Committee seeks countywide FMLA policy, considers central coordinator

The committee discussed inconsistent local handling of Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) requests across county departments and directed staff and legal to draft a countywide FMLA policy managers and elected officials can follow.

Speakers described several issues: departments administering FMLA differently, inconsistent use of sick and vacation leave during FMLA, lack of a central tracker, and cases where married employees in separate departments each took 12 weeks without a centralized process to ensure compliance with the federal entitlement.

The law director, Eric, said a countywide approach would reduce legal exposure: "It would be a problem internally" if departments applied rules inconsistently and did not track shared entitlements. Finance staff and others said the county does not have a central HR function; payroll is decentralized in several elected-official offices and many departments use different pay cycles and procedures.

Committee members directed the mayor and legal staff to draft a policy that could be centralized and to consult constitutional officers and elected officials before finalizing language. The mayor said he would review a draft and share it with constitutional officers. Staff discussed whether to implement policy first and then hire or to recruit a certified coordinator to help write the policy; the committee encouraged pursuing both concurrently where possible.

No formal hire was authorized at the meeting. Committee members agreed a centralized policy would be preferable and that staff should return with draft policy language and an implementation plan, including training and a recommendation about whether HR or finance should administer day-to-day FMLA functions.