Sue Sabo, director of Human Resources St. Mary’s County, presented proposed changes to the county’s personnel policies and procedures manual during the county commissioners meeting on Tuesday.
“Three years is a good mark for a manual update,” Sabo said, explaining the county does not have a specific time for a manual review, but she keeps a file of ideas and requests and acts when appropriate. “This seemed like a good time,” she said, noting that now that the she has approval from the Board of county Commissioners, she will take her recommended changes and clarifications to county employees.
Copies of Sabo’s recommendations will be posted on the county’s Web site and in county offices. Employees will receive information about policy changes by e-mail or letters will be included in pay envelopes. If they have comments, they can contact Sabo directly at (301) 475-4200, ext. 1107.
The director will review all employee input. “I’ll be looking for trends,” she said, explaining comments that are repeated could be reflected in eventual policy.
Sabo hopes to contact employees within a week or a week and a half. “People are on vacation,” she said, “those might make a difference.” But she hopes she receives and processes employee input and then takes her final recommendation to county commissions within a month or six weeks.
Sabo presented 38 policy changes or clarifications to the Board of County Commissioners including:
Change the time period for conducting job reclassifications from every year to every other year.
Allow hourly employees to apply for internal job openings.
Add the sheriff’s office pension plan to the county’s policy requiring retiring personnel to wait 45 days before starting a new county job.
Allow department heads to review performance evaluations of a county employee applying for a new county position within their department.
Change the probationary period for deputy and correctional offices to 1 year after field training. The previous probationary period was 1 year after completing academy training.
Allow hourly and temporary employees to contribute to the county’s 457 deferred compensation plan.
Establish a special premium pay for employees scheduled to work overtime on weekends and holidays in the solid waste facilities on a regular basis.
Increase the tuition reimbursement for county employees to $2,000 annually.
Allow the county administrator to authorize administrative leave.
Enable county employees to take military leave to help a family member deploy or to help them during medical treatment resulting from injuries during a tour of duty.