Crawford County officials to again vote on leave time

Monday's (July 15) Crawford County Quorum Court meeting may feel like déjà vu when members of the Court vote on the donation of leave time again, the second time since May 23.

The original vote caught many members off guard when it appeared on the agenda.

In the ensuing month, the personnel committee has met with elected county officials and county employees in crafting a policy that would meet their needs, County Judge John Hall said.

"When it goes to the Court, they may want to change it, but that's what the elected officials wanted and what the Quorum Court wanted."

The ordinance, as it is written, would allow employees to donate unused vacation time to other employees in need. The maximum number of days an employee would be allowed to accept would be capped at 30 days and the time may only be used should an employee have exhausted all sick and vacation time and need to take additional time off due to an illness "catastrophic in nature" of either the employee or an immediate family member. (Link here for a PDF copy of the proposed ordinance.)

"It's not something because they feel sick and want to stay at home," said County Clerk Teresa Armer. "It's actually for an illness or surgery."

In order to use the program, the ordinance specifies that an employee shall come to their elected official to request the use of donated time.

"Upon receipt of such a request and approval of the Elected Official with paperwork detailing the request, the Elected Official shall contact the County Clerk Payroll Department to process the request," the ordinance reads. "The Elected Official shall determine if the need is catastrophic in nature."

Armer said the personnel committee was provided with a definition from a medical dictionary, in order to properly spell out what a catastrophic illness is.

"Catastrophic, as defined by insurance, is financial devastation, not just terminal health. A condition that results in health care costs that exceeds a person's income, or which compromises financial independence, reducing him/her to subsistence or near-poverty levels," the ordinance reads.

According to Armer, the ordinance, if passed, would work well and returns to the employees a policy similar to what the county used to have.

"I am 100% for it. It was in our old handbook as donation of sick time," she said.

She said the process will be easy, too.

"The way it is written, because of the HIPPA laws, you have to be private, with this ordinance, of course the elected official will know about their employee if something is wrong. But as an official, I can say one of my employees needs time donated. They (other employees) don't have to know who or why."

If employees choose to donate vacation time, Armer said they would just have to let their supervisor know and the payroll clerk would take care of transferring the vacation time from the one employee to another.

One stipulation in the ordinance is that "under no circumstances shall an employee benefit from such a donation or multiple donations receive more than 30 days of donated time." The result – the donation may essentially only be used once.

Does this ordinance have everything Armer, other elected officials and county employees would have wanted?

"No. But it's better than nothing. It's something that I feel needs to be put in there," she said.

And Hall is confident that come Monday night, the ordinance will pass with little opposition.

"From the last impression I got from the Quorum Court, there are enough people there if they make sure the elected official is the one who signs off on (donations of vacation time), I believe that they'll have seven votes to pass it."