Proposal:

Modify Employee Relations Agreements Pertaining to Management and Confidential Employees

Synopsis:

Benefits for management employees have not been reviewed for the past three and one-half years, and confidential employees have had no review for two years. A recent study indicates that benefits should be modified.

Committee:

Administrative, August 23, 1996, Recommended for Approval

Recommended Action:

Approve changes relating to benefits of management and confidential employees, included as Attachments A&B.

James M. Lents, Ph.D.
Executive Officer

Background

Management and confidential employees are not represented by a union. It has been the practice of the Board to annually review salaries and benefits for these employees near the beginning of the fiscal year. Such review for management employees has not occurred since January 1993. For confidential employees, the last review was in January of 1995 at which time the Board approved a four percent salary increase.

Proposal

Revise benefits for management and confidential employees to provide a greater range of options. These revisions would reaffirm the Board’s recognition of staff accomplishments in a significant but cost-conscious manner. The revisions, described in Attachments A and B, include the following:

• Replace the existing mental health insurance program with a long-term disability insurance plan.
• Revise the amount of accrued vacation leave that may be sold back annually to an additional twenty hours for management employees and four hours for confidential employees, to a total of sixty hours per year for each class of employees.
• Revise the annual reimbursement for required bar affiliation for attorneys from $300 to $478.
• Allow management employees to carry over their $300-per-year allowance toward a physical examination for up to three years, to allow a maximum of $600 for biennial examinations or $900 for triennial examinations.

Resource Impacts

If approved, these changes would be effective October 1, 1996. The estimated annual cost of the recommended changes in management and confidential employee benefits is approximately $4,201. The cost includes $1,531 per year to substitute long-term disability insurance for the existing mental health coverage for all management and confidential employees and $2,670 per year to increase annual reimbursement to attorneys for required bar affiliation. No additional appropriation is requested as part of this recommendation, as there are sufficient funds allocated in the approved FY 1996-97 budget.

Attachments

A - Salary Resolution
B - Administrative Code

RESOLUTION NO. 97-

A Resolution of the Governing Board of the South Coast Air Quality Management District regarding the Salary Resolution and the Administrative Code.

WHEREAS, the Board of the South Coast Air Quality Management District desires to amend the Salary Resolution and Administrative Code regarding management and confidential employee benefits;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Board of the South Coast Air Quality Management District does hereby amend provisions affecting management and confidential employees in the Salary Resolution to permit the selling back of up to sixty hours of accrued vacation annually, as reflected in Attachment A, and in the Administrative Code to allow annual physical examination reimbursements to carry over for up to three years, to replace mental health insurance coverage with a long-term disability insurance plan, and to increase annual reimbursement for required bar affiliation to a maximum of $478, as reflected in Attachment B.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED AND ORDERED that this Resolution shall be operative on and after October 1, 1996.

Dated:_____________  CLERK OF THE BOARD

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By