ELLSWORTH – The Ellsworth Village Board on Thursday, Dec. 1 approved a recommendation from its Salary and Labor Committee to allow three police department officers to carry over vacation time into 2023, rather than try to take it now.

The police department is understaffed, and it would be difficult for the department to cover shifts if all the vacation time were to be used in the next several weeks.

Employees are allowed to carry up to 40 hours of vacation time into the next year, and these officers have in excess of that. Village Administrator Brad Roy pointed out that while employees should know and monitor how much vacation time they have, a clerical error on two of the officer’s checks showed less vacation time than they actually had coming.

“We verified the absolute numbers. We recognized that the mistake was made, and that there were a significant amount of hours missed,” said Roy.

The third officer was unable to take his remaining vacation time, because of a resignation on the force.

The officers are going to be told it’s “a onetime thing,” so the village isn’t in the same position in a year.

Employee handbook

The Salary and Labor Committee also reviewed a new and improved employee handbook.

“I thought it’s very well done,” Village President Becky Beissel said. “Its voice was very friendly. The last one was like our employees are a bother and we don’t want it. I just felt a lot better reading through this. It made me feel good.”

The proposed handbook opens with, “We are pleased to welcome you to the Village of Ellsworth, and we hope your association with us will be rewarding. The policies, procedures, and practices of the Village are based on an ‘open door’ philosophy. The village wants you to know we encourage ongoing communication between you and your department head and/or the administrator/clerk-treasurer. By working together cooperatively and in harmony, we can be assured the Village will continue to be known as a great place to work.”

The committee worked through things like set paid holidays, employee time off and changed an area on COVID-19 policy to be more general, covering any pandemics or public health emergencies.

Final approval by the village board was expected at the Dec. 5 meeting.

Deputy treasurer and clerk

The committee reviewed the hiring of a deputy treasurer and a deputy clerk and moved the job descriptions on to the village board for approval.

The deputy treasurer would work 40 hours weekly, and the new hire would have a sixmonth probationary period. The position will oversee payroll, accounts payable and receivables as well as helping department heads when necessary.

The deputy clerk position is modeled after the work done now by Angie Fisher, who works in the village office.

“This essentially would be the position that Angie is in,” said Roy. “This is about what she’s been doing and doing well. She also looked at these descriptions and made notes on it, and these were things she was very comfortable with.” The position summary states that the employee “performs a variety of routine and complex clerical, reception and administrative tasks for the Administrator/Clerk-Treasurer and Public Works Department.”

The positions both work under the guidance of the village administrator.