May 6, 2010
UW administrator fights for reform of shared leave law — and wins
When UW Assistant Vice President for Regional Affairs Theresa Doherty’s sister was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, she of course wanted to help. And since her sister is a state employee — a teacher in the Auburn School District — Doherty figured that the best thing she could do would be to donate some of her nearly 900 hours of unused sick leave through the shared leave program. Her sister, Molly Serna, was facing five months of chemotherapy and didn’t have enough paid leave to cover it. Doherty filled out the form for the donation, only to learn about the sentence.
The sentence was this one from the shared leave legislation in the Revised Code of Washington: “However, leave transferred to or from employees of school districts or educational service districts is limited to transfers to or from employees within the same employing district.”
Because of the sentence, Doherty learned, she could donate her leave to an employee of this university or another, or to an employee in another state agency, but she couldn’t donate it to her sister.
“I thought that seemed dumb,” Doherty said. “In my mind, a teacher is a state employee and we’re all state employees and the shared leave program is meant to help people who are in situations with catastrophic illnesses.”
Specifically, the shared leave program allows a state employee to receive donations of annual leave, sick leave, or personal holiday hours from other employees if the state employee will need to take leave without pay or separate from state employment because of a qualifying situation. Qualifying situations include, among other things, personal, severe, extraordinary or life-threatening illness or injury. Doherty’s sister’s situation certainly qualified.
Fueled by her consternation over the policy, Doherty — who lives in Gig Harbor — contacted her state senator, Derek Kilmer.
“Molly and I simply sent him an e-mail explaining the situation and asking him if he would be willing to sponsor legislation to change the policy,” Doherty said. “He got back to us within a week and said yes.”
Basically, the legislation — Engrossed Substitute Senate Bill 6724 —asked that the offending sentence be dropped from the shared leave program. Although it was a simple request, Doherty knew that the odds were long. “In a short session, going into it, everyone told me that it probably wouldn’t happen,” she said.
Still, she was determined to try her best. Once Kilmer and his House of Representatives counterpart, Larry Seaquist, signed on, Doherty worked the legislation — writing e-mails, talking to people who knew people and going to Olympia — all on her own time. She and Serna testified for the bill three times in front of committees — the Senate Committee on Government Operations & Elections, the House Committee on State Government & Tribal Affairs and the House Committee on Ways & Means.
“Once a bill is assigned to a committee, you have to push for a hearing,” she explained. “Then once a hearing is scheduled, you need to go and testify, to put a face on what you’re talking about.”
Doherty is in a better position than most when it comes to getting a bill through Olympia. When she was fresh out of graduate school, she worked as a research analyst for the state Democratic Caucus, and she even ran for the legislature in 1984.
“But I’ve never been a lobbyist,” she said. “I’ve gone to Olympia in my role at the UW to work with our lobbyists and monitor legislation, not to write it, lobby for it and get it passed. So this was a new experience. I was personally committed to it because I wanted to help my sister, and the more I found out about it, the more I realized that it would help others too.”
One of those others, in fact, was pushing for his own change in the shared leave program. He is Andy McMillan, a state employee who has cancer, and had gotten Rep. Sam Hunt to sponsor legislation to increase the number of hours of shared leave an employee could receive. Eventually, those two changes were combined in one bill that both deleted the sentence about teachers and increased the shared leave hours available for donation from 261 to 522.
The legislation passed both houses unanimously, was signed by the governor on March 23 and because of an emergency clause, became law immediately.
Doherty is delighted by the outcome of her efforts. Her sister, she reports, has completed chemotherapy and her prognosis is good. She expects to return to her classroom at Auburn Riverside High School in the fall.
To learn how shared leave is administered at the UW click here.
