EDITORIAL: City Employees Cashing Out Unused Vacation Hours Must End

CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS fell down on the job between 2011 and 2014. The job performances of City Administrator Steve Powers and City Attorney Stephen Postema went without review. The Charter calls for Council members to evaluate only two city employees annually, and the members of that body did not get the evaluations done. When they did, finally, only six Council members evaluated City Attorney Postema. Postema’s evaluation took months thanks to the foot-dragging of the members of the Council’s Administrative Committee (Hieftje, Taylor, Briere, Petersen and Teall—two of whom are now gone) who are supposed to coordinate the evaluations. When Council finally came forward with its evaluation, it included a raise and allowed Postema to “cash out” $11,000 in unused vacation hours.

This is a practice which must end.

Postema, one of the highest paid city attorneys in Michigan, may be worth his salary, but taxpayers must no longer be expected to pay him for his vacation time. The vote to provide the City Attorney with $11,000 worth of vacation was unanimous, and this, too, is disappointing. The City of Ann Arbor cut the curbside collection of Christmas trees in order to save $12,000. Council members have repeatedly voted against the restoration of that service. Former Ward 4 Council member Teall once suggested that citizens could compost their Christmas trees. She seemed unaware that to do so requires the use of a woodchipper, not really a standard garden implement in the garage of the average city dweller.

Jane Lumm (Ward 2-I) has repeatedly brought forth resolutions to restore lost services, including curbside Christmas tree pick-up. Her resolutions have repeatedly been voted down by her Democratic colleagues who would rather, it appears, use the money to pay for employee perks. For some inexplicable reason, Council member Lumm voted to give City Attorney Postema the option to cash out $11,000 of unused vacation time in addition to granting him a raise in pay.

So long as the City Administrator continues to present budgets which raise fees for services and reduce services, we urge City Council members to exercise reasonable fiscal discipline and end the practice of allowing any city employee to cash out unused vacation hours. It’s well past time to implement a “use them or lose them” policy.