The 15 members of the Yampa Valley Housing Authority Board of Directors voted unanimously last week to adopt a new extended leave policy for some of the public agency’s employees.

Adopted April 10, the new policy allows housing authority staff with at least seven years of continuous employment to take a one-time leave of up to ten weeks, with five weeks paid and the remainder either unpaid or covered by accrued vacation time, according to a copy of the policy.

The move prompted discussion at the Steamboat Springs City Council meeting on Tuesday and has raised questions among some community members about public sector benefits and transparency. 

City Councilor Dakotah McGinlay, the city’s representative on the housing authority board, explained the leave policy decision at council’s Tuesday meeting, noting that YVHA Executive Director Jason Peasley had pushed for the new policy.

“I was kind of the vocal voice bringing up concerns at the board level. Jason’s in a very important role and I was worried about this year, what we have coming up,” said McGinlay. “I think Jason’s been under a lot of pressure the past few years and he kind of needs a little reprieve looking into next year and that there could be a new annexation and vote and all the things that are coming down the wire, he really wants to be recharged. So it’s kind of a tool to help support him in that.”

In a statement provided to the newspaper, Peasley addressed his push for the new policy.

“I want to spend time with my wife and kids this summer. Our kids are seven and nine and they are at such an awesome point in their lives that I want to be fully present with them,” said Peasley.

“I’ve been a public servant for 20 years and I want to take time to recharge so that I can continue to serve my community with passion and purpose,” he added.

City Council Member Bryan Swintek said Tuesday he was concerned about the origins and optics of the new policy, particularly since it was initiated by a request from Peasley, who will be the first to use it.

“(Jason) is in a position to raise this to the board to change this policy in his own benefit,” said Swintek. “I don’t know about the rest of council, but this doesn’t feel that appropriate…we don’t need to get into the details, but I feel a sense of responsibility. This isn’t being done in the city, this is being done in this one unique scenario, it does not feel right.”

Swintek asked City Manager Tom Leeson whether the city has a similar policy. Leeson confirmed the city does not. 

“The housing authority is not a nonprofit. They use taxpayer funds,” said Swintek. “This is not the policy of the city.”

YVHA is described as a “multi-jurisdictional public housing authority created by an intergovernmental agreement” by the city and county, according to materials from the YVHA website.

The president of the housing authority’s board, Leah Wood, explained that while retention is not currently an issue at the housing authority, the policy is a proactive response to the realities of public sector employment, where agencies often cannot compete with private-sector salaries and often rely on robust benefits to attract and retain employees. 

“The idea is that the average tenure of a local government employee is just under seven years. So we specifically selected that seven-year mark so that we can use this as a retention tool,” said Wood. “It keeps critical staff members that are high performers, but maybe just need to step away from their very public-facing role in the community and refresh and come back ready to serve again.” 

Wood added that the benefit is tightly scoped, requires three months’ notice and is subject to operational needs.

The new benefit requires advance notice and approval from the executive director, according to YVHA Communications Director Robin Schepper and Board Member Jess Valand. Four of the 12 YVHA staffers, including Peasley, are currently eligible for the policy.

Valand provided comment around the “timing and tenure consideration” of the enacted policy, along with a narrative emphasizing the policy controls, continuity and operational realities.

“Concerns that this policy could impair service delivery or disrupt operations are not grounded in our organizational reality. YVHA is already structured to maintain continuity during staff absences, thanks to well-established coverage practices and generous accrual policies common in public sector employment,” said Valand. “Staff may currently take leave of several weeks under established annual and sick leave policy depending upon their years of service and accrual rates—the organization manages all employee absences without interruption to our service delivery.”

“This policy does not create new financial obligations beyond those already accounted for in existing leave accrual frameworks, and within the adopted budget,” she continued. “Rather, it formalizes and streamlines a practical and forward-thinking policy, while sending a clear message to long-serving employees that their service is deeply valued.”

The city of Steamboat Springs and the government of Routt County allow employees to accrue vacation and sick leave based on their years of service. Both government entities provide up to 12 weeks of paid family leave, but they do not offer any form of extended or sabbatical leave.

The Steamboat Springs School District’s policy allows non-probationary teachers — teachers who have earned an evaluation of “effective” or “highly effective” for at least three consecutive years — with at least four years of employment to request an unpaid extended leave lasting up to one academic year, according to the district’s negotiated employee policy document.

“If somebody wants to take an unpaid leave to spend time with family and to recharge, I see no reason that that shouldn’t be accommodated. But having someone to be paid to take months off work when the funding source is tax dollars?” said Swintek in an interview. “There’s no precedent for this. So I just think it’s inappropriate, the way that it was raised, the way that it was positioned, how it was not communicated clearly.”

“It does not look good, and it does not make the case to build trust, to try to annex Brown Ranch into the city, which is our ultimate goal,” he continued. “We need to rebuild trust starting yesterday, and this just sets us back.”