http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=14298255&BRD=1459&PAG=461&dept_id=155725&rfi=6

Prairie Village reviews plan to allow employees to provide milk to babies
By: Nathan Dayani, Staff Writer April 07, 2005

The Prairie Village City Council may adopt a policy to permit
employees to express and store breast milk during working hours.
On Monday, the Policy and Services Committee considered a policy that
would allow female employees who are breast-feeding their babies to
express breast milk during their paid break time and store it onsite.
The committee, composed of City Council members, voted 4-0 in favor of
the policy, which the council is expected to consider at its next
meeting on April 18.

The policy would not permit employees to breast-feed during their paid breaks.

Prairie Village employs about 101 full-time staff members; 28 of them
are women, said Jamie Shell, city finance director. The issue came up
recently when a female employee asked about such accommodations.

According to the policy, a manager would have to permit an employee to
use her break time to express and store breast milk "unless such an
accommodation would cause an inability to provide effective services,
risk public safety, or be unduly burdensome if staffing levels would
be adversely impacted."

Managers would include the chief and assistant city administrator,
chief of police, public works director or another designated employee.
Shell said the city could more easily make the proposed accommodations
for women who work primarily in City Hall, whereas it might be more
difficult to make the accommodations for female police officers or
public works staff.

"It's not as easy for an officer to come out of their patrol car and
make this accommodation," he said.

Neither Mission nor Mission Hills, both of which border Prairie
Village, have policies that address the issue.

Earlier this year, the state Legislature considered a bill, HB 2284,
declaring a mother may breast-feed "in any place she has a right to
be." The bill was remanded back to the state Committee on Health and
Human Services largely in part because of a heavily debated amendment
stating a mother would be entitled such a right if she would
breast-feed discreetly, said Sen. Kay O'Connor, R-Olathe.

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