(a) Tools. Department heads may at their discretion (provided funds are budgeted for this purpose) establish departmental policies providing and/or replacing professional tools of a trade used specifically for city operations, depending on the need of the operations in the best interest of efficient, effective work.

    (b) Personal protective gear. Department heads may at their discretion require that employees wear safety boots and/or glasses which meet departmental safety standards (as defined by the department head and coordinated with the director). When additional protective footwear is required of current employees, the department head may aid in securing appropriate and approved safety boots or shoes by reimbursing the employee for the safety-portion cost of the footwear up to a maximum of seventy-five dollars ($75.00) per individual per year. Persons having medical exemption from wearing steel-toed safety boots may apply the allowance toward an approved, nonsteel toed waterproof boot. Department heads may likewise establish policies concerning needed eye protection, and allowing up to a maximum of twenty fifty dollars ($20.00 50.00) per person per year for safety glasses (plainos, tinted, peripheral protection, and/or safety prescription lenses). Employees become eligible for this benefit upon completion of their probationary/qualifying period. The city will allow eligible employees to have a four-year accumulation of the safety shoe allowance.

    (c) Reimbursement for personal protective equipment. Reimbursement for personal protective equipment shall be contingent upon appropriate budgetary allocations; and once current employees are equipped as needed, department heads may elect to require such equipment as a condition of employment depending on the needs of their respective operations.

(Code 1964, § 22.650; Ord. No. 9936, § 1, 9-19-83; Ord. No. 10733, § 1, 9-16-85; Ord. No. 13817 § 1, 9-20-93; Ord. No. 14208 § 1, 9-19-94; Ord. No. 15355, § 1, 9-15-97; Ord. No. 15754, § 1, 9-21-98)