Nearly $10,000 in back overtime pay is being paid to the mayor’s chief of staff, and the mayor said he is unsure how many similarly graded employees might be allowed to collect back pay.

In executive session during Monday’s meeting of the Vicksburg Board of Mayor and Aldermen, officials voted 2-0 to pay Kenya Burks, who is a salaried employee, $9,701.59 in overtime she logged from June 2009 through January 2011. Her annual pay is $72,100.

“We ended up having to pay the employee based upon the hours that had been punched to work,” said Mayor Paul Winfield, who appointed Burks when he took office. She was then paid $70,000 annually.

The overtime covers 196.27 hours.

“As the mayor, and as the head of this organization, I accept responsibility for this issue, in particular, the person worked in my office,” he said. “We have taken precautions to make sure this type of incident does not happen again.”

South Ward Alderman Sid Beauman said he did not vote against paying Burks, but, “I did not sign off on the matter.”

“It happened and it had to be rectified,” he said. “I never agreed to hire her. I didn’t feel that we needed that position.”

Records of action after the executive session show that Winfield and North Ward Alderman Michael Mayfield voted for the payment. Mayfield said he voted for it because of the federal wage and hour laws designed by the U.S. Department of Labor.

“I signed off on it because it was the right thing to do,” he said. “I’m hoping this doesn’t happen any more.”

The issue of Burks’ overtime log had surfaced in January in the accounting process, Winfield said, adding he would discuss little about it because the issue is about personnel.

Minutes from the Jan. 18 executive session showed the board discussed a personnel matter involving Burks, but no action was taken.

Since, she has worked 40 hours each week, Winfield said.

Burks is eligible for overtime pay, despite her being a salaried employee, partly because her position is classified as that of a non-exempt employee who does not exercise independent judgment, meaning she is not a supervisor, said Walterine Langford, interim human resources director.

Langford, an attorney, said she was citing the Fair Labor Standards Act administered by the U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division.

“If you’re in a discipline that exercises independent judgment like in (information technology) or legal, you’re not susceptible to it,” said Winfield, also an attorney. A chief of staff is a position in charge of furthering the agenda of the administration and that entails a lot of discipline. It takes a lot of time and a lot of coordination.”

Winfield said Burks’ duties include facilitating meetings in his office and promoting the administration’s policies.

“She makes sure we accomplish our objectives,” he said.

Burks, a native of Lake Providence, received a bachelor’s degree from Northeast Louisiana University and, in 2003, received a master’s in business administration from the Keller Graduate School of Management in Irvine, Texas. She previously worked in product management in Jackson.

In an e-mailed statement, Burks said later Monday news of the back pay was a “large shocker.”

“As a salaried employee, I was under the impression that I was not entitled to overtime and since I had never been paid any overtime, I must logically assume that everyone else in the city was under the same assumption that I was not entitled to overtime,” she wrote.

Winfield said he was unsure how many other city positions carry that same status as Burks’.

“This issue has occurred before,” Winfield said. “Out of 550 employees, about 35 to 50 people are probably salary, non-exempt, but that’s just a guess.

“There’s nothing novel about this. It’s not uncommon. It should not occur, and we have to do everything we can as stewards of the taxpayer money. We try to make sure we put measures in place to prevent anything from happening to incur more liabilities on the city or to do anything to hurt an employee.”

Langford said she knew of no other city employees whose positions would put them in the same pay category.