July 14, 2020
An Important This and That Article
My mom often used the expression “Your eyes were too big for your stomach!” This was expressed whenever we thought we wanted more and took more of a particular dish than we could eat. She used it more generally to describe situations when we took on more work than we could handle.
This was a common problem in that Hadley household, and it remains so today in my Hadley household. I promised you all that I would have answers to the JCEP questions in document form and distributed by July 10, and it just didn’t happen. My bad. I plan to rectify this. Beginning next week, a question or two will be answered via a Tuesday Letter series called “The JCEP Question Series.”
Speaking of July 10, I want to thank Drs. Lindquist and Peterson for filling in for me at the Monthly Extension Update. Although I was in a post-anesthesia haze, I did listen in and thought that everyone did an excellent job.
The announcement regarding the furlough was not a surprise to us, but it was still disappointing to hear it officially announced. For local unit agents, your Extension Board needs to decide whether they will buy out the furlough or participate in the furlough by August 7. In the first case, the local unit would pay the K-State portion of the furlough’s salary savings for all of their agents. If an Extension Board does this, the agents would have no furlough days and there would be no income loss for the agents.
If the local unit Extension Board does decide to participate in the furlough, then K-State will save their portion of the local unit agents’ furlough salary, and the local unit will save their portion of the local unit agents’ furlough salary. Participating in the furlough means that the furloughed employee would make less money this year due to fewer total work days. Furloughed employees would not be expected to work (and cannot work) on the furlough days. Furloughed employees will retain benefits during the furlough.
For salaried employees, a voluntary salary reduction equivalent to the salary savings of the furlough can be taken in lieu of the furlough. The reduction would only be applied for the remainder of Fiscal 2021. This enables the salaried employee to work instead of taking furlough days, but the salaried employee would still lose the same amount of pay for the year. If interested in taking a voluntary salary reduction, you need to declare that by July 20 using the proper form.
The difference between the due dates for the Extension Board furlough participation decision and the voluntary salary reduction decision admittedly makes the voluntary salary reduction decision a difficult one for local unit agents. If an agent believes that their Extension Board will buy out the furloughs, they probably should not take a voluntary reduction in salary. A decision to take a voluntary salary reduction for the remainder of the year cannot be changed once it is made.
Now we will move to another very important topic. As many of you know, there was a special meeting of the Kansas State Fair Board to discuss whether or not to hold the 2020 Kansas State Fair. The Kansas State Fair Board had voted previously to hold the 2020 Kansas State Fair by a vote of 8 to 5. This second vote was requested by the Kansas State Fair staff, who initially supported having the 2020 Kansas State Fair. Since that initial vote, however, many vendors have indicated they would not participate in the 2020 Kansas State Fair. This affects the financial viability of the Kansas State Fair. Other reasons for having a second vote were several emails of concern from local residents about holding the fair, and there has been substantial increases in the number of COVID-19 positive tests.
The Kansas State Fair Board voted 13-0 to cancel the 2020 Kansas State Fair. In doing so, the Kansas State Fair Board stated they wanted to have an alternative state showcase exhibit/activity for our 4-H and FFA participants that adheres to COVID-19 safety protocols. I know you want details on these showcase activities, but there are none to give at this time. Proposals will be developed and vetted at the next meeting of the Kansas State Fair Board, which will be held on August 4, at 9:00 a.m.