County government faces maternity leave dilemma

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“There’s no funding…”

A request last week by the office of a La Salle County justice of the peace that a temporary clerk be provided as a substitute during an employee’s maternity leave was met with silence from commissioners who discovered they have no budget for the extra staff.

According to County Judge Leodoro Martinez III at the meeting Monday, July 28, the request is an unusual one, as he believes most county government offices do not hire substitutes during employee absences.

Both the county judge and legal counsel Keith Franklin said on Monday that no allowances have been made for personnel leave.

“There’s no funding for a part-time clerk,” Martinez told commissioners after they had been presented with the request from Pct. 2 JP Frank Weikel. “Where do we get the money from?”

Moments earlier in the meeting, commissioners had approved a $500 donation to the Las Palmas Nursing & Rehabilitation Center in Cotulla for the purchase of school supplies and backpacks that will be distributed to local students in a community outreach effort by the private for-profit business.

The cash request by Destiny Osoria on behalf of Las Palmas had been met with a reply by finance consultant Jorge Flores, who told commissioners the funds had not been budgeted.
“There is no line item for this proposal,” Flores said. “But if the court approves it, it’s not a big dollar amount.”

The donation to Las Palmas was approved unanimously on a motion by Comm. Noel Niavez, seconded by Comm. Raul Ayala. Funds will be drawn from the county’s carry-over reserves.

Faced with a second funding request, however, commissioners hesitated to make a fresh allowance from their reserves. Their agenda item for discussion and vote called only for approving a part-time clerk position at the JP’s office and did not specify a funding source.

“There is no funding until you amend the budget,” Atty. Franklin said.

“How long is she going to be out for, on maternity leave?” the county judge asked. “Will Judge Weikel train the part-time help?”

Comm. Erasmo Ramirez proposed that the court approve paying for the position pending a budget amendment. He was supported by Comm. Ayala.

“There’s temporary and there’s part-time,” County Treasurer Maria Perez told the court, indicating that commissioners should specify under which form of employment the substitute clerk should be hired.

“It’s going to depend on the funding,” Atty. Franklin said. “You can do this like you do with election workers and summer hires.”

“I’m going to have to get back with you,” the county judge said.

Martinez said in an interview the following day that he believes the problem may recur in other government departments and that commissioners may examine policies to adopt regarding replacement staff during medical absences.

“In the past, government officials have found a substitute,” the county judge said on Tuesday. “That’s not the correct way, and we want to do it on the up-and-up.

“We may re-budget a line item for this in future,” Judge Martinez added. “We can expect three months out of work on FMLA [Family & Medical Leave Act] maternity leave. There may be extended absences, using accrued vacation and medical leave time. Now we know what we are dealing with.”

Martinez noted that he believes the difficulty of replacing a clerk has only recently arisen due to the small staff at some precinct offices.

“Most offices can fill in gaps with their existing staff.” the judge said. “This becomes an issue when you only have a staff of one.

“The real issue is bringing in anybody, because a county government office handles sensitive material,” the county judge said. “We have to get them all trained.”

To date, the issue of temporary replacements during planned absences remains unresolved by an overall county government policy and is handled on a case-by-case basis.

“Hopefully we can reach out to some retirees, experienced and trained former staff, and bring them in,” the judge added. “The other issue is what do you pay them? These are little hurdles you have to jump through.”