VALPARAISO | Participating Porter County government employees have stashed away 2,164 sick days as of Friday that they are eligible to draw from once they have used all their other paid-time-off, according to figures requested from the auditor's office.
There are currently three employees on 30-day leaves from the sick bank, and six or seven employees typically take advantage of the program each year, according to the auditor's office.
Porter County Council Vice President Karen Conover, R-3rd, said this employee benefit and others need to be reviewed by a professional.
She supports a proposal by the Porter County Board of Commissioners to hire a human resource director and assistant next year. That proposal calls for annual salaries of $72,000 for the director and $41,000 for the assistant, in addition to annual health insurance costs of $17,380 for each and additional pension and FICA costs.
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"We have to do it," Conover said.
Employee benefits have proven to be a hot topic in the debate over how to respond to the budget woes of county government.
Porter County Auditor Bob Wichlinski, who continues to take a lot of heat over his decision to eliminate a quarter of his staff earlier this year in cost-savings and efficiency move, said the extended leave created by the sick bank program fuels the county's financial problems because it results in a need for overtime and part-time help to pick up the slack.
It has also resulted in over-staffing, he said.
"They have engineered the work flow around the reality of the absence of employees," Wichlinski said.
County Council Budget & Finance Specialist Vicki Urbanik, a Democrat, who hopes to unseat Republican Wichlinski in the fall general election, said, "The sick bank program may have been well intentioned when it was first established, but we need to ensure that proper controls are in place to guard against abuse."
It is her understanding the program began as a way to help employees, who are having extended medical problems and who wouldn’t otherwise qualify under the Family and Medical Leave Act or other types of assistance.
Urbanik said she believes the auditor should play a key oversight role by sharing information with the county commissioner-appointed committee overseeing the sick bank program. The auditor should also report concerns about potential abuse to the commissioners and county council.
County employees are required to contribute at least one sick day each year to take part in in the sick bank program. They can then request up to 90 days off each year through the program in 30-day increments unless their diagnosis is terminal, according to the auditor's office.
County employees, who work 6 1/2-hour or 7-hour days, receive annually nine sick days, three personal days, paid holidays (14 in 2014) and vacation time ranging from 10 days after a year on the job to 25 days after 20 years.
