Mentone Employees Have Too Much Comp Time on Their Hands
Posted
David Slone-dslone@timesuniononline.com
MENTONE – Employees of the town of Mentone are building up so much comp time, they don’t know what to do with it.
Monday night, Town Marshal Jim Eads said deputy Terry Engstrand has 46-1/2 hours of comp time and he has 40 hours. They’ve taken some, but still have plenty left.
“You talk about availability, but if we take the comp time we won’t be,” Eads said.
He requested the town pay them for their comp time instead of Eads and Engstrand taking the time off.
“We’re kind of in the same boat,” said Eric Carlin, utilities superintendent.
Tim Croy, council president, asked if the reserve officers could fill in while Eads and Engstrand take their comp time.
Eads said they have two reserve officers, but they can’t cover all those hours through the end of the year. The other two reserves are still in training and can’t be on their own until March.
“What did you do last year?” Jill Gross, councilwoman, asked.
Eads said the comp time just rolled over. At the beginning of 2011, Eads said he had 31 hours of comp time.
Carlin said he has 127 hours of comp time this year, and utilities employee Josh Shepherd has 37 hours.
“I don’t know how much I have accumulated. I just start over each year,” Carlin said.
Councilman Kent Ganshorn said if the police department could utilize reserves that would help cut comp time. If it’s not feasible to use it up by the January meeting, the council will take a look at comp time then.
Eads said he brought comp time up to the council as something to think about and he appreciated the council’s consideration.
Engstrand supplied the council with the police department’s October monthly report.
According to the report, the department dealt with 57 incidents, 17 cases and 11 major cases. There were eight arrests for adult misdemeanors and five for adult felony.
Police issued 17 traffic-related tickets, 49 traffic-related written warnings and six ordinance violations.
Two warrants were served, they handled six lock outs and five crashes. Reserves put in 87.5 hours, and the department had 40 training hours.
Police attended seven “other” activities, including Boy Scouts, HeadStart, KCODE grant presentation, school carnival, the lupus walk, pill drop-off and lunch at Mentone Elementary.
Tim Carter, owner of the Bulldog Saloon, said after reading the newspaper last month regarding what happened at the town council meeting and what was said about the town and officers, he was disturbed.
During the October meeting, resident David Hudson presented the council with some information on a Neighborhood Watch program. A lengthy discussion ensued with other members of the public questioning the need for the program. Hudson also questioned the police vehicles being parked at the station for long periods of time and the hours the officers worked. The discussion got a little heated.
“We’ve got a unique town,” Carter said Monday. “I don’t think a lot of people realize all the time Jim and Terry put in.”
If any of his employees need to call them, Carter said they wouldn’t hesitate and the officers wouldn’t tell them they were off duty so couldn’t help. They would come.
“There’s not too many towns that have what we have,” Carter said. “There’s no way they can justify every minute of their time. I can’t tell you where I’ve been every minute.”
He said he’s seen some of the younger kids in town and vandalism, but the town hasn’t seen any vandalism in the last few years. The people on the town board and working for the town care about Mentone.
“We’re not South Bend. We’re Mentone. We’re a small farming community. If there’s a disaster, people here will pull together. Let’s keep it going that way. Let’s not destroy what we have,” Carter said.
Croy said he agreed with Carter. The town needs to grow together, not apart.
Discussing the Neighborhood Watch, Croy said he doesn’t see a problem with it, but it doesn’t have to be organized. The other councilmen agreed.
