Crawford County leave time issue tabled to seek legal clarity

What Crawford County Judge John Hall thought was a sure bet turned out to not be the case.

The Crawford County Quorum Court tabled on Monday (July 15) an ordinance that would have allowed employees to donate vacation time to a bank that could be used in the case of a catastrophic illness either personally or with an immediate family member of the employee was out of sick time.

The ordinance would have limited the number of donated days that an employee could use to 30 days total. Approval from the employee's supervisor, in most cases an elected official, would have also been required.

Justice of the Peace Mary Jan Blount said the vote did not happen due to one primary issue.

"Basically, it was just tabled to go back to the personnel committee to further define catastrophic illness," she said. "Rather than approve it last night, it was sent back to re-address the whole ordinance and come back with a better-worded ordinance. That was the main thing."

JP James Lane, who chairs the court's personnel committee, said the committee would work with the county's legal counsel to address the issues discussed at Monday's meeting.

"Our legal advisor saw a lot of gaping holes in what was presented," he said.

One of the holes Lane said he noticed in the ordinance was that there were not "tight" definitions of who is eligible and who is not eligible to accept donated time.

Lane said he would speak to attorney Chuck Baker, the county's legal counsel, regarding a time when Baker could meet with the committee.

"I told them last night when our counsel gets back from his vacation (that we would set up a meeting). But we're not going to have another meeting without having legal counsel there. There's no need for us to keep spinning our wheels."

Blount said if the committee is able to make the recommended revisions in the next few weeks, she expects the ordinance to come back to the court for a vote at the next regular meeting on Aug. 19.

Lane agreed, adding that it is time to finish the almost two month long battle over the donation of vacation time.