By Shelby Stewart
Staff Writer
Brandon Twp.- On Nov. 6 the township board of trustees voted to reclassify the positions of Senior Center Coordinator and Parks and Recreation Director as exempt. The decision changes the director’s wages from hourly to salary wages.
The 6-0 vote will take effect Jan. 1, 2018. Trustee Dana DePalma was absent from the meeting.
“For 16 years I was salary,” said Fred Waybrant, parks and recreation director. “For the last year, I was only allowed to work so many hours.”
The Senior Center Coordinator is Annette Beach.
The issue began in 2016, when the board of trustees OK’d a motion to change the positions from salary to hourly due to a Department of Labor ruling regarding overtime regulations. The law never took effect however, the hourly classification created some overtime issues.
A portion of their wages were put into overtime, which means the wage increase they had received (a 2 percent increase) would not be fully realized unless all allotted overtime was worked.
Both positions would have been shorted due to the way the overtime compensation was created, so the positions will be changed back to salary and the longevity checks for the 2017 year will increase for both positions.
Waybrant describes himself as a worker, and on salary he was allowed to work as much as he needed to.
“I’m very pleased with it,” said Waybrant. “I need the time to get things done, I can work weekends, and with the upcoming grants coming in, I’m going to be a pretty busy guy.”