DENVER-
Gov. Bill Ritter has signed an executive order limiting the amount of vacation and sick leave that state department heads can take after criticism of payments to state officials in the outgoing administration of Gov. Bill Owens.
Ritter said those payments did not violate the law but did raise questions.
“These (new) rules are fair and they protect taxpayer dollars,” he said.
The order allows 15 executive directors to accrue 13.33 annual leave hours per month, or 20 days per year. It also lets them accrue 6.66 hours of sick leave per month, or 10 days per year.
For executive directors with fewer than five years of total Colorado state government service, the maximum accrual of annual leave is 24 days. For those with five or more years of service, the maximum accrual is 30 days.
For sick time, the maximum amount for any executive director regardless of years of service is 45 days.
He said annual leave in excess of those amounts will be forfeited at the end of the fiscal year.
Ritter issued the executive order after it was disclosed that Owens approved nearly $190,000 in bonuses to top political appointees and more than 40 employees in the governor’s office.
Payments were equal to two weeks salary and were designed to reward officials for staying through the end of 2006. Owens’ term expired on Jan. 9.
Dan Hopkins, Owens’ former spokesman, has said the bonuses were a “reasonable incentive” to keep employees from bolting to private sector jobs.
