By Gary Lloyd
A Jefferson County judge ruled May 8 that the city of Clay must pay a former employee $10,000 in vacation pay.
Judge Jack Lowther ruled in former Clay Senior Activity Center Director Linda Love’s favor that she was due the money for her nine years’ worth of vacation pay, Love said.
Love and another city of Clay employee, Lynn Burch, were dismissed in January because of financial issues.
Love said she sent three letters to Clay Mayor Charles Webster and City Manager Ronnie Dixon — two requesting her vacation pay that she had accrued over the last nine years and one requesting a hearing with the city’s personnel board to discuss the situation.
“All letters to them were totally ignored,” Love said.
Webster said the letters were not ignored, that it was determined that Love had no vacation time left. He said the city found no previous time sheets or documentation of vacation time.
“We didn’t have any information,” Webster said, noting that the city had no proof at the May 8 court appearance. “It’s just her word against ours.”
Love said she followed the City of Clay Personnel Handbook rules requesting a hearing on the matter with the personnel board.
“After the allotted time had expired for the city to respond, I acquired the help of an attorney and sued the city for my 9 years vacation pay,” Love wrote in an email. “As I worked many overtime hours for the Senior Activity Center, I was able to use those comp hours for sick time or days off instead of my vacation time.”
Webster called the situation “ridiculous” and said the city’s personnel handbook is being revised so situations similar to this one don’t happen again.
“We’re probably the only city that has paid out this kind of money for vacation time,” Webster said.
Webster said the city could appeal the ruling, but it has decided to pay Love because court costs would wind up costing more than the money owed to Love.
Read more about this from January:
Webster says city of Clay is $7 million in debt
Recent Clay firings nothing personal, mayor says
Contact Gary Lloyd at news@trussvilletribune.com and follow him on Twitter @GaryALloyd.