SECTION 12.0 – MISCELLANEOUS
12.1 Award Days
In the event that a full-time employee exhibits actions above and beyond the call of duty, the Town Manager, upon recommendation by a Department Head, may grant a full-time employee leave of absence with pay for period not to exceed one (1) work day.
12.2 Compassionate Leave
A. In the event an employee of the Town suffers injury or illness and another employee desires to donate either his/her personal leave or compensatory time, he/she may do so on a case-by-case basis for only the forthcoming pay period with donations in one hour increments. A recipient employee shall not receive Workers’ Compensation or other Town disability benefits in conjunction with use of donated leave.
12.3 Outside Employment and Outside Details of Members of Police Department
A. Purpose
The purpose of this policy change is to establish a uniform understanding relating to the dual employment, of both sworn and civilian employees.
B. Discussion
In order to provide the community, its citizens, businesses and visitors with a complement of sworn personnel to perform more tailored public safety services, sworn officers may be available for additional duties beyond their normal work week. This type of duty would allow those persons desiring tailored public safety services to be accommodated without an additional expense being incurred by the Town of Ponce Inlet. The person/s or business desiring these services would be billed a set fee covering the total cost for providing this type of service.
C. Policy
It shall be the policy of the Ponce Inlet Police Department to ensure that tailored public safety services shall be available to the community at all times. The only exception to this policy will be during those periods where the need for police personnel to perform their normal duties strains Departments resources to the point where additional officers are not available for other services (i.e. large events, disasters, etc.)
The Department will strive to clarify procedures and regulations governing the employment of off-duty members by private persons and businesses. Furthermore, the Department will monitor the extra and off-duty employment of personnel to ensure equitable distribution of the off-duty employment, ensure that the reasonable needs of the persons or businesses utilizing these services are met and ensure that no conflicts arise between extra duty details, off-duty employment and normal official duties.
D. Definitions
i) Outside Employment Sworn Member – Any employment, self-employment or business interest, other that employment by the Town, of a member of the Department.
ii) Outside Employment Civilian Member – Any employment, self-employment or business interest, other that employment by the Town, of a member of the Department.
iii) Outside Detail – Any public safety related employment in which any portion of the member’s compensation is being paid through the Town of Ponce Inlet by an outside entity.
iv) Authorized Outside Employers – These employers are authorized by specific contractual agreement to directly employ officers to perform public safety duties for the applicable business.
v) Supervisor – A Ranking Member who is assigned as the supervisor of a detail where three or more officers are working.
vi) Commanding Officer - A Commander who is in charge of an outside detail where large numbers of members are assigned or details where, in the opinion of the Chief of Police, a Commander is required.
E. Outside Employment General Town Guidelines
It is the general policy of the Town that any employee may be granted permission to accept outside employment, which does not interfere in any way with the full and faithful discharge of his/her duties.
If any employee of the Town is an Officer, Director, Agent, Member of, or owns a controlling interest in any corporation, firm, partnership, or other business entity which is subject to the regulations of, or has a substantial business commitments from the Town, he/she shall file a sworn statement disclosing such interest, with the Clerk of the Circuit Court for Volusia County and furnish a copy to the Town Manager and Chief of Police.
No employee of the Town shall accept employment or engage in any business or professional activity, which he/she might reasonable expect, would require him/her to disclose confidential information acquired by reason of his/her position with the Town.
No employee of the Town shall accept other employment, which might impair his/her independence or judgment in the performance of his/her official duties with the Town.
No employee of the Town shall transact any business in an official capacity with any business entity of which he/she is an officer, Director, Agent, or Member, or in which he/she owns a controlling interest.
No employee of the Town shall have personal investments in any enterprise, which will create a substantial conflict between his/her private interests and the public interests as related to the Town.
No employee of the Town, nor any firm, association, corporation, or other business entity in which he/she is a Member, Director, Agent, or Officer, or in which her/she owns a controlling interest, shall sell good or services to any person, firm, association or corporation which is licensed by or regulated in any manner by the Town.
F. Outside Employment Police Department Guidelines
While the policy of the Town is the general the policy of the Department, the exceptional powers and authority given officers of the law by both local and state laws make special rules necessary.
Any employee of the Department who desires to engage in outside employment (sworn or civilian member) will observe the following:
· The individual will submit a request to engage in outside employment to his/her immediate supervisor
· The request will note the business name, type of business conducted, specific duties the member will be performing, hours of work and names of supervisory personnel.
· Two copies of the request will be submitted to the Chief of Police, through the chain of command, indicating the name of the employer, and/or the business involved. It will also include
a statement of the duties and hours of the job.
· The Chief of Police may, before approval, require the prospective employer to furnish sufficient bond or insurance to indemnify the Town against any action brought against, arising from, or as a result of, and such employment.
· One copy of the request will be returned to the employee, either approved or disapproved, with the second copy being filed with the employee’s personnel record.
If approved, employees will be restricted to working no more than six (6) hours on any duty day at such employment. There is no limit on the number of hours that an employee may work on his/her days off, but he/she must not permit his off-duty employment to cause his/her regular work to suffer through fatigue, distraction or other factors.
Employees must understand that working for the Town of Ponce Inlet is their number one priority and while all consideration will be made to accommodate your outside employment, being called to duty outweighs all other employment.
G. Outside Detail Eligibility
No member will be permitted to work an outside detail until he/she has successfully completed the F.T.O. Program. In instances where at least one supervisor is assigned, this rule may be waived if a shortage of personnel exists and the prior approval of the Police Commander is obtained.
Eligibility for assignment to outside details is a privilege and not a right. Although eligibility may be denied or suspended by the Chief of Police based upon other causes, anyone of the following may be sufficient cause:
· Unsatisfactory job performance indicating the lack of stamina necessary to sustain both Departmental and outside detail employment.
· Failure to report on time as scheduled, for an outside detail after having accepted the detail.
· A willful violation of any of the rules and regulations of the Department while working an outside detail.
· Failure to take the action warranted while working an outside detail.
· Any behavior, which reflects discredit upon the Department or a degree of professionalism, which is not consistent with department standard.
Members who have been suspended from regular duty will not be permitted to work outside details during the suspension period.
Members who are placed on administrative duty are eligible to work and be considered for outside details.
Members, while unable to perform the full duties of a public safety officer because of medical limitations, will not be permitted to work outside details until cleared for full duty.
H. Requests for Outside Details
All requests for outside details by persons or businesses will be referred to the Police Commander. If the request is found to be consistent with the mission of he Department, with state and local laws and the policies of the Department, it will be filled by the Police Commander.
If such a request is made during the hours when the Police Commander is unavailable and the need is for that evening or weekend, the request will be referred to the Senior Sergeant who will then contact the Police Commander.
Upon receiving a request for an outside detail the Police Commander shall be charged will obtaining the following information:
· Location of detail
· Date(s) of the detail
· Beginning and ending times of the detail
· Number of officers requested
· A contact person for normal hours and after normal hours to include name, address, telephone number, fax number and pager number if applicable.
· Person or business responsible for the bill and the applicable name, address, telephone number and fax number.
The person requesting the detail shall be advised of the hourly fee for each officer established by Council. Details shall be billed at a three hour minimum with an administrative fee established by Council.
Prior to the scheduling of an outside detail, the number of members to be assigned will be determined by the Police Commander and agreed upon by the employer.
I. Billing Procedure
It will be the responsibility of the Police Commander to both enact any appropriate billing and collect the fees for forwarding to Administrative Services.
J. Administration of Outside Details
In order to ensure equitable distribution of all outside details and adherence to appropriate rules and regulations, the Police Commander shall exercise supervisory authority over all matters pertaining to the execution of outside details.
The Police Commander will be responsible for the coordination and implementation of the outside detail program.
The recruitment, scheduling and assignment of all outside details will be the responsibility of the Police Commander.
The Administrative Assistant will be responsible for the accurate record keeping of all appropriate records pertaining to outside details.
K. Assignment of Outside Details
i) Outside details will be filled and tracked on a quarterly basis.
ii) The Police Commander will fill all outside detail vacancies.
iii) The Police Commander will maintain a list of personnel who are authorized to work outside details.
iv) When the Police Commander contacts an officer and leaves a message on an answering machine or page, it shall be the responsibility of that officer to initiate further contact with the Police Commander to obtain detail hours.
v) The Police Commander will continue to contact personnel to fill details, attempting to utilize personnel with the least amount of detail hours assigned.
vi) On details requiring Supervisors, the first eligible Supervisor will be given the opportunity to accept the detail.
vii) The Police Commander shall ensure that the Communications Center is supplied with a current listing of details for each day and the Officer assigned to the detail.
L. Conduct During Outside Details
All outside details will be conducted pursuant to Department Directives and practices with compliance to applicable Town Ordinance and State Statute.
When working an outside detail, a member is required to conduct himself/herself in a professional manner consistent with his/her regular duty status.
A member assigned to an outside detail is considered on duty during the hours of his/her assignment. He/she is subject to Departmental call, and officers are responsible to enforce the laws, whether a violation occurs within or beyond the premises of their outside detail if an emergency exists.
An employer, or agent, shall exercise no control or supervision in the performance of the member’s duties, nor interfere in any way with the performance of his/her duties.
Members assigned to outside details will not enforce house rules. They will perform within the limits of his/her public safety duties.
Members assigned to outside details are encouraged to handle as many police related matters as possible in an effort to reduce demands on on-duty personnel. While working outside details, the member will handle all calls for service and will write all incident reports as on duty, which arise from the person or business who has contracted the detail officer.
All employees who work outside details are responsible for all policies and procedures contained in the Police Department Directives Manual.
M. Cancellation of Outside Details
When the Communications Center is contacted in reference to the cancellation of a detail he/she shall contact the on-duty Supervisor or Senior Officer.
In the event an Officer is unable to work an outside detail he/she already committed to working, the officer shall contact the Police Commander as soon as possible, but no later than two hours prior to the start of the detail.
In the event that an officer fails to report for a detail, the detail will be filled in accordance with the above procedures used for a cancelled detail.
The assigned officer who failed to show up for the detail shall be considered absent without authorized leave (AWOL) and subject to appropriate disciplinary procedures.
N. Compensation to Employees Assigned to Outside Details
An employee assigned to outside details shall be compensated at one and a half (1.5) times his or her regular hourly wage.
12.4 Use of computing and networking resources
See attached Information Technology and Computer Usage Policies (Appendix 2).
12.5 Smoke-Free, Tobacco-Free Workplace
This policy is to establish a smoke-free/tobacco-free workplace.
A. All government buildings (defined as any building, or any portion of any building, owned by or leased to the state or any political subdivision thereof and used for governmental purposes) and Town vehicles will be designated as ‘Non-Smoking/Tobacco-Free”.
B. There shall be no offices hallways, restrooms, departments, or rooms that shall be designated as smoking or tobacco use areas in any governmental buildings within the Town of Ponce Inlet and to include any and all Town vehicles.
12.6 Union Membership
A. Any employee may join a union at their expense.
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