“It has been clear to me for a long time that the issue of sick and safe leave in this country is a serious and growing issue. There’s an increasing number of people who don’t have access to any paid time off for illness or emergency. … It’s related to things like the rise of contingent employment and temp employment and the decline of collective bargaining. …
“If we’re going to do it I think it’s important that the policy direction be set by the council. It took me a while to do the research and have the conversations that brought me around to feeling like I have the knowledge to make a decision. And, of course, councilors need to do that before making a decision. My concern is if you create a study group and say to the study group, ‘Your job is to tell us what to do,’ as opposed to councilors saying,
‘My job is to do the research and have the conversations to figure out what we should do.’
“By constituting a study group that’s supposed to tell us what to do on an issue of this significance and on an issue this potentially controversial, you’re basically outsourcing the political decision to a volunteer committee of citizens. And then you’re basically steering whatever political conflict there’s going to be into that committee. …
“That’s setting us up for division. And paralysis. Because everybody is going to try to twist that study group to their interest. … The advocates are going to want to get on that committee. The opponents are going to want to get on that committee. And it’s not going to be sort of an objective study of the issue. It’s going to take the political battle and put it into that committee. And from my point of view, the reason we have elected officials is to make those tough decisions. ...
“The people who need (earned sick and safe time) the most are most likely to not have it. … It is a big issue. … It is getting greater.”
Duluth City Councilor Joel Sipress, in an interview this summer with the News Tribune editorial board
