BREC changes comp time policy

BREC commissioners have voted to end a policy that gave semi-annual compensation time payments to employees. The parks department implemented the policy in 2005, at a time when the department was having trouble recruiting, retaining and compensating employees. But after paying out $936,112 since June 2006, the policy was changed last month in order to be consistent with the comp plan used by other city-parish agencies. Bill Palmer, BREC superintendent, says the comp pay plan was an effective way of dealing with short-term staffing issues. “All the park and recreation employees work many hours, and they work when people are playing—after hours, on weekends and holidays,” he says. Palmer says it would have taken 88 extra workers to deal with staffing issues over the years and that it takes $4,000 to recruit and train just one worker. “That’s a huge amount of money,” he says. The new policy caps the amount of comp time that can be accumulated by one employee at 240 hours and provides for payouts only when an employee leaves BREC or is fired. Palmer says a decision was made as part of a regular analysis to follow the management practices of the rest of the city-parish departments. “We think it’s best to be aligned with the city-parish and state,” he says. —Timothy Boone