By VICKI URBANIK

When Porter County officials said that they wanted to get employee compensatory time under control, they weren’t kidding.

The Porter County Commissioners on Tuesday abolished comp time, the practice of giving employees paid time off after working more than their standard hours. And the Porter County Council has put county departments on notice that they will now have to budget for overtime costs and not expect the funding automatically.

The changes affect most rank-and-file full-time county employees. Certain employees -- elected officials, department heads and chief deputies -- have not qualified for comp time and will not qualify for overtime, in accordance with the Fair Labor Standards Act.

The move to end comp time stems from discussions at the Porter County Council. In May, county council member Michael Bucko, D-4th, blasted the comp time system, since some employees have racked up close to 300 hours of paid time off. Then, last month, the council and the commissioners agreed to come up with a revised employee policy aimed at getting comp time under control.

On Tuesday, the county commissioners unanimously passed an amendment to the county employee manual ending comp time and outlining how overtime will now be handled. The amendment states that employees who have already accrued comp time will be able to take their paid time off through July 1. After that, they will lose their comp time.

Employees who work more than the standard county work week -- in most cases, 35 hours weekly -- will be paid overtime at their standard rate of pay up to 40 hours. If they put in more than 40 hours weekly, the employees will get paid at a time and a half rate.

But even the overtime pay isn’t guaranteed.

The amendment states that in order to get overtime pay, the elected official or department head in charge of the office must receive a written explanation or itemization of the type of work performed for the overtime requested. “Payment will be denied if the time accrued was not done for a legitimate work-related function,” the amendment states.

Further, the amendment says that employees must get authorization for working in excess of their scheduled hours. If they don’t, they might not get paid or they could face disciplinary action.

Commissioner President Robert Harper said departments cannot pay overtime unless they have the money in their budget. If they don’t, they should ask for the funds from the county council, he said.

How much the overtime pay will cost the county remains to be seen. A memo sent out by the council to departments asks each department to submit a per employee breakdown of overtime amounts paid in 2007, along with the dollar amount of anticipated overtime needs in 2008.

The memo notes that in the past, departments accrued overtime expecting the money to be approved, and the council acted accordingly. “However, effective immediately, this is no longer the case,” the council memo says. “Under no circumstances should overtime be accrued unless the current monies in your overtime line are sufficient.”

County Attorney Gwenn Rinkenberger said it’s not always clear cut which type of employee qualifies for overtime pay. For instance, employees who work in public safety positions, such as police officers and hazardous material workers, do qualify for comp time or overtime, under federal rules, even if they are considered a department head or chief deputy.

Museum, Opera House

After nearly a year of undergoing a transformation, another big change is in store at the Old Jail Museum.

Last month, the commissioners agreed to seek council approval for $26,000 to begin paying two museum officials -- director Paula Ramos and Kevin Pazour -- who, in the past year, have overseen a renovation of the museum and restructured its management. But since then, Ramos has been hired by the Porter County Parks Department.

The commissioners will still seek the council’s approval for the museum funding, but they agreed Tuesday that instead of having two part-time posts at the museum, they would retain Pazour as the director, under a $26,000 contract. Ramos has agreed to serve on the museum’s advisory board to help oversee the museum.

South County Commissioner Carole Knoblock praised the improvements that have been made at the museum in the past year and said she’d hate to see the museum go backwards. Harper said if the county is serious about wanting to protect the museum’s possessions, it will need to provide the funds.

Years ago, the commissioners had $20,000 in their general fund budget for the museum staff, but this funding has long been eliminated. The museum does get $8,910 as part of the Porter County Convention, Recreation and Visitors Commission’s venue grants to certain county departments.

Also Tuesday, the commissioners approved a $10,000 increase in the contract for Memorial Opera House Director Brian Schafer, bringing the contract to $30,000. The contract is to be funded through Opera House revenues. Harper noted that when Schafer was first retained, he worked at the Opera House only part-time, but since then he has been working nearly full-time hours at the facility.

Also Tuesday, the commissioners approved two other contracts -- for Porter County Animal Welfare board attorney Matt Soliday at a $5,370 stipend and for Porter County Drainage Board attorney Clay Patton at $7,200.

Also, the commissioners appointed Donna Volom to a vacancy on the Animal Welfare Board.

Posted 2/6/2008