PORT ANGELES — City administrators found to have been overcompensated by “cashing out” excessive amounts of unused sick and vacation time likely will have to pay some of it back.
That includes Port Angeles City Manager Kent Myers, who said he will repay the amount he overdrew, which was discovered after the state Auditor’s Office released a report on overpayments last month.
The Auditor’s Office report said two department heads, later identified as city Finance Director Yvonne Ziomkowski and Fire Chief Dan McKeen, were overpaid as much as $77,496 for their unused leave over the past four years.
Myers, while addressing new administrative controls intended to resolve the problem, said last week that the city’s legal office is reviewing how funds can be repaid, and he expects that to be finished by the end of the month.
Ziomkowski referred to it as an honest mistake, while McKeen said he was told to cash out the leave.
Myers said it hasn’t been determined how much money the staff members will need to repay.
Myers pledged to repay his overdraft found in a review of cash-out forms by the Peninsula Daily News but not noted in the report.
The forms show that he overdrew by 20 hours in 2009.
Myers called it an accident.
“I will be fully reimbursing the city,” he said, adding that he already had noted the overdraw and planned to repay it.
Myers said the 20 hours of leave equates to $1,442 and he will deposit a check for that amount with the city Monday.
To improve oversight, Myers said he is now requiring that all forms for cashing out unused leave have the signatures of the city manager and human resources manager, cash-outs will be limited to one per year, and a report from a payroll clerk must verify the employee’s eligibility for the program.
“I’m fairly confident that we implemented the changes that will result in the controls they [the Auditor’s Office] is looking for,” said Myers, who requested that the cash-out procedures be audited.
Previously, some forms required a signature from the city manager, but most did not.
All required signatures from Ziomkowski.
The finance director said her overpayments passed through the human resources department since they were being placed into her retirement plan.
Otherwise, she was the only person to approve it.
In an email, Auditor’s Office spokeswoman Mindy Chambers said Ziomkowski overdrew by $36,595 by cashing out more than allowed by city policy.
The policy states that employees can be written a check for up to 80 hours of unused leave in a year and have an additional 40 hours transferred into their retirement plan.
Ziomkowski said it was her understanding that, if she did not participate in the retirement program for the first three years, she could transfer unused leave in excess of that amount into her retirement plan.
In one day alone, Ziomkowski cashed out 323 hours, all of which, she said, went toward her retirement.
The finance director said that was common practice among other city employees and she assumed it was written as a policy.
“I talked to many people about this issue,” she said.
“Nobody raised the issue that we were not allowed to do this.”
Myers said he has noted about eight to 10 employees who were overcompensated over the past 10 to 15 years.
He said he is not sure if the city can be reimbursed for them all since many no longer work for the city.
The Auditor’s Office noted that McKeen was compensated for $7,728 in excess of city policy.
McKeen said former City Manager Mike Quinn wanted him to cash out his excess leave because he wanted to “get it off the books.” He did so over a three-year period.
“I didn’t ask to do it; I was required to do it,” McKeen said.
Additionally, the Auditor’s Office noted that an additional $40,901 in unused leave may have been wrongly paid to Ziomkowski and McKeen since they had more than 960 hours of accrued leave.
Its report referred to the city’s policy that says any leave over that amount must be paid at 25 percent of its value. Ziomkowski and McKeen were both compensated at the full value of their leave.
Myers said that policy is only for when an employee quits or retires.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.