The human resources director has said she has not found any documentation going as far back as the 1970s that allows police supervisors nine days pay for every week of vacation.
West Springfield Mayor Gregory Neffinger has asked the city's Public Safety Commission to take up recently retired Police Chief Thomas Burke's request for payment of 11½ weeks of unused vacation time. WEST SPRINGFIELD – Members of the Public Safety Committee Wednesday asked the city’s human resources director to get documentation of whether there is anything in contracts or selectmen’s meeting minutes allowing police supervisors to get nine days of pay for every week of vacation owed.
Human Resources Director Sandra A. MacFadyen told the committee she has not found any documentation of that going back as far as the 1970s, but committee members directed her to get that in writing from the Town Clerk’s office.
The query has come up as part of the committee having been asked by the mayor to advise him on how to handle retired Police Chief Thomas E. Burke’s request to be compensated for 11 and 1/2 weeks of unused vacation time.
“Nobody is aware of a union contract that specifies a week is nine days. We don’t have a document that provides that,” Committee Chairman William J. Fennell said.
“That’s the way it has been since I’ve been there, 42 years,” Burke said.
Burke responded that not all the city’s contracts are on file in the Town Clerk’s office.
Fennell said the committee has it in writing that former Mayor Edward J. Gibson allowed Burke to carry over vacation time into 2012, so that should not be an issue, but that it still needs to figure out how much to compensate him.
Burke said police have been allowed to carry over vacation time from one year to the next and that the chief as well as captains and sergeants have been compensated nine days pay for each week of vacation owed.
Burke retired in March and even the exact date he should have retired is also subject to debate.
Burke worked to the end of the month and some officials believed he should have retired March 12, the day he turned 67 and was subject to mandatory retirement requirements. The chief told the committee that his group of employees has always been entitled to work until the end of the month of their birthday.
Mayor Gregory Neffinger said the city needs to develop a clear policy on vacation carryovers and that if police are allowed to carry time over other employees like those in the Fire Department might want the same treatment.
“We are talking about a dollar amount that could be huge for West Springfield,” Neffinger said.
The committee agreed to take up the issue again at its next meeting, which it set for 5:15 p.m. May 16 in the municipal office building.