Use it or get paid
Park district pays for vacation time
GOVERNMENT | Bruce Rushton
The Springfield Park District has frozen spending after discovering more than $165,000 has been paid out since 2010 to employees for unused vacation time.
Mark Bartolozzi, director of finance and human resources for the park district, was curt in a Feb. 25 memo sent to top administrators.
“Effective immediately stop all expenditures from now until the end of the fiscal year,” Bartolozzi wrote. “Contact this office for emergency purchases only. Purchases of food for the animals at the zoo, propane for ice rink maintenance, fuel for vehicles, etc. are approved.”
It’s not clear whether the district is in financial straits and, if so, to what extent. Two days after the memo went out, the park board was silent on the spending freeze at a special meeting in which no motions or votes were taken on anything. Park board members also didn’t talk about the $165,000 in payouts until after the meeting, when Illinois Times confronted board president Leslie Sgro, who refused to confirm the amount of payouts or who had received them.
One of the recipients was former park district executive director Michael Stratton, who was paid nearly $35,000, according to the district’s financial records. He resigned last month after the park board discovered that he received a $500 check in December which he described as a salary advance that was paid back and an additional $2,100 in January that was described as payment for unused vacation.
The payments were made without knowledge of the park board, which had never approved a policy allowing payments to employees in lieu of vacation.
The payments began in late 2010, when Stratton and Bartolozzi sent a memo to nonunion employees stating that the district would cut checks for unused vacation. Employees could accrue 24 months of vacation, according to the memo, but the district would write checks for anything more than that, according to the memo.
“Utilizing vacation time that is earned by the employee is strongly encouraged,” the administrators wrote. “Research shows that time away from work is healthy for the mind and body.”
Neither man took his own advice, according to district pay records.
After collecting more than $14,506 for 321 hours of unused vacation in 2010, Stratton got a check for $2,300 for nearly 49 hours of unused vacation the following year. It’s not clear whether those amounts were net pay or included withholding taxes and pension contributions. The checks kept coming in 2012, when Stratton got more than $5,000 for 165 hours of unused vacation on June 14, another $3,547 for 110 hours of unused vacation on Aug. 9 and an additional $2,684 on Nov. 29 for 80 hours of vacation, all of which were net amounts.
Including withholding taxes and pension contributions, the 2012 payments to Stratton cost the district $16,685 for 355 hours of vacation time. It’s not clear how Stratton accumulated nearly 10 weeks of vacation last year after payouts for unused time in 2010 and 2011.
Bartolozzi collected more than $4,300 in 2010 for nearly 120 hours of unused vacation, $275 in 2011 for slightly more than seven hours and $4,229 last year for nearly 110 hours of unused vacation. Other employees who got paid for unused vacation included Thornton Talon, director of the Henson Robinson Zoo, director of parks Elliott McKinley, a golf pro, four assistant golf pros and administrators at Nelson Recreation Center and Eisenhower Pool.
After last week’s board meeting, Sgro wouldn’t answer when asked what she would say to former park employees who have lost their jobs due to budget cutbacks while Stratton and other administrators got extra money. She also wouldn’t answer when asked how the payouts continued for more than two years, nor would she say how the board discovered them. She did say that the board is satisfied, at least so far, that no laws have been broken.
Sgro ignored an interview request. Instead of speaking with a reporter, she sent an email that included an explanation of the purpose of the most recent board meeting during which no motions were made and no votes were taken. Rather, board members said that an audit was needed and they heard from Mary O’Connor, who works for an auditing firm.
“(T)he meeting afforded the full board an opportunity to meet and discuss, in open session, the status of various matters that require immediate attention,” Sgro wrote.
Besides discussing an audit, the board talked about hiring a part-time human resources employee so that the functions of finance and human resources would be separate. Bartolozzi, who coauthored the 2010 memo urging employees to take vacation then took payouts for unused time in 2011 and 2012, is now the director of finance and human resources.
After the meeting, board member Tina Jannazzo, who chairs the board’s finance and personnel committee, said “no comment” when asked whether she has confidence in Bartolozzi. She volunteered that she did have confidence in district employees.
“Don’t over-publicize this,” Jannazzo said as a reporter fired questions about vacation payouts and district finances. Asked whether the board should conduct business in private, she said no.
Read park board president Leslie Sgro’s response to an interview request at www.illinoistimes.com.
