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Springdale council tables proposed parental-leave addition for redrafting
Summary
The council paused action on a proposed personnel-policy addition that would grant three weeks of paid parental leave, asking staff to reword eligibility language and return the item for further review.
Springdale Town Council on April 9 tabled a proposed addition to the town personnel policy that would provide three weeks of paid parental leave, directing staff to revise the eligibility language and return the item to the council next month.
The proposal would have added a three-week paid benefit to run concurrent with Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) leave. Councilmember Pat Campbell, who led the discussion, asked whether the town’s draft would allow the three weeks to be taken intermittently and whether the benefit must be shared when both spouses work for the town.
"If both spouses work for the town, that 12 week family has to be shared between them," Campbell said during deliberations. Staff confirmed the proposed three-week paid period would run concurrently with any approved FMLA leave and, if both spouses are town employees, each employee would be eligible for three weeks under the draft.
Campbell and other councilmembers raised concerns over the draft’s eligibility definitions, including whether the policy should reference an in loco parentis standard used in federal FMLA guidance rather than a newly worded definition of a "committed partner." Councilmembers said the draft language could unintentionally exclude separated parents who do not live with the child’s other parent.
Councilmembers asked staff to remove or shorten some sections, to rely where possible on established in loco parentis language and a domestic-partner affidavit already used by the town, and to clarify how adoption and stepchild scenarios would be treated. Campbell said he would make the changes and bring a revised draft back at the next meeting.
Council action: Councilmember Pat Campbell moved to table the personnel-policy addition on parental leave; the motion was seconded by Randy Aton and carried unanimously (Jack Burns, Randy Aton, Barbara Bruno, Pat Campbell, Kyla Topham — all voting "aye").
The item remains tabled; staff was directed to revise the draft and return it for council consideration.
