TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Hernando Today

County Unveils Employee Buy-Out Plan

ADVERTISEMENT

By MICHAEL D. BATES

Hernando Today

Published: February 6, 2009

Updated: 02/06/2009 03:11 pm

BROOKSVILLE - County officials on Thursday unveiled their much-anticipated early leave retirement plan, which lays down formalized guidelines for transitioning government employees out of the organization and is designed to reduce the cost of upper-salaried positions by $500,000.

The plan is being offered in response to the economic downturn, the need to reduce operational expenses and the county administrator's initiative to provide "more management and less managers," according to Human Resources Director Cheryl Marsden.

The plan, still in draft form and subject to change, would be offered to board of county commissioner employees who currently make $50,000 or more and have completed at least six years of service by May 15, 2009.

The plan would not be available to employees who are involuntarily terminated during that period.

County officials estimate that about 116 employees are eligible to participate.

Employees would be offered one week of pay for each year of completed service up to a maximum 18 weeks. The county would continue to pay medical health care premiums for the employee (not family members) up to 18 months through the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) plan.

They would also be eligible to apply for unemployment benefits that currently cost $7,150 per employee.

Employees who want to take advantage of the plan must submit a written request to the county's human resources department by March 13 and approval will be based upon funding.

If too many applications are received, they would be accepted based on a first-come, first-served basis or on the operations and workforce needs in relation to employees' skills, knowledge and competencies.

Marsden said she believes about 10 percent of the eligible participants will take advantage of early retirement, resulting in an annual savings of $500,000 in the 2009-10 budget.

The potential cost of the plan is a one-time expense of $286,000.

The county would also pay out any accumulated employee leave.

The plan was one of the first priorities assigned to Marsden by County Administrator David Hamilton when she was hired three months ago.

Still unclear is where the money will come from to pay for these early buyouts.

It was originally envisioned the money would come out of the county's worker compensation fund.

But County Commission Chairman David Russell said the county might have to tap its general fund reserve.

Russell said it would be a one-time hit to the reserve, but the savings would be made up in the long run by non-recurring expenditures in salaries and payroll.

The costs would be based on a best possible one-time payment for the employee.

Russell said it is impossible to speculate how much this early buy-out plan will save the county until he knows how many people take advantage of it.

"We're not putting a gun to anyone's head and this makes that clear," Russell said. "This would be a strictly voluntary process."

The plan "may get us where we need to be in terms of staff," Russell said.

"It appears, to me, to be a fair offer to folks who would like to leave and retire a little bit early," he said.

The newly created leadership team has reviewed the plan, which will be presented to county commissioners at their Wednesday land use hearing.

Reporter Michael D. Bates can be reached at 352-544-5290 or mbates@hernandotoday.com.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT