Commissioners consider employee appreciation floating holiday after staff cites 652 beneficiaries last year

A staff member asked the Portage County Board of Commissioners to consider a 2024 "employee appreciation day" as a floating paid holiday, saying the board provided the benefit in prior years and 652 employees received it last year.

"Last year we had 652 people receive that benefit," the staff member said, adding the county's total employee headcount is "just a little under 1,000." The staff member described the proposal as eight hours of paid administrative leave for full‑time employees and four hours for part‑time employees, to be requested by employees and approved at the discretion of department directors.

Speaker 2 read a draft resolution that would authorize department directors to grant the leave "to be requested and used by the last pay period of December 2024," and said the floating day would be waived if not used and could not result in overtime. The draft specifically "encouraged" elected officials to adopt the same floating day for themselves.

County commissioners asked for participation details and the staff member offered to provide a written (Word) version of the proposal and to return with exact participation numbers. The transcript does not record a formal roll‑call vote on the resolution reading during the portion where it was presented.

Why it matters: Paid leave policies affect the county payroll and scheduling and can be an important tool for staff morale. The staff member framed the holiday as a low‑cost recognition measure already used by many employees.

What happens next: The staff member said they would provide further documentation and participation counts; the board did not record a final vote on the resolution in the available transcript.