Bartlesville city employees taking days off without pay

BARTLESVILLE, Okla. (AP) -- The city expects to save about $150,000 by having municipal employees take five extra days off between Christmas Eve and Memorial Day.<br><br>Employees with vacation and comp

Tuesday, December 10th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

BARTLESVILLE, Okla. (AP) -- The city expects to save about $150,000 by having municipal employees take five extra days off between Christmas Eve and Memorial Day.

Employees with vacation and comp time will be paid for the days off, City Manager Steve Brown said. Those who don't have accrued time off will have the option of buying time from fellow employees or join in a time-sharing program, where employees with extra time donate to those without.

Not having to count vacation and comp time that would have otherwise rolled over to next year would make for a leaner budget, Brown said.

The city is working to close a gap of $600,000 to $800,000 that occurred when sales tax revenues were 4.75 percent lower than expected.

The schedule will not affect services from essential employees, such as police, firefighters and trash service workers.

Employees so far have offered positive feedback for the plan, Brown said.