(9/18) The Taneytown Council voted at their September 14 meeting to table further consideration of executing a buy-out of thousands of dollars’ worth of accrued, unused police-leave time until the board's upcoming October meeting.
Councilman Joe Vigliotti successfully motioned to postpone any decision regarding leave compensation to enable Police Chief Jason Etzler to procure the amount of the buy-back reduced.
Councilman Vigliotti pointed out that the accrual of this unused leave resulted from "unusual circumstances," noting that it was primarily the direct result of demands placed upon the municipal Police Department as a result of trying to provide police assignment and patrol coverage during the ongoing pandemic. The need to provide consistent coverage resulted in
the police chief having to cancel leaves during the crises.
Mayor Bradley Wantz initially proposed that the council put a cap of $14,000 on the amount the city would pay-out, but the council ultimately voted to not put a cap in place, and to give the chief a chance to reduce the amount as much as possible.
Explaining his initial recommendation, Mayor Wantz said, "The idea of the cap is just saying that we will not pay any more than that figure for this. We hope that it comes in less. I expect that it will come in less. I think it's appropriate and important that we do attach a figure (cap/limit) to this specific thing (buy-back issue)."
Pending any reduction in the amount, the current amount owed to police officers for unused leave has been estimated, as of the September 14 meeting, to be under $14,000. The accrued leave for the department as a whole stands at 96 hours, pending any additional reductions.
City Manager James Wieprecht told the council that efforts to reduce the bottom line of the amount of unused leave is still a work in progress … and that waiting a month will give the officers time to submit additional leave requests, "but I don't believe those requests have all been formally made at this point."
In response to Wieprecht's comments, Councilwoman Diane Foster stated that she felt the police chief would have been more demonstrative in encouraging officers to put in for leave. "I don't know if he's given any sort of deadline for the (officers' leave) requests to be in, then (if he hasn't) I want to see him give (the officers) a directive, that they have to
use this leave."
Vigliotti responded, "The chief has encouraged everybody to take advantage of this as soon as possible," and that the officers have been "very receptive to it."
