Council hears staff report on HERO ordinance updates; changes laid over to Oct. 1

The Saint Paul City Council heard a staff report and discussion about a package of ordinance amendments that would update city code related to the Department of Human Rights and Equal Economic Opportunity (HERO).

Deputy Director Beth Commerce told the council the package aligns local ordinances with recent state law changes covering earned sick and safe time, minimum wage and wage-theft enforcement. "We do labor standards investigations, human rights investigations, accessibility for the ADA and language access, complaints of police misconduct," Commerce said, describing the department's portfolio.

Commerce said the principal policy change proposed is adding harassment as a permissible reason for an employee to use earned sick and safe time. "The only additional policy change that we're making is to add harassment to the reasons that you can use earn sick and safe time," she said, citing a case where an employee could not previously use safe time for harassment that had not escalated to stalking.

Other changes include replacing hourly thresholds with an "anticipated to work" standard for eligibility, allowing employees to provide a written statement rather than requiring medical or court documentation, and shortening the period after which an employer may request documentation from three days to two — all to match state language. Commerce also said the city attorney requested adding language allowing staff to seek administrative warrants for business records as part of investigations.

Council members asked whether the proposed changes would interact with the city's potential administrative citations regime. Commerce said the council has already authorized administrative citations for earned sick and safe time and minimum wage by charter change and that wage-theft language would need one additional update if a related ballot measure passes. She described the administrative warrant language as an interim investigatory tool while enforcement mechanisms are finalized.

The ordinances were introduced for first reading and laid over to Oct. 1 for second reading and public hearing. Commerce said HERO will publish administrative rules and expects the process to be complete in late November.

Ending: Councilors signaled general support for the clarifications but asked staff to return with enforcement cost and staffing implications during upcoming budget discussions; the ordinances are scheduled for a second reading and public hearing on Oct. 1.