A. Employees who have been in continuous full-time employment with the city for more than 20 years, and who have a balance of 1500 or more sick leave hours, may make a one-time election to convert up to 160 hours of sick leave into 80 hours of paid career incentive leave. Career incentive leave must be taken before retirement. Sick leave hours converted to career incentive leave will not be eligible for a cash payout upon termination or retirement even though the employee has unused career incentive leave hours available. This leave can be used for any reason. Requests for career incentive leave must be submitted in writing to the appropriate department director and be approved subject to the department’s business needs (e.g. work schedules and workloads).