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8. MISCONDUCT/PERFORMANCE FAILURE Employees who elect to participate in the Program are still obliged to adhere to County and department policies and procedures. The election does not excuse an employee from complying with the County's conduct rules as well as disciplinary policies and procedures. 9. DELAYS FOR OPERATIONAL PURPOSES The County Manager has the authority to delay an employee's effective retirement date up to three months for operational purposes. However, the employee must have met the eligibility requirements and applied to the Retirement System according to the timelines specified. A delay will not reduce the incentive payment. There are 148 employees eligible for this benefit. Commissioner Yuhasz made reference to $900,000 in work force adjustments and asked what is included from Appendix A in this amount. Laura Blackmon said that the retirement program is about$375,000 savings, but this may depend upon how many employees take this program. The $375,000 is included in the $900,000. Other things include the hiring freeze, voluntary unpaid leave, health insurance increases, and the Archer Study. The $900,000 is a net amount because of the health insurance increases and the Archer Study. In answer to a question about the figure for voluntary unpaid leave, Human Resources Director Michael McGinnis said that it would be between $50,000-100,000 depending on who took the leave, and staff opted for the lower figure of$50,000 (p. 22 of Appendix A of budget document). Commissioner Hemminger asked if this retirement incentive plan had been tried before and Laura Blackmon said that staff looked at several counties and cities that have done retirement plans. This plan has never been done in Orange County before. Laura Blackmon said that she would not recommend that this be done again, and this is only being done this year as a cost-saving measure. Commissioner Gordon asked about the reclassifications proposed, including how many employees are lower-paid. Laura Blackmon said that employees go through an internal process and the Archer study decided that the proposed positions needed to be reclassified. New job descriptions are written on positions that need to be reclassified. The employees that are proposed have either taken on more responsibility or the job itself has completely changed and the employees would be compensated accordingly. At this time, those employees identified in the study are not being paid for the work that they do, but for the work that they were originally hired to do. Her recommendation is that the reclassifications be done as part of the budget each year. Commissioner Gordon said that the Board decided to look at the Archer Study in the fall 2009 as part of a work session. She asked how the proposed reclassifications were related to the study, and what they were asking the commissioners to approve now. The Archer Study had proposed a lot more classifications (pp. 18 and 19). She said that the Board has not even adopted the Archer Study and it is problematic to accept anything from the study when the Board has not even discussed it.