The Goleta City Council adopted new policies for supplemental paid pregnancy disability leave and parental bonding leave during its meeting Tuesday.

City employees will have access to at least 10 weeks of pregnancy disability leave and at least six weeks of parental bonding leave without losing any pay or benefit contributions.

“As someone who, at one point, was a pregnant employee here at this city, this feels extra special to get to now be in this position to just keep improving on the policies we have here at the city,” Councilmember Luz Reyes-Martín said. “We know that communities thrive when families thrive, and anything that we can do to help support our parents in the workplace and families is good for our community and for our city and for our employees.”

Currently under state law, city employees who are birthing parents can take up to four months of unpaid pregnancy disability leave, followed by 12 weeks of leave for parental bonding through the California Family Rights Act.

Employees who are not birthing parents are eligible for up to 12 weeks of protected leave to bond with a new child. They can apply for partial wage replacement and supplement that with sick or vacation leave.

With California State Disability or Paid Family Leave programs, employees can apply for partial wage replacement, through which they can expect about 60% of their wage to be covered. Employees can also supplement this benefit with their own sick leave and with vacation or personal leave banks to have their entire income replaced.

Goleta’s new policies will cover the gap and offer qualifying employees at least 10 weeks of pregnancy disability leave and at least six weeks of parental bonding leave with their full pay and benefit contributions, without having to use accrued vacation or sick time.

“Many employees who choose to exercise their full pregnancy and/or parental leave entitlements end up exhausting their leave balances and transitioning to only partially paid or fully unpaid leave,” staff said in a report to the City Council.

“Parents may also exhaust their city-paid contribution to medical benefits, requiring them to pay the full premium amount during parental bonding leave. This can create a financial hardship for families already struggling with the high cost of living in the Santa Barbara area, and some employees cannot afford this and are forced to reduce their parental bonding leave.”

The paid parental bonding leave is available for both birthing and non-birthing parents with newborns, as well as for adoption or foster family placements, and through surrogacy.

The staff report says that, in order to be eligible, a regular full- or part-time employee must have been employed for at least one year, have successfully completed the probationary period, and have worked at least 2,080 hours for the city before the start of the leave.

Additionally, employees who don’t have State Disability Insurance or paid family leave — which Assistant City Manager Kristy Schmidt said is currently only managers — would receive about 40% wage replacement and benefit continuation for a similar amount of time through the policy.

While cities such as San Francisco, Sacramento, San Jose, San Diego, Palo Alto, and Petaluma have already adopted similar policies to provide better income replacement and benefit continuation for new parents, Schmidt said she was not aware of any other local cities offering these types of benefits.

“We are proud to be able to offer our employees this benefit,” Mayor Paula Perotte said in a statement. “Welcoming a new child is an intense and joyful time for a family. This new policy will ensure that our employees don’t have to worry about losing pay and health benefits, or exhausting their leave balance, during a pregnancy. It will also allow all new parents paid time away from work to bond with their new child.”

The city also hopes the new policy “has a positive impact on employee recruitment, retention, and engagement.”

The city expects about one parental leave per year, and since salaries are already budgeted each year, additional paid leave “does not generally have a direct budget cost, only a productivity cost,” according to the staff report to City Council.

Backfilling employees on leave would come with a cost, but most leaves are not backfilled, according to Schmidt.