The Massachusetts House of Representatives adopted emergency preambles and gave final passage to several bills establishing sick-leave banks for named state employees during a floor session (date not specified in the transcript). The measures affect individual employees and were considered under separate votes as required by the constitution.
The transcript identifies individual bills for sick-leave banks including House No. 4104 (establishing a sick-leave bank for Daniel Wright Ender, described as an employee of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation) and House No. 4161 (establishing a sick-leave bank for Mark Cateman, described as an employee of the Department of Transportation). The House recorded voice votes and division counts for the emergency preambles and final passage steps.
On one item the transcript reports recorded division counts as follows: "First division 1, second division 1, third division 0, fourth division 1," and the presiding officer summarized, "In this matter, 3 members have been voted in the affirmative, none of the negative; the emergency preambles [are] adopted." On another sick-leave measure the transcript reports division counts that totaled four affirmative votes and no negatives, and the presiding officer declared the emergency preamble adopted and the bill passed to be enacted.
Why it matters: a sick-leave bank permits colleagues to donate accrued leave to an individual employee in need; such measures provide a narrowly targeted leave mechanism and require legislative action when law or collective agreements demand explicit statutory authorization.
The transcript does not record floor debate on the substance of these individual sick-leave bills; the record shows the procedural steps, the constitutionally required separate votes for emergency preambles, and the presiding officer’s announcements that the bills were passed to be enacted. The clerk then read an order setting the next meeting time and the House adjourned.
Details recorded in the transcript include the petitioning or reporting of these measures, the house bill numbers stated on the floor, and division tallies summarized by the presiding officer. The transcript contains multiple apparent transcription errors in names and spellings; reporters should verify exact bill numbers and spellings against the official House Journal before publication.