A policy change, which would have allowed exempt city staff who are typically not paid overtime to be eligible during state or federal emergencies, expired from the Jefferson City Council informal calendar during Monday's meeting.
Under the proposed policy, exempt employees who work over their salary hours would have received comp time or their additional hourly rate when the United States president declares a state of emergency and when the Emergency Operations Center is activated and staffed.
Under current city code, exempt employees are typically not paid for hours worked beyond 40 per week.
Ward 3 Councilwoman Erin Wiseman recommended to the council that the bill stay on the informal calendar. The bill then expired, because it had been on the informal calendar for three meetings, and the council did not take action on it.
"I think we need to get a fuller picture of what happened with the tornado and what's happening with staff," Wiseman said of the decision. "I think what we're really trying to figure out is how this effected the community in a bigger scope."
Managers and directors are usually salaried positions, including fire and police chiefs, assistant chiefs, captains and lieutenants. Those city staff and others worked overtime during recent natural disasters, but no additional pay or compensation was given to exempt employees, Human Resources Department Director Gail Strope told the News Tribune in August.
From May 22 to June 1, following the tornado, non-exempt employees from the Jefferson City Police Department alone generated more than 1,800 hours of overtime, Chief Roger Schroeder said during an August Jefferson City Budget Committee meeting.
Strope also previously said the Federal Emergency Management Agency and State Emergency Management Agency could reimburse the funds for overtime to the city, if the policy were implemented.
The change was recommended to the council by the Jefferson City Council Committee on Administration in August.
Wiseman said she hopes to bring the issue back in front of the council in the future.
In other business, the council approved a $54,700 contract with Evers and Company, Certified Public Accountants, LLC, for audit services for Nov. 1 through Oct. 31, 2020. The request is for the audit of city records for fiscal year 2018-19.
Also Monday, the City Council also approved a $6,500 transfer from the Jefferson City Plaza Trust Fund to the plaza maintenance and repair account.
The Veterans Plaza Committee plans to make improvements and expand the Veterans Plaza in front of the Jefferson City Police Station, 401 Monroe St. The supplemental appropriation would fund The Architects Alliance design services to develop bid plans for the project, according to the bill.
The council on Monday approved a bill authorizing $145,844 for a consolidated planning grant agreement with the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission.
The grant will go toward metropolitan transportation planning services for the Fiscal Year 2020, which begins Nov. 1 and runs through Oct. 31, 2020, according to the bill.