15 - Extension of the Families First Coronavirus Relief Act (FFCRA) Covid-19 sick leave programItem No. 15
M'emorandum
TO: Mayor & City Council
FROM: Grayson Path, City Manager
SUBJECT: Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA)
Granting of Extension
DATE: April 12, 2021
BACKGROUND:
The Federal Government approved the FFCRA in response to the CoVid-19 Pandemic which
required certain employers to provide their employees with paid sick leave and expanded family
and medical leave for specified reasons related to CoVid-19. These provisions were in place from
April 1, 2020 — December 31, 2020. On January 11, 2021 City Council extended the FFCRA
Program from January 1, 2021 through March 31, 2021.
STATUS OF ISSUE:
The City continues to have employees impacted by CoVid-19 and needing to take time off for
testing and possibly even quarantine periods.
Between January 1, 2021 and March 31, 2021, 42 employees utilized the FFCRA, with ninety
(90%) of those employees using the Covid time in January. The number of employees utilizing
the FFCRA has decreased from 96 employees to 42 employees, but the fact is that Covid-19 has
not completely gone away. Vaccinations are on the rise and cases are dropping, but there still does
appear to be some benefit to extending this FFCRA leave at least one additional quarter so that
employees who might still get CoVid-19 and have not used their bank of 80 hours might do so in
order to recover quickly and prevent the spread to other staff and patrons. If no further employees
were to get CoVid-19 and need to utilize this leave, then having extended it would be of no
consequence to the City.
BUDGET:
The City has been tracking the number of hours used under the FFCRA so that we could know
when the 80 hour cap was reached and sick leave would need to be applied. At the time of the
January 11, 2021 City Council Meeting, the City had seen 96 employees utilize 5,270.25 hours of
FFCRA leave for a total of $88,395.23. Since that time, we have seen 42 employees utilize 1,768
hours of FFCRA leave for a total of $35,521.60. This is trending downwards and so it is quickly
becoming less of a concern in our budget, it any at all. In addition, keeping sick employees home
helps prevent further cost with other employees getting sick.
OPTIONS:
1. Whether or not to extend the FFCRA Program through June 30, 2021 (or some other date)
and make it retroactive to April 1, 2021.
2. Request additional information.
RECOMMENDATION:
Recommendation is to extend the FFCRA Program through June 30, 2021 and to make it
retroactive to April 1, 2021. As with the previous extension granted by the City Council, this is
simply an extension of the 2020 FFCRA and therefore not a new bank of hours for hours already
used.
Unless a surge in CoVid-19 were to arise this quarter, the City Manager foresees this being the
final request for an extension of this FFCRA leave.