More than 400 San Benito County employees have accrued about
$5.5 million in unfunded liability for sick, vacation and other
time off, according to a Free Lance analysis using documents
obtained through a public records request.
More than 400 San Benito County employees have accrued about $5.5 million in unfunded liability for sick, vacation and other time off, according to a Free Lance analysis using documents obtained through a public records request.
The liability includes accrued time for 433 county employees, but excludes some elected officials. The current liability varies for each employee depending on salary, employee group and time served in the county.
In total, county employees have accrued 93,520 hours totaling $2.95 million in liability for vacation leave and 121,178 hours, or $1.95 million in liability, for sick time, according to totals on a database dated July 7 breaking down the figures for each eligible employee.
Another $500,000 is accrued in administrative leave or compensation from overtime hours, according to the data.
When employees depart, they receive the cash-outs based on their final hourly wages with the county.
The accrual topic raised eyebrows recently when county supervisors openly discussed it during the June 28 meeting after an employee retired and cashed out more than $111,000. The board expressed a desire to plan for the payments by either creating a pool of money for retiring employees or installing a more restrictive cap on employee benefits.
At the meeting, Auditor Joe Paul Gonzalez acknowledged the county had no firm accounting process for the accrual liability, and then guessed that it could amount to about $2 million.
The figure turns out to be nearly three times his estimate, and there are individual accruals on the books whose liability exceeds the $111,000 figure.
The county has four employees with more than $100,000 in liability and 16 in total with more than $50,000 in owed accrual liability, according to the analysis. The top 10 percent in salaries – the 43 highest-paid personnel – account for 28 percent of the total accrual figure.
To view the public records used in the analysis, go here.
Despite the large individual numbers, the county does not set aside an account for the total amount of money in accruals that is due to employees when they leave, said Jacki Credico, management analyst for the San Benito County Human Resource Division.
Supervisors have agreed to discuss the policies during budget hearings later in the year.
“I’m not 100 percent sure we are going to discuss that during the budget hearings, but if we don’t, we will need to address it,” Supervisor Jerry Muenzer said in a phone interview Monday. “The board is in agreement – it will need to be addressed.”
Muenzer wanted to find a solution soon because of the county’s dire budget situation, he said. He thought the best way to fix the problem was to put more caps on the accruals.
“The county needs to get more fiscally responsible,” he said.
San Benito County does have limits to some of its workers’ accrued sick and vacation hours.
Employees of the San Benito County Deputy Sheriff’s Association, the Service Employees International Union and confidential employees have caps on their vacation hours depending on how long they have been employed by the county, Credico said. County Administrative Officer Rich Inman previously announced that the law enforcement union had no caps on vacation, but that was incorrect.
The Management Employee Group, department heads and managers in law enforcement have no caps on vacation accruals, Credico said.
The policies in place, meanwhile, have allowed employees in some cases to bank thousands of unused hours.
The newspaper’s analysis found that the county has six employees who have accrued more than 1,000 hours of vacation leave.
For sick leave, all employees can accrue up to 2,000 hours and can cash out half of the figure when they leave. As of July 7, two employees had reached the county’s 2,000-hour cap, while 25 workers had accrued more than 1,000 hours, according to county documents.
When informed of the totals, Supervisor Anthony Botelho said he believes the county needs to continue fixing the liability issue.
“I have to say we have made some pretty significant progress addressing the unfunded-liabilities concern in the past three years,” he said over the phone Monday. “We are doing a better job of identifying the departments that could be affected during the budget hearings.”
During the board meeting in June, Botelho expressed an interest in putting more caps on employee benefits.
Supervisor Margie Barrios responded to the analysis by saying that, in the meantime, board members will need to set aside some money in each department just in case someone retires.
Regardless of what the board does, sheriff’s deputy union President Mike Mull said he is unsure whether change is necessary because he doesn’t think employees use it as an anticipated check when they retire.
“I don’t think people look at it as a cash cow or anything,” he said. “I know I don’t.”
He continued, “People use it in case anything happens at home.”
If the county does ask to renegotiate caps, he would have to discuss it with the rest of the deputies, he said.
“That’s something we will have to talk about,” he said.
Moving forward, the county will need to find new ways of doing things, Barrios said.
“Right now, we are bound by a lot of old contracts,” she said.
Representatives from the SEIU did not immediately return phone calls.
It is unclear when the policies were negotiated with the groups, but it was before 2002, Credico said.
The following are policies for varying county employee groups, according to Credico:
The limit for employees represented by the SEIU and sheriff’s association is twice their annual vacation accruals.
Members of the confidential employees group received five times their annual vacation accruals.
Those annual accruals from each group increases 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.
The county also reimburses hourly employees who decided to bank overtime hours to be used for time off later. Employees who use overtime hours for future leave can only receive it back when they leave, Credico said.
5 Largest Accruals
Arman Nazemi, Assistant Public Works Director – $163,359
Margie Riopel, Management Analyst – $148,856
Kathryn Flores, Health & Human Services Agency – $117,731
Alan Yamamoto, Behavioral Health Director – $104,593
Jose Santos, Migrant Housing Manager – $79,091
Other Recent County Cash-outs
Art Henriques – employee for 4 years and total payout was $14,092
Dennis LeClere – employee for 2.5 years and total payout was $20,033
Jerry Lo – employee for 2.5 years and total payout was $10,062
Susan Thompson – employee for 5 years and total payout was $61,329.
Patrick Turturici – employee for 24 years and total payout was $58,901.
