Editor’s note: This story has been corrected.
Former Acting Mayor Austin Quinn-Davidson, on her way out of the executive office she held while serving as unelected mayor for eight months in 2020-2021, enacted a parental leave policy for municipal employees.
Elected Mayor Dave Bronson undid that policy when he came into office in July of 2021. Now, the Assembly is planning to put the parental leave policy back, but as an ordinance of the assembly. It is nearly the exact format that was signed as an executive order by Quinn-Davidson.
The ordinance will be formally proposed at the Feb. 21 regular Assembly meeting. It is sponsored by Quinn-Davidson, Meg Zaletel, and Suzanne LaFrance.
Under the proposed ordinance, workers asking for parental leave could get up to 160 hours of paid leave after a child is born, adopted, or brought into the employee’s family through foster care. The fiscal impact of this is unknown for taxpayers, as the Assembly majority views it as a productivity loss.
“Parental leave is a productivity loss issue rather than a cost increase. A full-time employee is paid for 2,080 hours a year. In whatever manner those 2,080 hours are allocated the cost is the same. However, there may be some costs if overtime is anticipate to be used/requested to cover the productivity loss,” the Assembly analysis says.
This new benefit is in addition to normal vacation leave, sick leave, 12 existing paid holidays, and voting leave, as the Assembly prepares to add one more holiday to the work schedule of municipal employees: Juneteenth and Indigenous Peoples’ Day, while removing Seward’s Day.
The parental leave ordinance says that the Assembly may skip sending the proposal to the Personnel Rules Committee prior to a public hearing.
At the Feb. 21 meeting, the Assembly will introduce the ordinance and set a public hearing for another time. The Assembly meets at 5 pm in the Assembly Chambers of the Loussac Library, at the corner of 36th Ave. and Denali Street.
Pertinent documents for this ordinance include:
AO 2023-20_1_PAID PARENTAL LEAVE BENEFIT.DOCX
AO 2023-20_2_PAID PARENTAL LEAVE_AM 96-2023.DOCX
AO 2023-20_3_EXHIBIT A PARENTAL LEAVE SEE.XLSX
AO 2023-20_4_EXHIBIT B 2023-0206 PARENTAL LEAVE PRICEOUT.PDF
