Lee Pulaski, lpulaski@shawanoleader.com
Shawano County finally has a revised employee and administrative handbook, more than two and a half years after the state enacted Act 10, which stripped most collective bargaining rights from the public employee unions.
The County Board voted 15-9 Wednesday, with three supervisors absent, to adopt the handbook. The board had rejected the first revision with a 13-13 vote in September. Many of the supervisors at that time found the handbook’s wording to be unfriendly and even harsh toward employees.
Since then, the Administrative Committee met with county department heads and made enough changes to bring the handbook to the board for another vote. By board rules, the same issue cannot be brought back to the board for another vote until significant time has passed or significant changes have been made.
Andy Phillips, a consultant with Phillips Borowski in Mequon, which worked with the county on the handbook, told the board Wednesday that the handbook has received a thorough review.
“This has been through the committee process. This has been through various channels and various people, and I think it’s safe to say that it’s been fully vetted by many, many people within the county,” Phillips said.
After Act 10 was enacted in 2011, the county developed a Transition Committee to review the handbook and make changes to incorporate issues previously covered by union contracts.
The handbook will take effect March 3, which gives the Finance Department time to make changes to the payroll process.
Phillips pointed out that the handbook should continue to be revised.
“You can pass any manual, but if you put it on a shelf, it doesn’t do you any good,” Phillips said.
Supervisor Gene Hoppe, chairman for the Administrative Committee, was one of the most vocal proponents of a revised employee handbook.
“It’s very instrumental that we get this passed. We need it,” Hoppe said. “If we care about the county, I think we have to pass it.”
The changes added by the Administrative Committee included language about providing holiday pay (1 1/2 times) to corrections officers and dispatchers working on holidays.
Also added was wording about allowing department heads to administer discipline to employees except for major infractions such as theft and fraud, which would be handled by the Administration Department.