Cook County commissioners take their jobs seriously but on occasion allow for some levity. Just three days before Christmas, commissioners donned apparel fitting the season. The elves or gnomes are (L-R) Jan Sivertson, Ginny Storlie, Garry Gamble, Heidi Doo-Kirk, and Frank Moe.
Three Christmas elves and two gnomes greeted the few people attending the Cook County commissioners’ December 22 meeting. Santa Claus was no doubt just around a corner at the courthouse as commissioners—wearing red pointy hats and red rouge on their cheeks— conducted business one last time for 2015.
It was a jolly meeting with no Grinch-like moments.
Cook County Sheriff Pat Eliasen appeared before the board to see if a determination had been made on a request by Dispatch Supervisor/ Jail Administrator Judy Sivertson to convert time frozen in Sivertson’s sick leave bank to her Health Care Savings Account.
In 2001 the county began paid leave, which replaced sick leave, personal days and actuarial leave, rolling those all into one contract.
The last time Eliasen came before the board with this request he made the case for the board to make the switch, arguing, “Sick leave banks were frozen and can only be used for medical leave when the paid leave (PL) bank is below 80 hours.”
Eliasen said he couldn’t find documentation on the reasoning, but said he believed it was to create one bank of accrual to maintain more flexibility to use the hours and that accrued hours could be used or paid off.
Eliasen said he had been allowed to convert his sick leave (less than 200 hours) to paid leave hours in the last contract negotiation.
He said the benefit is earned over the career of an employee and by not allowing access, “It creates a hardship at the end of the tenure of the particular employee, as it would be preferable to the employee to become ‘sick’ or seek some type of medical treatment so that they can use their hours. This could be a significant amount of time where the employee is absent from service and the position would remain void until the employee either returns or submits a resignation.”
Eliasen brought this request to the board several weeks ago and the board asked County Administrator Jeff Cadwell to see what the county’s policy was concerning converting sick leave to paid leave.
“Our [current] policy is that our sick leave is not convertible,” Cadwell said.
Currently county employees have banked from three hours to more than 800 hours of sick leave, which adds up to over $119,000 the county would have to pay out if a change was made to the current policy.
“We can’t make a determination on one person without making a determination for all of them,” added Cadwell.
Sick leave, said Cadwell, at one time was like job insurance. If someone got sick they could still get paid and still keep their job. “It was like life insurance, if you didn’t use it, that was good.”
As an example of someone who didn’t get paid for accrued sick leave, Cadwell mentioned Aimee Luick who retired from the auditor’s office last week and “left over 700 hours of sick leave.”
Commissioner Frank Moe said he thought Sivertson’s request was reasonable, but added, “It’s opened up a [Pandora’s] box for us.”
Commissioner Garry Gamble said the issue should be studied further, adding, “The commitment from this board is to get it right. Consistency is important.”
“This is a policy issue,” said Commissioner Jan Sivertson. “We will have to take personalities out of it.”
“Judy [Sivertson] is not losing this [benefit] right now,” Cadwell said, asking for more time to research her request and come back later with a potential policy change for the board to review. The board agreed with Cadwell and tabled the matter until it can be discussed again early next year.
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