Whately Personnel Committee votes to recommend sick leave bank policy

Other Committee · Meeting of January 22, 2026

Whately Personnel Committee votes 4-0 to recommend a new sick leave bank letting employees donate paid time off to sick colleagues. The policy would seed the bank with 160 hours starting July 1, with donations voluntary and eligibility reviewed by the committee at public meetings without disclosing medical details. Members separately declined to raise the 150-hour cap on comp time banked by exempt department heads, citing payout-liability concerns, and asked staff to draft new overtime language for highway and police employees called in during storms after their own sick time.

One committee member called the sick bank "about altruism," saying, "if this happened to me, I would really need it." The recommendation now goes to the Selectboard; no town meeting vote is required.

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Source: the Other Committee meeting of January 22, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.