{"id":2314,"date":"2026-06-17T11:06:41","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T11:06:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=2314"},"modified":"2026-06-17T11:06:41","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T11:06:41","slug":"parental-leave-laws-dont-apply-to-pregnant-elected-officials-in-california-a-new-bill-is-aiming-to-change-that","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=2314","title":{"rendered":"Parental leave laws don’t apply to pregnant elected officials in California. A new bill is aiming to change that"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Nearly two years after Sunnyvale Councilmember Alysa Cisneros had to seek approval for parental leave from her fellow council members at a public meeting, a new bill, inspired by her experience and coverage of it by this news organization, aims to rewrite the family leave process for local elected officials, putting their privacy at the forefront.<\/p>\n

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The Family Friendly City Councils Act, introduced by state Assemblymember Dawn Addis (D-San Luis Obispo) earlier this year, would require cities to establish a process for council members to notify the city they will be taking parental leave.<\/p>\n

In California, many elected officials aren\u2019t covered by the Family and Medical Leave Act, and most cities have rules on the books that allow them to declare a seat vacant if a council member is absent for a certain number of meetings. Because of the way the law is written, local elected officials, like Cisneros, often must make a public declaration and obtain council approval to take parental leave.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the kind of obstacle \u2014 on top of economic factors, childcare and harassment \u2014 that can keep women out of public life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just don\u2019t think people really understood the level of barrier that\u2019s out there,\u201d Addis said in an interview about the bill. Many of these barriers, she said, have often gone unnoticed with fewer women in public office than men.<\/p>\n

About 40% of all municipal officeholders in the state are women, according to the Center for American Women and Politics. Women make up 50.1% of California\u2019s population.<\/p>\n

Assembly Bill 2134 would prohibit family leave from counting toward council absences and bar the process from taking place in a public setting. The bill has received bipartisan support and passed through the state Assembly last month without any opposition.<\/p>\n

Addis, a third-term assemblywoman, came to politics via the Women\u2019s March movement and was elected to the Morro Bay City Council in 2018 \u2014 an experience she said was an \u201ceye opener\u201d for the challenges that women and moms face while serving in local government. But the 2024 Bay Area News Group article about Cisneros\u2019 experience left her \u201cstunned\u201d at yet another obstacle she didn\u2019t know women in politics faced. The Family Friendly City Councils Act, she said, would be a \u201clogical fix\u201d without any fiscal impact on the state.<\/p>\n

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Cisneros, who is in her second term on the Sunnyvale City Council, testified on the bill\u2019s behalf in an assembly committee hearing in April. She told committee members about how she had to weigh whether she might lose her seat when deciding to have a second child and her frustration that other female elected officials would also have to be subject to the court of public opinion for a medical decision.<\/p>\n

The councilwoman said in an interview that the current law \u201cseems completely out of line with the values of the state of California.\u201d<\/p>\n

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While Cisneros said she received nothing but support from the council and the community, she went into the process with forewarning from former Sunnyvale Mayor Melinda Hamilton, who in 2003 faced scrutiny from the public about her and her husband\u2019s decision to have their first child.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe council approved it unanimously,\u201d Hamilton previously told the Bay Area News Group. \u201cMembers of the public were less happy about it. People wanted to know who was going to take care of my kid.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Since Addis introduced the bill in February, it\u2019s earned the support of the Legislative Women\u2019s Caucus, which marked it as one of their priority bills this year, and several co-authors have signed on, including Silicon Valley Assemblymember Patrick Ahrens.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe necessity is clear that all families bearing children should have access to parental leave to deal with the realities of bringing a newborn into this world,\u201d Ahrens said in a statement. \u201cGiving birth shouldn\u2019t be an impediment to working or being a public servant. Our laws are behind the times and I am working with my colleagues in the legislature to expand parental leave to unburden would-be mothers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Addis said she feels like they\u2019ve made a lot of progress on women\u2019s issues in recent years as more women have been elected to state office. In 2024, the California state senate reached gender parity for the first time in history. Their work, however, is far from over.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes you think being in a position where you have influence and you\u2019re making a lot of decisions, that the barriers will start to drop away,\u201d she said. \u201cI think a lot of what really happens, though, is you get into that position and you realize how many of those barriers there still are and it can really make people question if they want to stay in public service, if they\u2019ll run for that office again, and maybe dissuade their friends from wanting to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Cisneros, the bill signals that her time on the Sunnyvale council will have meant something significant to her personally and to her community. While there are many things she\u2019s proud of, being able to take an issue that has affected countless parents and help fix it has been \u201cincredibly gratifying.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope that they make decisions about family planning and their lives the same way everyone else does and they take their leave that is guaranteed to them under the law, in a very straightforward, no-process process,\u201d Cisneros said of the parents who will come after her. \u201cI hope that it\u2019s not something we have to think about again.\u201d<\/p>\n

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California’s parental leave laws don\u2019t protect pregnant elected officials. A new bipartisan bill aims to change that and reduce the obstacles to public service many women face.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2313,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nParental leave laws don’t apply to pregnant elected officials in California. 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