Overtime hours presented by the Washington County Ambulance Service director has now sparked discussion on whether county exempt, or salaried, employees should be allowed overtime pay.

The Washington County Board of Supervisors held a work session Monday to discuss overtime pay for exempt versus non exempt employees, after hearing feedback from department heads about Ambulance Director Jeremy Peck requesting to be compensated for 180 hours of overtime worked during August through October due to a lack of staff. County Engineer Jacob Thorius spoke in defense of his two exempt secondary road employees who put in similar overtime hours over a short period of time during the winter. Some department heads mentioned that their exempt employees might use flex hours to compensate for the overtime, and Supervisor Marcus Fedler mentioned that the county employee handbook does not contain language about flex hours, “Right or wrong we’ve already got somewhat of a process in place for some of the department heads already. What I would say is we don’t necessarily have that at the ambulance service. I would also say that it’s somewhat different than every other department being is how legitimately we can say it’s a 24 hour service.”

County Public Health Clinic Nurse Manager Karri Fisher pointed out that their home health staff has a 24/7 response, on top of handling the pandemic like the ambulance service. Fisher said she’s more confused on how her staff should move forward in handling overtime. Public Health Fiscal Administrator Peggy Wood gave regards to Peck for bringing his issue of overtime to the board, though she didn’t know that was possible, “If you’re an exempt employee that you should be keeping track of all your hours and then be able to come to either board and say, ‘I’ve done this over and above and I would like to be compensated for it.’ That has never been a conversation. I don’t know. Anybody else that has exempt employees, chime in, because I don’t think any of us knew that was an option, ever.”

The board discussed whether they could set an hour threshold to decide when exempt employees would be compensated, with Supervisor Richard Young stating they need to digest all the information received. They’re also waiting for written guidance from labor attorney Bill Sueppel before they take any action.