Memorandum
Date: April 21, 2020
To: The Honorable Moke Simon, Chair, Lake County Board of Supervisors
From: BOS Ad hoc committee:
Chairman Simon, District 2 Supervisor Sabatier and CAO Carol Huchingson
Subject: Consideration of Resolution Amending Resolution 2020-34 Regarding Hazardous Duty Leave (HDL) for Essential Employees to Offset COVID-19 Impacts
Executive Summary: (include fiscal and staffing impact narrative):
As your Board is aware, our ad hoc committee has been working to define HDL, first authorized in Resolution 2020-34 and this past week, we had the opportunity to meet with your department heads regarding the intent of this leave.
The department heads overwhelmingly conveyed that an HDL benefit for essential employees that is less than the Emergency Paid Sick Leave (EPSL) benefit presently afforded to non-essential employees will serve as a disincentive to our dedicated workforce that is working continuously during the disaster, not only as disaster responders but also to provide critical County services essential to our continuity of operations.
With this in mind, our committee has returned to your Board with the recommendation that HDL be made available to essential employees, as a limited, one-time benefit of 80 hours, equal to the 80 hours of paid time non-essential employees are receiving while sheltering in place.
To receive HDL, essential employees would first complete the required form, to be approved by the department head. Through our payroll system, HDL would then be made available to approved employees for use. HDL time off requests would be subject to approval by the department depending on disaster response and/or critical operations needs. On June 30, 2021, approved employees would receive a cash out of up to 40 hours of any unused balance, paid at the employee's hourly rate on the date the health emergency was first declared.
If all essential employees retain 40 hours of HDL (equivalent to 1.93% of work time fo...
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