The Atlanta City Council returns from recess today, and many city workers say they want answers about five-figure payouts Mayor Kasim Reed’s administration granted to a number of top employees under a little known “hardship pay” program.
Reed’s office has come under fire in recent weeks for the payments Human Resources Commissioner Yvonne Yancey and Chief Financial Officer Jim Beard approved for at least nine employees since 2012.
Among them: Atlanta Police Chief George Turner, the city’s highest-paid employee, was paid $79,000 last year for nearly 700 hours in unused vacation. Deputy Chief of Staff Katrina Taylor-Parks was paid about $29,000 for 371 hours of vacation and 248 hours in unused sick leave. Deputy Chief Financial Officer Gwen Smith was paid nearly $28,000 for 335 hours of compensatory time.
Three other employees were paid a combined $6,000 for unused vacation time. And three city workers, including a leader of an employee union, were granted a combined $12,000 in advance pay — effectively a loan against future earnings.
District 9 Councilwoman Felicia Moore has called the payments illegal and in violation of city code, which authorizes payouts for vacation time only upon retiring, quitting or termination. She says city code does not allow payments for sick or comp time.
Moore and others also question how some of the employees were able to cash in hundreds of hours of unused leave beyond what city code allows an employee to carry over into a new year.
Reed has refuted Moore’s assertion the payments are illegal and said the practice is nothing new at City Hall. He’s acknowledged the policy should be clearer, if not formalized, but has said he believes the city acted properly in granting payments to employees experiencing a hardship.
“When folks are in the situation that we can help them out, I’m prepared to do that,” Reed said.
Chief Turner declined a request for interview, but spokesman Carlos Campos provided a statement defending the payments.
The chief is grateful the city was able to compensate him for his earned time, Campos said. He also noted that Turner could have retired in recent years, but instead chose to stay on board for the position.
Reed officials nor Turner have described the circumstances under which Turner — a 33-year employee — was granted hardship pay, or why he was allowed to keep nearly double the amount of vacation time that city code allows.
And none in Reed’s administration have pointed to city code clearly allowing the payments. Spokeswoman Melissa Mullinax has said attorneys for the city believe the laws are “confusing” and want to streamline legislation with the council.
District 6 Councilman Alex Wan, chair of the finance committee, said he plans to take up the issue at the next meeting. And District 8 Councilwoman Yolanda Adrean has called for a review of 2010 legislation reforming the benefits policy.
Mary Huber, a former city of Atlanta attorney, said the administration may have set itself for a number of lawsuits on grounds the payments were unlawful and discriminated against other employees.
“The laws aren’t confusing … this is as clear as it could get,” she said. “If you don’t have authority set out in the city ordinances, you can’t do it. You have to go to the council to get an ordinance.”
Police and fire union leaders have decried the payments as unfair to rank-and-file employees who have been told in recent years to take their unused vacation time, lest they lose it.
And they say it worsens their protracted battle with Reed over salary and benefits. The mayor refused to grant city-wide raises this year because of a lawsuit a handful of city workers filed challenging his 2011 pension reform, a case still playing out in court.
A number of public safety workers are expected to bring their concerns to today’s full council meeting.
“It’s one more kick in the gut to rank and file employees,” said Stephen Borders, president of the Atlanta Professional Firefighters union.
Ken Allen, president of the International Brotherhood of Police Officers Local 623, called the news a “morale buster.”
“You’re seeing big lump sum payouts of vacation and sick time for a supposed hardship policy, when we have people who lost their houses in foreclosure because their spouses lost their jobs in the economic downfall,” he said.
Allen said he nor his union members knew of this option: “They didn’t know they could try.”
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