Madison County adopts paid parental leave; media-communications rule sent back for revision

The Madison County Board of Supervisors on Aug. 4 approved a county paid parental leave policy that mirrors the Mississippi State Employees Paid Parental Leave Act passed in 2025 and delayed final action on a proposed restriction on employees speaking to the media while acting on behalf of the county.

Board attorney Mike (first name read in meeting as Epstein) presented two handbook changes from the county human resources department, one clarifying who may speak publicly on behalf of the county and a second creating a county parental leave entitlement that tracks the 2025 state law. Epstein said the parental leave policy would "provide eligible employees ... six weeks, 240 hours of parental leave, compensated at 100% of the employee's regular salary" and that the leave would be effective Jan. 1, 2026.

Supervisors approved the parental leave measure after discussion about eligibility and implementation. The policy as presented requires employees to have been employed by the county for a minimum of 12 consecutive months in a position that accrues personal or sick leave to be eligible; the leave runs concurrently with FMLA, holidays do not count against it, it is not paid out at separation, and it cannot be accrued or carried over. The board instructed staff to implement the policy effective Jan. 1, 2026.

On the proposed communications rule, the board discussed concerns raised by supervisors about whether department heads (for example, the road manager or county engineer) would be prevented from speaking to the media about matters in their departments. Multiple supervisors said employees must retain the right to speak in their personal capacity and said department heads should be able to speak in an official capacity when authorized. The board did not finalize that provision and directed the county administrator and attorney to revise the language and return it at a future meeting.

The vote to adopt the parental leave policy and to accept nonsubstantive handbook reorganizations was recorded as passed by voice vote after supervisors amended the motion to include non-substantive grammatical and organizational corrections recommended by HR and counsel.

The board did not adopt the media communications language as presented and asked staff to clarify an explicit designation process for department heads to speak on behalf of the county.

The parental leave policy will take effect Jan. 1, 2026; the communications rule will be revised and returned for further board consideration.