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HomeMy WebLinkAboutNS ORD-2002-002 Personnel Ordinance Revision: Retirement System Sick Leave Cap Removalo ~ A ~ ~cmc~ 2,- as ~. during afour-month period. Twenty-three. percent of the people seen were new to the MterFaith Council for Social Services. He urged the Board`to take the moratorium off the section 8 list. He a{so asked that the County attempt to request more section 8 allocations from the federal government this year. He said that there should be creative ways to provide housing. Mobile home parks are creative ways if they are kept correctly. He said that Interl=aith Council is seriously considering new accommodations. He hopes that the Board of County Commissioners, the Town of Chapel Hill, the Town of Carrboro, and the University can work with them to have a unified approach to a solution. They do not have enough beds at the homeless shelter and are turning people away. There should not be men and women together in the same facility. They need to be in a downtown center somewhere. He invited Chair Jacobs and John. Link to go with him to Raleigh and look at the new Wilmington Street facility. Karen Kincaid Dunn, Director of Club Nova in Carrboro, said that'Club Nova isa psychiatric rehab program that is part of a network of over 300 clubhouses worldwide. She spoke on behalf of the .members of Club Nova who live with serious mental illness. Most of the members survive on a total of $535 per month. This amount must cover housing, food, clothes, and other necessities. She spoke about the need for affordable housing; many of these facilities have long waiting Lists. Club Nova has- spentthe last year working with many organizations to develop a plan to create safe:,. decent, and affordable housing for the members. They have developed a plan fo build 24 units: on the Club Nova property that will be for single-room occupancy. They plan to use section 8 monies. She asked that Orange County provide any available funding for this critical housing for the members of Club Nova. She: invited the County Commissioners to schedule a tour visit and lunch at Club Nova. Matt Cox,. member of Club Nova:. in Carrboro, spoke in support of the Club Nova project. He has been a member for 13 years and he lived at the apartments at Club Nova for seven years. He now lives in HUD housing. at the Overlook Apartments. in Chapel Hill. He said that the things the County Commissioners do here really do :impact people in a positive way. Hopefully, ,more affordable housing can be created. Robert Dowling from Orange Community Housing spoke in support of the Club Nova project,.. He spoke about the need for rental housing. He said thatthere is excess demand and a significant. shortage of housing. He thanked the County Commissioners for their support of affordable housing. He` said that we seem to be doing better at home ownership than rental housing. Rental housing is more difficult to do, but. it is an area that needs some focus.. A lot of people in this County-are paying 50°,~ of their income on housing. He distributed a request for HOME monies. The request includes money for the Homestead Development with 190 homes. and 30 town homes that will be affordable. He has asked: for $3,500 per home for down payment assistance. There is another development in the same area. where the developer' has provided another seven single-family houses that wl`I be affordable at $0% of median.. He has asked for°$3,500 per home in this development also. A motion was made by Commissioner Halkiotis, seconded by Commissioner Gordon to close the public hearing...: VOTE: UNANIMOUS 8. ITEMS FOR' DECISION -CONSENT AGENDA A motion was made by Commissioner Halkiotis, seconded Commissioner Brown by to approve those- items on the Consent Agenda as stated: below. a. Advertisements of Tax Liens on Real Property The Board received a report on the amount of unpaid taxes. for the current year and approved the necessary.advertising: and .placing liens on real property required by N.C.G.S. 105-369 and approved setting March 13, 2002 as the date for the advertisement. b. Resolution Creating a Special Board of Equalization and Review This item was removed and placed at the end of the consent agenda for separate- <consderation. c: Personnel Ordinance Revision Retirement System Sick Leave Can Removal The Board approved revising the personnel ordinance to remove the capon the amount of sick leave for which time in service may be granted at retirement. d. :Budget Amendment#3 .ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS O ~ ~ -BOO z'ov~- ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT Meeting Date: February 5, 2002 Action .Agenda Item No. -~ SUBJECT: Personnel Ordinance Revision - Retiremenf System Sick Leave Cap Removal DEPARTMENT: Personnel PUBLIC HEARING: (Y/N) No ATTACHMENT(S): Draft Personnel Ordinance Revision Employee Benefits -Sick Leave (Article IV Section 6.3.5) INFORMATION CONTACT: Elaine Holmes, Personnel Director, Extension 2552 TELEPHONE NUMBERS: Hillsborough 732-8181 Chapel Hill 968-4501 Durham 688-7331 Mebane 336-227-2031 PURPOSE: To consider a revision to the Orange County Personnel Ordinance to reflect a legislative change in the Local Governmental Employees' Retirement System that removes the cap on the amount of sick leave for which retirement service may be granted at retirement. BACKGROUND: Permanent Orange County employees are members of the North Carolina Local Government Employees' Retirement System. The Retirement System provides that unused sick leave at retirement is counted in calculating the employee's years of retirement service in addition to actual years worked. The Retirement System allows one month of service credit for each 20 days of unused sick leave at retirement. For employees retiring prior to January 1, 2002, the Retirement System gave retirement service credit for sick leave to a maximum of 12 sick leave days per year of retirement system membership service. During the 2001 legislative session, the North Carolina General Assembly enacted legislation. to remove the cap on the number of sick leave days creditable at retirement. This applies to employees retiring on and after January 1, 2002. With the removal of the sick leave cap, the retirement system gives a retiring employee retirement service credit for all accumulated sick leave days so long as the sick leave is earned under a duly adopted policy. The attached Personnel Ordinance revision simply updates the County's Ordinance to reflect the decision made by the legislature to remove the cap on the amount of sick leave for which retirement service credit is granted. In terms of the employee and County impact of the legislative change, staff would note the following: • Most County employees have sick leave balances under the 96 hours of earned sick leave per year of service due to the need to use sick leave during their careers so the removal of the cap will not have an impact. Afew-employees will be able to benefit from this sick leave cap removal by being. able to retire several months earlier that they otherwise would have been able to retire. Those most likely to benefit are those who because of workload demands and scheduling restrictions have converted significant amounts of unused vacation leave to sick leave. This change assures that these employees are able to receive credit for such time. FINANCIAL IMPACT: None. Retirement contributions paid by the County and the employee are unchanged. RECOMMENDATION(S): The Manager recommends that the Board adopt the attached Personnel Ordinance revision effective January 1, 2002 to reflect the Local Government Employees' Retirement System sick leave procedures. Attachment Draft Orange County Personnel Ordinance Revision Article IV, Section 6.0 Sick Leave, Item 6.3.5 for Earning Sick Leave (Changes Shown in Bold Print) 6.3.5 In addition to Sick Leave earned, any accumulated Vacation Leave in excess of 240 hours as of January 31 of each year is converted to Sick Leave. This converted Sick Leave is used in the same manner as earned Sick Leave. As with other Sick Leave, any unused converted Sick Leave ~a~~e is counted toward creditable service at retirement ~~N +~ ~+ m.+virv~~~n~ i+F 17 Cir.L I cwe rlw~ nor ~ic~r ~.f rnerv~her hir. eraine' as authorized lV M 1 ~ ~4A/liT by the N.C. Local Government Employees Retirement System.