Friday, March 11, 2011

Wiz Miller Addresses Rumors Of Changes In Annual/Sick Leave

Wiz Miller finally addresses all public safety employees, addressing the rumor of the county adopting a "use it or lose it" system pertaining to annual/sick leave:
"On Tuesday March 8, 2011 I along with the Police and Fire Chiefs met with members of the DeKalb County Human Resources Department concerning possible changes to our leave accrual policy. During the meeting, there were no discussions of a use it or lose it system being implemented. They only discussed revisions including the maximum amount of annual leave hours that could be carried over from year to year and the rate at which an employee accrues annual leave. Our sick time will not be taken away. There is no additional information at this time. This was only a preliminary discussion concerning the topic and there have been no final decisions made. You will be updated as information is made available."
"During the meeting, there were no discussions of a use it or lose it system being implemented." So? Just because it wasn't discussed doesn't mean plans are not being made.

"They only discussed revisions including the maximum amount of annual leave hours that could be carried over from year to year and the rate at which an employee accrues annual leave."

Currently, annual leave in the excess of 480 hours is converted to sick leave at the end of the calender year. Unused sick leave can be applied towards "years of service". For example: If you have 29 years of service and 2080 hours (one year) of sick leave, you can retire with 30 years of service, one year early. This has been a long standing benefit to those dedicated employees who come to work every day, especially to those who make it to work during inclement weather.

Wiz's statement only creates more questions. Exactly what revisions are going to be made? Any reduction of carried over annual leave will directly effect retirement. Isn't it the current goal to get people out the door as soon as possible?

And what will the rate of accrual of vacation time be changed to? Currently we get 10 hours per month, or 120 hours (3 weeks) depending on time of service. They could change it to say, 40 hours (one week) per year?

Bend over folks, because here it comes. Smells like "use it or lose it" to us. Wiz would have been better off keeping his mouth shut or simply leaving it attached to Burrell's butt.

29 comments:

Anonymous said...

I thought Wiz Miller's position was eliminted by the BOC.

Anonymous said...

"Just because it wasn't discussed doesn't mean it's not going to happen."

Huh?

Hmmm.

Anonymous said...

12:07 am
I don't think the BOC can do that - it was a recommendation that only the CEO can act on. Or not.

Anonymous said...

I have heard they found MONEY in the budget to keep him working.

I guess they can find money when it helps one of the special people that the CEO has in positions of power.

Anonymous said...

According to the BOC, the Director of Public Safety position was deemed unneccesary, it had nothing to do with finding money. I guess they made up during the recent trip to DC. By the way were taxes raised OR not? The issue seemed to have disapeared.

Anonymous said...

Wiz is coming out of the dark shadow of his ivory tower. It seems to me when he does nothing good comes from it. If there is talk about annual/sick time being changed its just a matter of time before the employees are going to get screwed again.

Anonymous said...

I am sure that the powers to be do have a different plan of their own regarding "use it or lose it". I wouldn't be surprised that this current discussion is only being addressed only at public safety and nothing else.

Those idiots in Decatur can make sure that any employee OTHER than public safety will not get their benies reduced. You do not hear anyone else of any other department in the county saying much of anything on this subject. I wonder why that is.

It is obvious that there is no love from MR "HOTSHOT" CEO OR HIS BUDDIES towards public safety in Dekalb.

This is one of many tricks up the sleeves of Ellis against public safety for now and for years to come as long as he and his crooked buddies are in office.

May the mayhem begin !!

Anonymous said...

Wiz Miller was never the sharpest knife in the draw. The blog master has him describe to a "T".

Nothing good will ever come forth from his office but double talk.

Anonymous said...

I dont understand why anyone would want to be a police officer for Dekalb County? Why not leave? Dekalb is a broken and sometimes criminal government.

Yet another example of what a county looks like after decades of democrats running the government into the ground.

Anonymous said...

Finally you all got it right
The BOC and the CEO do nothing but sit around and figure out ways to crew the police.
Finally you have it right
You guys are embarrassing.

no matter what you hear you twist it into how you are getting screwed

How stupid can you all be

Anonymous said...

If you can only accrue so many hours per year, isn't that use it or lose it? If that's the case, every officer needs to take every day off they earn. Do not let the county take it away. Let them be shorthanded (more than they are now). They deserve what they get.

Anonymous said...

Here is what happened in the IT department. 80 percent of us was maxed out in annual leave and had considerable sick leave built up, six months to a year. The situation was this, many of us geek types had to spend a considerable amount of time after-hours to perform "systems maintenance" (mandatory software and equipment upgrades) that could not be performed during working hours due to down-time to the users (you). Because we were allowed comptime most of us were taking little annual leave time and using comp-time instead. About two years ago HR realized how much annual leave we collectively carried on the books and became alarmed. Word came down from our director that comp-time would only be granted on a pre-approved basis or for emergencies with approved documentation. Bottom line was that the county no longer wanted to compensate IT employees for after-hours work. After several of my comptime requests were refused for invalid documentation I gave up and simply started taking an afternoon off or came in late to make up the difference. I don't care how invalid the documentation is, I expect to be compensated for my time on the clock. I wasn't fracken' off, I was doing my fracken' job.
This appears to be a county-wide initiative to accomplish the same thing. Knock-down the annual leave payment when an employee leaves or retires from the county. Three months pay is a handsome bonus to walk out the door with.
Now compare this policy of reducing payouts of honorably retiring employees and consider the cushy termination allowances of Barker and Edwards who left under less than honorable circumstances that only displays the hypocrisy of DeKalb rulers towards honorable and loyal employees who leave after 25-30 years of service to the county.
And they call themselves "progressive"?

USE YOUR HEAD said...

One can realistically equate Dekalb County with Haiti. Just as there has been no looting in Japan, just the opposite occurred when similar disasters struck Haiti. If you choose to serve and protect the wicked you get what you deserve.

Anonymous said...

Simply put......Dekalb County is a total waste of space.....period

Anonymous said...

Standby for foot patrols to save fuel like Griffin PD and others. I hope your beat is somewhere you like to live and work cause it's coming.

Anonymous said...

LoFlyer you are just so smart
Have all the answers, seen it all. Know exactly what everyone is doing.
Boy it must be great to be you.
It is also apparent that you do not have a clue what you are talking about county wide.
Go back to tweeting yourself and stop trying to be the great OZ

Anonymous said...

How much gas would Wiz Miller's salary buy? What does he do besides occasionally show up the news? He's a glorified PIO! I was a big fan of his prior to him becoming Public Safety Director. I expected great things from him. But he hasn't done anything positive!

Anonymous said...

Anon 9:04; It is more than a little obvious I have your attention and have upset you.
Could it be that my calling attention to DeKalb political rulers and their highly paid staffs inability to cope with DeKalb's governments financial issues has your panties in a fracken' wad?
Could it be that my FOIA requests are hitting a little to close to the mark as they are denied at both the local and federal level? Why would my simple EEO-1 demographic employee statistical requests be denied unless DeKalb government and the Federal EEOC had something to hide that they do no want published? 20 years ago these statistics were published as proof of racism and now they are suppressed. Why?
This is getting more than a little interesting.
I want to see how the events play out.
Serious shit is happening in DeKalb government and denying it does not help the citizens. DeKalb rulers act like they and their staffs are above the same policy and rules they set for rank 'n file employees and the citizens. The DeKalb School board and system is in even worse shape.
This is like watching a train wreck in slow motion.
Fascinating.
KenC

Ben Dover said...

LoFlyer rocks! And even signs his name!

Anonymous said...

Seriously, if you have an issue with LoFlyer and think he is all wrong, pretends to know everything, etc. then please point out specifically what he has wrong. Yes, he sometimes misses the mark, but he is always the first to admit his error and he signs his real name to it.

Can you say the same for your posts? Didn't think so.... and me either.

JW

Anonymous said...

Today I had to turn my P.O.V. back to the dealership for a involuntary repo...it was a small 4 door sedan...nothing fancy...just a small family car.....just wanted to say "thank you to the BOC & CEO" for thinking about thier employees. I've cut everything...I mean everything from my household budget....I have a gas heat & hot water heater...last months bill was 68.00...due to not using heat. Thats okay Mr. CEO....good things come to those who wait.....like maybe a Federal Iditement!!!...we can only hope!!! Anyone come close to my house so I can hitch a ride to work???

Anonymous said...

Not to mention the extra costs to insure your home, car, etc in this dump of a city due to the crime rate in Dekalb zip codes.

Anonymous said...

To Anon 10:33am....It sounds like you do not live in Dekalb County and you dont attend eddie longs perp church otherwise it would have been a involuntary repo..JUST SAYNNN.

Anonymous said...

Loflyer...stay on the blog man and get on the pension board.

I'm Ron Burgundy? said...

It's terrible! She has beautiful eyes and she smells like cinnamon!

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately, rumors have a tendency to become reality after time. Lets not hope for this to speed and become reality. Maybe it will disappear like the snow we had this winter.

Anytime the administration decides to screw with policy, it tends to get messed up more than before they screwed with it in the first place.

Lets hope for the best and prepare for the worst

Anonymous said...

Is loflyer ken curry

Anonymous said...

Allowing us to accumulate sick time has always been a great benefit to employees and the county. In the past, employees who used little to no sick time in a year were given a "Sick Check" around Christmas time. It was like a Christmas bonus for people who showed up to work almost every day. The benefit for the employee was a little extra cash around Christmas time. The benefit for the county was employees reporting to work as much as possible. Instead of staying home when they had a slight sniffle, they came in and did their job the best they could. With police and fire, you need to maintain certain manpower levels in order to assure the best response to the tax paying public. Calling in sick is a fact of life you have to take into consideration. If you have employees who rarely call in sick, you can get away with a smaller work force. But, if you have employees who call in sick over the slightest thing, you need to have a larger payroll to make up for the sickies.

The county has taken away our reason to suck it up and come in when we're feeling a little down. This is going to to further exacerbate the manpower shortage we already have in public safety. The quick and easy answer to save a buck may not be the best way to save a buck in the long run!

Anonymous said...

I think I would rather use my sick time at will than give it to the county. I feel a sinus infection coming on for the remainder.