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The Elizabethton City Council approved recommendations presented by the Personnel Advisory Board to the current personnel rules and regulations.

Each of the recommendations were addressed by City Manager Daniel Estes and Angie Lyons, director of human resources for the City of Elizabethton.

The first addition was to the Leave Advancement Policy which would allow advancement of sick leave/annual leave to new employees in their first six months of employment with the City Manager’s approval.

“What we have ran into, especially with COVID-19, is that a new employee doesn’t get any annual leave until their seventh month,” said Lyons. “When they may be out for two or three days due to sickness, we don’t know how to cover them. This would allow us to advance leave to them to help cover those days.”

A second addition was added to the Administrative Leave Policy which allows an employee to be on administrative leave with or without pay at the City Manager’s discretion for things such as administrative errors, in a public health crisis or pending the outcome of an internal investigation.

“We used this routinely during COVID because folks were running out of the COVID ESL emergency leave and (City Manager Daniel) Estes could approve administrative leave,” said Lyons. “This will just put it into policy for future events.”

Three revisions were added to the rules and regulations and they are as follows:
– No Pay Leave Policy: This informs employees who are out of work and not covered by approved special circumstances and/or approved Leave Advancement, that their absence is unapproved and they are subject to disciplinary action, up to and including termination.
– Retirement/Retiree Insurance Eligibility: This Elizabethton Regular Session Agenda Item Summary revision outlines the requirements for a retiree and their covered dependents to insure dependents of the city’s Group Health Insurance.
– Annual Leave Accrual Schedule: This revision to the vacation accrual schedule will allow employees to accrue additional annual leave, primarily tenured employees with 10 or more years of service. This will also keep the City of Elizabethton competitive with other cities and will aid in recruitment and retention.