Parkersburg City Attorney Blaine Myers, second from right, answers a question from Parkersburg City Councilman J.R. Carpenter, left, during a meeting of council’s Personnel Committee Monday at the Municipal Building. Also pictured at the table are, clockwise from top, Councilman Zach Stanley, committee Chairman Bob Mercer and Councilwoman Cathy Dailey. (Photo by Evan Bevins)

PARKERSBURG — Parkersburg City Council’s Personnel Committee on Monday approved an ordinance aligning the city’s holiday pay rules for firefighters with a new state law, but more questions and changes could be on the horizon.

The committee voted 4-0, with Councilwoman Jesse Cottrille absent, to refer to the full council an ordinance stating that firefighters and police officers will be paid time-and-a-half for the full shift worked during a holiday or for a holiday that falls during the worker’s scheduled time off. The ordinance further clarifies that a full shift is counted as being on the holiday, even if a portion of it falls on another calendar day.

That change was enacted by the West Virginia Legislature in its most recent session with Senate Bill 557.

“What we’ve crafted is an ordinance that complies with state code as it becomes effective” in July, Mayor Tom Joyce said.

Some council members questioned the fairness of someone who doesn’t work a holiday receiving the same pay as an employee who does.

Mayor Tom Joyce speaks during a Parkersburg City Council Personnel Committee meeting Monday evening at the Municipal Building. (Photo by Evan Bevins)

“It seems a little odd that someone gets time-and-a-half while they’re home,” Councilman J.R. Carpenter said.

Councilman Zach Stanley said he agreed but asked what it would cost to pay firefighters who work holiday shifts double time. Finance Director Eric Jiles said it would add approximately $114,000 to the budget.

Joyce said he didn’t disagree with the disparity but warned committee members that increasing compensation is a repeating expense. That’s magnified by the law applying the rate to the entire 24-hour shift for firefighters.

“This kind of stuff is forever money,” Joyce said.

The mayor said the International Association of Firefighters pushed for the bill and if they believe it did not accomplish their goal, they will bring it up with the Legislature in the future.

Parkersburg City Council Personnel Committee Chairman Bob Mercer speaks during a committee meeting Monday at the Municipal Building. (Photo by Evan Bevins)

After the meeting, Adam Delbaugh, president of IAFF Local 91 and a lieutenant with the Parkersburg Fire Department, said he believes the bill dictates that the time-and-a-half “is in addition to our regular pay.” Otherwise, he said, a firefighter who works four shifts in a pay period, one of which falls on a holiday, would be paid the equivalent of four-and-a-half shifts, while a firefighter who works four shifts but is off on a holiday would be paid for five-and-a-half.

“We believe the state code is worded exactly how it needs to be in order to get us that,” Delbaugh said.

Delbaugh did not speak during the meeting. Council committee meetings usually do not include time for public comments.

Joyce said after the meeting that the abstract filed with the bill did not indicate that interpretation. Unlike the bill itself, the abstracts are not usually posted on the Legislature’s website and a copy was not immediately available for review Monday night.

The bill states that a firefighter required to work on a holiday or one whose regularly scheduled day off falls on a holiday will be allowed equal time off or “in the alternative, shall be paid at a rate not less than one and one-half times his or her regular rate of pay.”

Existing city code allows firefighters to bank those holiday hours but caps the amount accrued at 100 hours. Any amount over that is paid down twice a year.

Under the proposed ordinance, starting July 1, all holiday pay earned will be paid as compensation on the subsequent paycheck.

The city’s holiday pay policy is the subject of a lawsuit that has not been fully resolved. One contention by firefighters was that the city was improperly paying off the banked time at the straight rate instead of time-and-a-half. Firefighters’ counsel had said manpower issues made it difficult for the firefighters to actually take the time off.

The lawsuit also argued that firefighters should be paid at the holiday rate and earn compensatory time based on their full 24-hour shift, not just the eight or 16 hours that fell on the holiday’s calendar date. Wood County Circuit Court Judge J.D. Beane initially ruled in their favor, but the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals ruled the full shift was not eligible in a separate case last year. As a result, the time for calculating damages in the Parkersburg case was extended.

The ordinance defines “regularly scheduled day off” by saying it does not include the use of vacation, compensatory time off or sick, funeral, military or administrative leave. Committee Chairman Bob Mercer questioned some of that, saying sick, funeral and military leave are not done by the employee’s choice.

Joyce said allowing benefits to be stacked can lead to abuse.

“To not allow those benefits to be layered on top of each other is not uncommon,” he said.

Under the proposed ordinance, firefighters or police officers who are called in to work on a holiday that falls on their regularly scheduled day off would receive double time pay.

The committee also voted 3-0, after Carpenter departed, to refer an ordinance making the fire inspector an appointed position to the full council.

They also voted 3-0 to approve an ordinance increasing the salary ranges for non-civil service personnel by 5%. Joyce said this adjusts the pay ranges adopted in 2019 to account for cost-of-living raises given over the years. Otherwise, some employees would reach the maximum of the range.

“No one gets an additional pay raise by this,” Joyce said.

The budget for the upcoming 2024-25 fiscal year includes an across-the-board 4.2% cost-of-living raise for all non-elected city workers, except police officers, who received a $6,000-a-year increase.

Under state civil service law, salaries for police officers and firefighters must be set by ordinance.

The ordinances are expected to appear on council’s June 11 agenda.

Evan Bevins can be reached at ebevins@newsandsentinel.com.