After more than an hour of debate Monday, the Clearwater City Council adopted a parental leave policy allowing two weeks paid time off.
The issue was first brought up over a month ago, but even after three different discussions, members of the council couldn’t come to a consensus on whether it should give parents paid time off when a child is born.
At one point the discussion encompassed sick leave, paid time off (PTO) and parental leave for either just the mother or both parents.
Monday, Administrator Kevin Kress presented a sick leave policy that would have allowed city employees to acrue four or eight hours a month of sick time, with the maximum number of hours allowed to acrue capped at 240 hours.
After discussion, the council later changed that to just 10 days a year where employees had to “use it or lose it.”
Councilman Wayne Kruchten questioned how and when it could be used, while Councilmen Richard Petty and Vern Scott weren’t in favor of adding any more off days, since city employees already have PTO.
When it came time to vote, the motion did not get a second and failed.
Then the council discussed different options for a parental leave policy. The original draft included paid time off for both spouses with new children or newly-adopted children. Under the policy, an employee would receive up to 30 days paid leave at 100% pay for up to one year after the birth of a child or placement of an adopted child.
Those terms were modified during the discussion to 30 days at 60% for the mother and one week at 100% for the father.
But members of the council couldn’t come to an agreement on those terms, either.
Finally, the terms were amended again to 100% pay for 10 days for both spouses. The days can be used consecutively or however the employee chooses, as long as they are used within the first six months after a child is born or adopted. The council voted unanimously to adopt the policy, which goes into effect immediately.
Fire Contract
The council also discussed the fire service contract during a workshop session with representatives from Lynden Twp. and Clearwater Twp.
During the previous discussion in January, a majority of those present appeared to be in favor of amending the formula to divide the annual fire budget based on the percentage of calls over five or more years.
Using that formula, Lynden Twp. would pay 23%; Clearwater Twp. would pay 24% and the city’s share would be 53%.
Monday, that discussion continued, although there were other deviations from that formula presented, like dividing the calls into medical vs. fire-related; estimating the cost of fire equipment only used or mainly used in townships; dividing the cost on major capital purchases three ways; using population and market value as part of the formula, and adding language to the contract spelling who pays if the fire budget runs over.
Since it was a workshop, the council couldn’t vote on any specific formula. But since both townships vote on their budget at their annual meeting on March 12, the council set a special council meeting for March 4 to make a decision.
