Commission agrees to payout unused hours
By Barb Pert Templeton
Members of the Marine City Commission agreed to an addendum to City Manager Michael Reaves employment contract per his request at a Dec. 11 commission meeting.
In a memo to officials Reaves explained that several areas of benefit time for full-time city employees were left out of his employment contract with the city. He asked the commission to include the city manager post in the same benefit time afforded other full-time employees in the city’s polices and procedures manual.
Administrative time was one area allotted for in the full-time employee policy and Reaves noted that he’d lost 33 hours of that time as of his one-year anniversary with the city in October.
The policy further noted 56 Floating Holiday Hours and 32 hours of Personal Leave Days were in the policy but not in the city manager’s contract.
Under sick time, the policy allows for eight hours for every month worked not to exceed 300 hours total. Reaves noted that he lost 112 hours of unused sick days.
Vacation time – if an employee cannot take all the allotted vacation time, they can make a request by Dec. 1 to have up to 40 hours paid out to them. The hours paid out are deducted from the employees’ total vacation time bank and said bank can only accumulate a maximum of 500 hours. Reaves said as of his anniversary date, Oct. 3, 2025, he wasn’t compensated for 88 hours (this would represent the 56 Floating Holiday Hours and 32 Personal Leave Hours.)
The bottom line was Reaves asking the commission to add the policies to his contract, as every full-time employee enjoys, and to agree to pay him for a total of 233 hours of unused time.
Marine City Manager Michael Reaves.
The commission voted unanimously to approve the adjustment. Commissioner Trish May was absent from the Dec. 11 meeting.
During his commission privilege at the Dec. 11 meeting, Commissioner Sean O’Brien expressed his appreciation for the city’s staff. “I want to heartily thank our city staff for all the incredible hard work this year, it’s been a heck of a hard year getting through some serious projects and serious challenges in the community,” O’Brien said. “So appreciative of everything that you and our staffs have done to make it through and make this happen, thank you very much.”
When contacted after the meeting Reaves said he felt the commission “treated me very fairly in my compensation package – from pay rate to benefits.”
“I believe that the cash payment in lieu of immediate use of bank time that was forfeited, was that I would literally have been gone / out of office for about 3 months, and that is not a viable option with so much on-going here in Marine City,” he added.
Blue Water Healthy Living emailed some additional questions on the matter to Reaves on Dec. 16 and he promptly responded with the following:
Blue Water Healthy Living: Will you be paid for the 233 hours by the end of this month?
Marine City Manager Michael Reaves: Yes, I believe so.
BWHL: What will be the hourly rate for these hours?
Reaves: $120,600/2080 = $57.9808 per hour
BWHL: Will the payout be taxed?
Reaves: Absolutely – Yes.
BWHL: Will these adjustments remain in place going forward with your employment contract?
Reaves: Not for pay-out (portion) like this event. In future, I will utilize hours through-out year as they accumulate -unless I leave employment -then they are paid out for the remaining hours in my paid time off bank, just like every other employee.
BWHL: Was this something that was overlooked in your original contract with the city? –
Reaves: In my original contract I did not receive the same paid time off benefits that other city employees receive (Floating holiday, personal days, etc. -Now I get what the other exempt employees get. With my coming aboard and so many things going on in the city -taking time off was extremely difficult. I unfortunately had the hours (233) forfeited because I didn’t use them by the deadline. The Commission chose to fix that – they were very understanding.
BWHL: How often is your contract reviewed by the commission?
Reaves: I get evaluated by the Commission yearly – however it is totally up to the commission as to whether or when they would consider a pay adjustment. I find that it works best during budget discussions – as we do with other non-union positions.
BWHL: You’ve been employed with the city for over a year now, did you get a raise/cost-of-living increase at your one-year anniversary?
Reaves: The City Commission does not do cost of living adjustments. The commission awarded me the same percentage raise that the other exempt non-bargaining members received. (Dept. Heads)
