Council to place personnel manual revisions on consent agenda to add voluntary sick‑time donations and parenting leave

City staff proposed revisions to the personnel manual to permit employees to voluntarily donate accrued sick or vacation time to coworkers who have exhausted leave and to add a parenting‑leave provision.

Under the proposed change, eligible employees who have exhausted sick leave and meet accrual thresholds could request donated time through Human Resources. HR would verify eligibility with medical documentation and coordinate anonymized donation requests to eligible donor employees in the same bargaining unit; donors would not be provided recipient medical details. Donated time would be converted to sick time for the recipient. Staff said the proposal mirrors recent language used in the CSEA memorandum of agreement and that the city already manages a similar process for union sick banks when negotiated.

The parenting‑leave addition would entitle employees to up to eight calendar weeks of leave immediately following birth or adoption without requiring a doctor’s certificate, with an option to extend to 12 weeks if a doctor certifies continued need. Employees would be required to use accrued sick, vacation, personal or holiday leave during parenting leave; if accruals are insufficient, donated time could be requested under the new donation provisions. Staff said the change does not create a new separate accrual but adapts existing leave rules to provide clearer paid parenting leave language.

Staff also noted a recently enacted state paid‑leave program covers state employees and said they were not aware it would change the local policy. Councilors moved the personnel manual revisions to the consent agenda for formal action.