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Sep 24, 2009 8:08 am US/Eastern
Miami Workers Cashing In Big On Unused Hours
Read More In David Sutta's Blog
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
In the face of a draconian budget, Miami Commissioners are looking at a perk most in the private sector could only dream of: the ability to bank hours. In Miami all employees are allowed to take any unused sick, vacation, or comp time and simply roll it over to the next year. The best part is they can cash it out instead of taking the time off. When they cash out, it is at their current pay rate. So any unused vacation from say 5 years ago, after raises, really pays off.
While the banking of hours may appear to be a dedicated employee who refuses to take a vacation, it has become a cash cow for city employees.
CBS4 did an audit of the past five years of employee banking and we discovered hundreds of city workers banking more than one thousand vacation hours. When they cashed out they raked in tens of thousand of dollars on top of their salaries.
The biggest winners include:
-Assistant Fire Chief Roy Hamlin who brought in $74,136 thousand dollars in banked vacation. That's in addition to $171,000 salary and $35,000 in overtime last year.
-City Clerk Priscilla Thompson has banked more than a thousand vacation hours cashed in for $87,000. That is on top of her $226,000 a year salary.
-The police departments deputy chief appears to not have taken a single vacation in five years. Frank Fernandez has cashed 1200 hours for $89,000.
-City Auditor Victor Igwe holds the record for the city banking 1,160 vacation hours worth $96,000.
City Manager Pete Hernandez say's it's all legal, however he doesn't agree with it. "You could probably say it's not right. So we are taking the proper steps to correct it prospectively," Hernandez said.
City Commissioners are now eying a new ordinance to eliminate banking with a use-it-or-lose-it policy. Just the sheer mention of it sent city employees rushing to to cash out their banked time. The City Manager issued a memo to calm fears no one will lose hours.
Commissioner Marc Sarnoff supports this change. He believes if they were to enact it now, the city could save up to $1.5 million dollars. "I can now bank on that amount of money and put it toward police. And putting warm blue bodies on the street," said Commissioner Sarnoff.
Police and firefighters, who combined bank the most hours in the city, would not be affected by this policy change because of their contracts. But Sarnoff is already suggesting when those deals renew, banking will be off the table.
Sarnoff told
CBS4's David Sutta, "It's too rich a pot to give to any employee. The private sector doesn't do it. It wouldn't be stood for. The public sector certainly cant do it."
Early estimates are the city will pay upwards of $20 million dollars next year for the current vacation banking policy. If they change the policy at Thursday's commission meeting, non-union employees would no longer be able to bank time year after year. They would have to use their vacation or cash out.
If employees make a run on the city to cash out, City Manager Hernandez says he may exercise his right to limit cash outs to avoid bankrupting the city.
For more on this story including a list of the top 30 overtime earners in the city check out
CBS4's David Sutta's Blog.
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