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Supervisors hear wide public support and actuarial concerns on charter amendment to allow buyback of unpaid parental leave
Summary
A proposed charter amendment would let eligible city employees, including safety members, purchase retirement service credit for unpaid parental leave taken before paid parental‑leave benefits; the retirement system flagged cost and precedent issues. The item was continued for further analysis.
The Board of Supervisors Rules Committee discussed a charter amendment on June 27 that would allow eligible city employees — including safety members — to purchase retirement service credit for unpaid parental leave taken prior to the city’s paid parental‑leave policy.
Sponsor remarks described the proposal as a correction of an historical inequity that left many women who took unpaid leave with reduced credited service for retirement. The sponsor said the draft was amended to open eligibility to all city employees, cap retroactive buyback to a July 1 cut‑off and lower the required minimum purchase period to reduce cost exposure.
Claire Murphy, executive director and acting actuary of the San Francisco Employees’ Retirement System, told the committee the draft raises fundamental pension‑plan questions. Murphy said pension plans are designed to compensate for earned time and that expanding purchasable credit to unpaid parental leave would set a precedent for other unpaid periods (for example, caretaking or workers’ compensation leave) and create administrative and cost challenges. She said the retirement board would have to establish cost procedures that were not embedded in the current draft.
Representatives from SFPD and unions and employees with personal experience of unpaid maternity leave urged the committee to move forward. Lieutenant Belinda Kerr said she took unpaid leave and used accrued sick and vacation time to cover gaps, and urged the committee to allow employees the option to buy back time so they are not forced to retire later than peers who did not take leave. SEIU and other labor speakers described the proposal as an equity issue for working families.
Committee members and the sponsor discussed limits and safeguards in the draft, including a cap to prevent open‑ended retrospective liabilities and a requirement that employees pay the full buyback cost. After public testimony the committee agreed to continue the item to a subsequent meeting to allow the retirement system time to supply a written report and for additional drafting.
The committee closed public comment and continued the item to the next Rules Committee meeting.
