A long-time San Benito County employee is receiving more than
$111,000 in accrued vacation and sick time after retiring last
week, and it prompted officials to re-examine relatively loose caps
that allow employees to build up and cash out thousands of hours
when they leave.
A long-time San Benito County employee is receiving more than $111,000 in accrued vacation and sick time after retiring last week, and it prompted officials to re-examine relatively loose caps that allow employees to build up and cash out thousands of hours when they leave.
The large accrual sparked a 30-minute discussion during the board meeting last week where supervisors acknowledged the need to either implement a tighter cap on benefits or routinely set aside money for impending retirements.
In the case of the retiring management employee, her departure was unexpected and caused the county clerk’s office to transfer the money out of a used supply fund, said Joe Paul Gonzalez, the county clerk, auditor and recorder who oversaw the worker.
Currently, the county does not set aside funds for possible retirees or departures, or maintain standard accounting practices on the accruals.
“It’s a result of an over-expenditure of salaries and benefits. It’s the result of one management employee, a longtime employee who retired,” Gonzalez said at the meeting. “It was not anticipated, and we were required to go over budget.”
The total accrued amount was $111,300 for the employee, according to a staff report. County Administrative Officer Rich Inman could not immediately provide the employee’s service time or precise title before press time. Details also remain unclear on the types of accruals and specific amounts adding up to the $111,300.
What did become clear last week is that the county’s policies allow for no vacation caps on some employees and up to 2,000 hours of sick accrual – half of which can be cashed out – for each of the 450 or so workers.
Regarding vacation accruals, benefits fluctuate depending on each employee’s service time and classification.
Deputy sheriff’s association members and management employees have no caps on vacation accrual.
The limit for employees represented by the Service Employees International Union is two times their annual vacation accruals. Those annual accruals increase with service time, ranging from 10 days in years one through four, to 20 days for workers with 15 or more years of service, according to the breakdown provided by the county.
When the employees leave or retire, they receive a payment – at their hourly rate immediately before retirement – for unused hours, according to the county policy. Employees can cash out on all vacation hours and half of the unused sick hours.
The Free Lance has submitted a public records request for a more detailed report on how much individual employees have accrued during their time with the county.
During the board meeting, supervisors expressed concern how the county was not preparing itself before people resign or retire.
Supervisor Jaime De La Cruz contended that money needed to be set aside in case the accrual checks become too big.
“In the past I’ve always expressed we need to implement some fiscal policy in terms in creating some liabilities in our balance sheet for sick time and vacation time, because when those moments do come up when an employee will retire, there will be a fund or an account that we can offset instead of maneuvering or working with an object in an account,” he said. “Because if the funds weren’t available at the time, they would have to come from another place in the county like reserves or the general fund account.”
De La Cruz warned that the county’s staff is getting older and more retirements will come.
“Our employee population is getting older and older by the year, and the possibility of an employee retiring in a given a fiscal year will occur without any funds other than the contingency funds,” he said. “It will be hard to fund those activities in the future.”
Supervisors Margie Barrios and Anthony Botelho thought the county needed to better prepare itself.
“Is it more prudent perhaps to maybe have a reserve account that builds in a line item that would be more transparent than where we are at now, rather than rolling it back into the fund balance?” Botelho asked Gonzalez.
Gonzalez thought the board should prepare itself, but he guessed that setting aside the funds for future liability would add at least $2 million to the budget.
“Does it make more sense to plan for this? Yes, it makes more sense to plan for these types of expenditures,” Gonzalez said. “Does the current budget format allow for that? I don’t think so – it really doesn’t. I think it’s something worth exploring, but we have not really considered doing that.”
Regardless, Botelho thought the county needed to examine future capping, he said.
“We are going to have to take a look what the caps are on vacation time and what the caps are on sick time and cap it,” he said. “And make sure they are capped and look at the expense of maintaining that cap and somehow identify that in our budget.”
