DuPage time-off plan comes with possible $1.6 million cost

DuPage County may have to spend as much as $1.6 million next year before it can start saving money from a decision to slash employee time-off benefits.

The one-time expense is expected to come from the DuPage County sheriff’s office, which is planning to comply with a recent county board decision to modify the number of sick, personal and vacation days employees can accrue annually.

The changes, which take effect Dec. 1, include standardizing sick time to provide employees with eight sick days annually. The number of sick days formerly increased with an employee’s longevity.

Vacation time accrued by employees also is being be reduced. But the number of personal days is increasing to five from three.

County finance officials estimate the changes to sick day accrual will net $8 million to $12 million in savings during the next two decades. The vacation and personal day changes could save the county as much as $800,000 a year.

But on Wednesday, sheriff’s officials said transitioning to the revised benefits policy might cost the department as much as $1.6 million next year.

“Adopting these amended benefits — which is our intent to do — could have an economic impact to bring ourselves in line with the county policy,” said James Kruse, the sheriff’s administrative chief.

One reason is because more sheriff’s employees are expected to use their vacation days and extra personal days instead of saving them.

“With the assumption that people are going to be using their time now, we are looking at a potential of having to fill in gaps because of that time away,” Kruse said.

It would most impact the jail and communications center, which are 24-hour operations with minimum staffing requirements. The sheriff’s office might need to have employees work on their days off and pay overtime, Kruse said.

Sheriff’s officials say they wanted to make county board members aware of the possible expense so the board could decide whether to establish a contingency fund for next year.

Kruse said the $1.6 million estimate is based on “the worst case scenario.” However, he said officials are trying to see if there are ways to “dramatically” reduce that number.

Board member Paul Fichtner said he expects Sheriff John Zaruba to succeed in getting the projected expense reduced.

“He has certain managerial approaches that he can do to minimize the overtime payments,” said Fichtner, who is chairman of the board’s finance committee.

Despite the issue raised by the sheriff’s department, Fichtner said the goal is still to have all county employees under the same time-off policy. “It’s a fair plan for everybody,” he said.

Board member Jeff Redick said the new policy is needed to create a more stable financial future for the county.

“Every piece of that reform package was based on providing long-term financial stability,” Redick said. “All the financials showed that we could not sustain what we were doing.”