A leave sharing program is established for the purpose of permitting city employees, at no additional cost to the city other than the administrative costs of administering the program, to come to the aid of a fellow city employee who is suffering from, or has a relative or household member suffering from, an extraordinary or severe illness, injury, impairment, or physical or mental condition. (Ord. 792 § 1, 1991).

A department head, with the mayor or designee’s concurrence, may permit an employee to receive shared leave if:
A. The employee suffers, or has an immediate family member suffering from, an illness, injury, impairment, or physical or mental condition which is of an extraordinary or severe nature and which has caused, or is likely to cause, the employee to go on leave without pay status or to terminate his or her employment with the city;
B. An employee has completed six months of the applicable city probationary period;
C. The employee has depleted or will shortly deplete his or her total available paid leave;
D. Prior to the use of shared leave, the employee has abided by the city’s sick leave policy;
E. The employee has diligently pursued and is found to be ineligible for state industrial insurance benefits;
F. The use of shared leave will not significantly increase the city’s costs other than the administrative costs of administering the shared leave program;
G. If deemed appropriate the mayor or his designee may require that the employee provide appropriate medical justification and documentation both of the necessity for the leave and the time which the employee can reasonably be expected to be absent due to the condition. The amount of shared leave, if any, which an employee may receive shall then be calculated. No employee shall receive more than a total of one thousand forty hours of leave. (Ord. 792 § 2, 1991).

Employees may request the transfer of a specified amount of accrued sick leave or vacation leave to an employee who has been authorized to receive shared leave, subject to the following conditions:
A. Transfers shall be in increments of not less than four hours;
B. The donating employee must retain a total of eighty hours, or more, of total accrued sick leave and eighty hours or more of accrued vacation leave, after the transfer of shared leave;
C. The transfer of leave from a donating employee shall not exceed the amount specified by that employee;
D. All donations of shared leave shall be entirely voluntary;
E. Resigning or retiring employees, who have donated shared leave, shall not be eligible to receive payment for such donated leave. (Ord. 792 § 3, 1991).

Shared leave may be transferred without regard to the City Department in which donating employees and donee employees may be assigned. (Ord. 792 § 4, 1991).

A. While an employee is using shared leave, he or she shall continue to be classified as a city employee and shall receive the same treatment in respect to salary and employee benefits as he or she would normally receive if using accrued sick leave or vacation leave. All salary payments made to an employee while using shared leave shall be made by the Department to which that employee is assigned.
B. The salary rate, total salary, and earned benefits of an employee using shared leave shall not change as a result of the employee being on shared leave, but shall continue as if the employee were using accrued sick leave or vacation leave.
C. Sick or vacation leave shall be transferred on a dollar-for-dollar basis. The value of the leave shall be determined at the current hourly wage of the transferor and
the leave available to the receiving employee shall be calculated at the receiving employee’s wage.
D. The personnel department shall be responsible for computing the values of donated leave and shared leave, and shall also be responsible for adjusting the accrued leave balances to show the transferred leave. Records of all leave time transferred shall be maintained in the event any unused time is returned at a later date to the donor.
E. The value of any leave transferred which remains unused shall be returned at its original value to the employee or employees who donated the leave.
F. The personnel department shall monitor the use of shared leave with the objective of establishing uniform administration of this ordinance for all employees of the city. Inappropriate use or treatment of the shared leave provision may result in the cancellation of the donated leave or use of shared leave. In no event shall any unused shared leave be paid to the donee employee in the event of leaving city service.
G. The clerk-treasurer shall determine the appropriate fund transfers and budget amendments as need for city council action. (Ord. 792 § 5, 1991).

This program has been established as a pilot program of the city subject to review within one calendar year. The city council in its sole discretion may cancel this program at any time or review it on one-year increments, extending it from time to time. (Ord. 792 § 6, 1991).