City Department Heads Should Be Held To Using Vacation Time
To the Editor:

I would go one step further than Councilman Willie LaLonde, who has suggested that certain salary and benefit policies for department heads "should be more scrutinized by Council" (The St. Ignace News, February 7, page 1). The policy of allowing "department heads to sell unused vacation days back to the city in exchange for cash" is inappropriate and irresponsible. It should be abandoned.

I doubt that any of the residents of St. Ignace in their working years have enjoyed such a benefit. I find it difficult to come up with any kind of rationale for this personnel policy. I find it an arrogant and self-serving misuse of the taxpayers' money. The policy should be abandoned. Department heads, like everyone else, should be held to using their vacation time, as well as other specified benefits, within a specified contractual time frame.

Bob Heywood

St. Ignace