OBSERVER Photo by Jo Ward City of Dunkirk Personnel Committee members and other city officials discuss flex hours, which could be voted on tonight.

A resolution authorizing alternative hours for City Hall employees, which was tabled at the Nov. 6 Common Council meeting, could be voted on this evening. The topic was discussed at the Personnel Committee meeting last week.

“It’s worked out very well,” city Treasurer Mark Woods said. “The employees are very grateful to have that opportunity, especially if they have detailed work you can do when it’s quiet and you’re not interrupted by customers.”

Currently the flex hours happen during the summer months, but City Hall is looking to make them year round. Despite many being in favor of this, the idea of it being in a formal resolution had some individuals concerned that it’d create more problems than needed.

“If it’s going to be in writing it’s going to be in stone,” city Assessor Tom Mleczko stated. “You’re going to have grievances filed. Right now, we’re running this as the managers see fit, and right now there’s not any issues.”

“My only concern with that resolution is whether it’ll have a negative impact on service delivery to our residents than I wouldn’t be for it,” Mayor Wilfred Rosas commented. “The department heads have a say because they’re the ones that manage each of their respected departments.”

As it stands all departments will always have two people on at all times, the flex hours are just an incentive that can be used on a rotation basis (or however the department head chooses to run it) between all employees in each department.

An employee can choose to come in early, leave early or however the department chooses to work it out. The disagreement is whether or not the council should be involved.

“The department head would be the deciding factor,” Woods iterated. “The department head is the responsible person for their department, and they need to make the judgment call. Is it feasible to have a person leave early, or is there a need to come in early? It should be a very simple thing to coordinate and work out.”

According to the gathered department heads there has been no issues during the busy season.

“I think us legislating HR is something that, I don’t think, the legislature has any business doing,” Fourth Ward Councilman Mike Civiletto stated. “If HR wants to deal with that, fine, if the mayor wants to deal with that, fine, it’s not our responsibility.”

The resolution has not yet been voted on. The committee made a request to human resources chief David Campola, to show how well the flex hours have been working over the last several years.