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By J.R. TIDWELL / Editor

Amending the wording of the sick bank policy for city employees was the main item of discussion during the Jemison City Council meeting on Jan. 7.

Employees of the City of Jemison are allowed to donate extra sick time that they do not need to a bank.

Ordinance #10-19-09 as originally worded allowed city employees to request time out of the sick bank after using up all personal sick time.

The Council has decided to tweak the policy slightly by now requiring employees to exhaust all sick, vacation and holiday/comp time before being allowed to request time out of the sick bank.

According to the amended wording of Ordinance #10-19-09E, “The purpose of the City of Jemison voluntary sick leave bank policy is to provide additional paid leave for employees who have exhausted all approved leave benefits, to include sick, vacation and holiday/comp time.

Donors who have more than a minimum amount of sick time accrued may donate hours to the bank.

The original ordinance allowed employees to take out up to “30 days” of time from the bank, but that amount has also been tweaked to be an amount of hours instead of days.

“Unless special permission is granted by the mayor, employees may be granted no more than 160 hours of leave debited out of the sick bank,” according to the ordinance.

Mayor Eddie Reed said that the sick bank is a good thing to have available for city employees, a sentiment that was echoed by other members of the Council.

In other business, the Council also voted to approve the minutes from the Dec. 3, 2018, meeting and to pay the bills.