KENNESAW, Ga. — At Monday’s Kennesaw City Council work session, City Manager Jeff Drobney proposed the implementation of a six-week paid parental leave for full-time employees.
As proposed by Drobney, if council approves it, any full-time employees would be eligible for six weeks of paid parental leave upon the birth or adoption of a child or children, whether it be a mother or father in the employment of the city.
Drobney said to qualify, employees must have been a full-time worker for at least a year and have worked at least 1,250 hours before the 12-month period where employees would use the parental leave.
“As everyone knows we work really hard to have personnel policies that make Kennesaw a destination for employees and we’ve made a lot of improvements over the last several years and this is an area that I recommend we move into and that’s paid parental leave,” Drobney told the city council on Monday.
Listing out surrounding municipalities, such as Cherokee County, and other Cobb cities like Powder Springs and Acworth, the city manager said Kennesaw was “one of the few that does not have a policy in place in our personnel policies that provides paid parental leave to both the mother and the father and that’s either through birth or through adoption.”
Members of council appeared relatively supportive of the policy proposal during the work session, though not without clarifying questions.
City Council Member Antonio Jones thanked Drobney for the proposal, saying he’d approached him about a similar policy several months before, but asked if the council should consider what he called a look back policy, to give eligible employees back pay for if the policy had already been in effect.
Jones referenced a staff member who recently had a child during the meeting as an example.
However, both Drobney and Pat Ferris, another council member, both pushed back on the idea of a lookback due to concerns over cost and fairness if it was implemented.
“I personally, I don’t know how we would do that. I don’t think that’s a good policy to do. We don’t do look backs on things whether it, you know, how far back do you owe your year, two years, five years, whatever that is,” Drobney said.
Ferris echoed the sentiment, saying “”Yeah, I don’t see doing a lookback either. I mean, I don’t even know how you begin to do that.”
Then, the Post 3 council member asked about how the costs would play out in the city’s budget, if the proposal passed.
Ferris’ concerns were mainly focused on if the parental leave would impact accrual of sick leave or vacation time, which Drobney said it would not.
“It wouldn’t impact vacation accrual or sick leave accrual. It would just be paid. It would just be part of that. So if that person took six weeks, they would continue to receive vacation that adds on, you wouldn’t stop that. As far as the cost, I guess that would depend on the number of children that are born or adopted in that year and it would depend on that pay,” Drobney said.
As far as specifics for cost to the city, Drobney said among Kennesaw employees, there have been between two and three births per year on average over the past five years, so while he could not provide an exact estimate, the costs for implementing the policy and paying staff would not be “exorbitant” and that the “benefit was well worth the expense.”
The proposal is likely to be up for more discussion, if not a possible vote, at the next full city council session.