Panel Wants Leave Policy Scaled Back : Torrance: The proposal would cut the paid time off by one-third and limit the number of days that can be cashed out. Some council members want to make even greater reductions.

A panel of three Torrance City Council members made recommendations Thursday aimed at reining in a controversial program that lets city managers supplement their income by receiving pay for unused leave time.

In a 2-1 vote, a council committee proposed that the city cut by a third the amount of “administrative leave” time available to managers, and reduce by half the number of leave days that can be converted into cash.

Since 1988, top city managers have been granted 36 days of leave a year, and mid-level managers have received 24 days. Under the program, the officials have been allowed to receive pay for any portion of unused leave time.

If the committee’s recommendation is adopted by the council at its meeting Tuesday, it would cut the leave to 24 days each year for top managers and 18 days for mid-level ones. No more than two-thirds of an official’s current leave time could be cashed out.

In Thursday’s committee action, council members George Nakano and Dee Hardison voted in favor of the recommended cuts, and Councilman Bill Applegate opposed them.

Applegate said the council should cut leave time to 12 days for all managers. He asserted that the cash-out provision amounted to an “ill-begotten” pay increase that the council did not have full knowledge of when the program was adopted in 1988.

One council member, Maureen O’Donnell, favors even deeper cuts. She said Thursday: “I can’t justify this use of the taxpayers’ money in this way, especially in these difficult economic times. With the exception of some administrative leave for police and fire (personnel), I would remove it altogether.”

A total of 66 Torrance managerial employees now receive so-called administrative leave, which the city has described as a form of overtime for salaried employees. The leave is granted in addition to vacation time.

The leave program last year cost $498,499, but the city has refused to make public what individual managers were paid. The Times Mirror Co., owner of the Los Angeles Times, filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court last week in an effort to force the city to comply with the California Public Records Act and produce documents detailing managers’ compensation last year.

Supporters of the leave program defend it as a means of compensating managers for time spent at night meetings and on emergency calls and for work done on weekends.

Critics say the leave time and other perks, such as bonuses, are unfair and inequitable, especially during a year in which the city has rejected across-the-board pay raises to municipal employees.

Thursday, the council committee also proposed cutting a controversial program for top city administrators that awards them bonuses ranging from $500 to $2,500. The change would result in a savings of about $29,000, City Manager LeRoy J. Jackson said.

How much the cut in leave time could save the financially strapped city has not yet been determined, Jackson said.