted to approve an annual payout for unused police leave, not to exceed $12,000.
Regarding the COVID-19 impact on salary-related issues of essential employees, Councilman Darryl Hale said, "We may very well be back in the same situation with all the employees, civilian and police (next year). So, it’s something we just have to deal with. We didn’t ask for it, and here it is."
Councilwoman Diane Foster said, "Quite frankly, I think we’re going to be in this for another year."
