Blizzard Prompts Hinsdale Village Board to Change Policy

It seems the Hinsdale Village Board just can’t escape the Great Blizzard of 2011.

The board’s Feb. 1 meeting was cancelled by the blizzard, so Tuesday night trustees met for the first time since Jan. 18 with the near-record snowstorm still on many of their minds.

Village President Tom Cauley began the meeting by praising the work of the Public Services department, headed by George Franco, for its response to the blizzard.

“Employees of the public works department worked round-the-clock to deal with what was the third-worst snowstorm in Chicago history,” Cauley noted.

The Public Services department also received praise during the meeting from Economic Development Commission Chairman John Karstrand.

“I think they just did a phenomenal job with snow removal,” he said.

Karstrand noted that snow was removed from in front of parking meters so that drivers parking downtown could gain access to them and the sidewalk.

Cauley also thanked the police and fire departments for their response, observing that four police officers came in on their day off to operate snow plows.

“None of the police officers received any overtime and did this as part of a teamwork effort,” Cauley added.

Cauley said the blizzard cost the village about $46,000. The village is seeking reimbursement for $41,472 of that through the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Village Manager David Cook said Tuesday that DuPage County had exceeded the threshold required to ask the governor to seek a presidential disaster declaration for the county that would enable the village to receive FEMA aid.

Comp time policy change

The blizzard also prompted the board Tuesday night to approve a change in village policy with regard to accruing comp time.

Previously, employees had to use any comp time they accrued during the course of a year by April 30, the end of the fiscal year. Employees were paid for any comp time they did not use by that date.

“As we saw in the recent snowstorm, public service employees work a tremendous amount of overtime during the winter,” Cauley said.

The village had to pay employees 314 hours of overtime wages during the blizzard. It is only able to seek FEMA reimbursement for 198 hours of that, totaling $7,034.

“From a budgetary perspective, one of the biggest problems we face is overtime,” Cauley said.

The change approved unanimously by the board will now enable employees to carry over any unused comp time into the next fiscal year, up to a maximum of 60 hours.

“This will encourage public service employees to bank their time and take off, for instance, in summer, when things are a little slower,” Cauley explained. “This is really an effort to try to reduce the overtime in the Public Services department.”

The policy change will apply only to the village’s non-union employees. Comp time policy for union employees is covered by a collective bargaining agreement.