Picus Urges President to Sign Family Leave Bill : Politics: The councilwoman says a similar city measure has cost Los Angeles virtually no money.

Los Angeles City Councilwoman Joy Picus on Friday urged President Bush to sign a controversial family leave bill, saying a similar measure for city employees has proved to be virtually without cost.

Bush has threatened to veto the bill, which would require businesses with more than 50 employees to provide up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to workers for childbirth or serious illness in their immediate family. The bill was sponsored by Democrats.

“George Bush, stop whining and start signing,” Picus said at a City Hall news conference, flanked by several city employees who had taken advantage of the city’s family leave program.

Bush has argued that the bill would impose extra costs on businesses and force them to lay off workers to make ends meet. The President, saying that the timing of the passage of the bill was “very political,” has introduced his own less restrictive family leave bill tied to tax credits.

But Picus, a registered Democrat, said that in the past she had asked a top city budget official to give her an estimate of the cost of the city’s family leave program, which offers four months of unpaid leave--more generous than the Democratic proposal on Bush’s desk.

“I was told it was so small that it couldn’t be quantified,” Picus said.

Tom Sisson, the city budget official who gave her that information, was not available Friday.

An aide to Sisson, however, said that the city has not yet seriously tried to assess the cost of the program but hopes to soon.

Picus said the family leave program increases employee morale and reduces absenteeism, thus making workers more productive.

The councilwoman also denied that the city’s leave policy affects the delivery of city services.

When one of her aides recently took leave to stay home with a newborn, “we all filled in by carrying a little bit extra,” Picus said.

“I never cut back on the level of service to constituents,” she said.

Picus’ news conference was one example of how Democrats are trying to use the family leave debate to put Bush on the defensive. They have said that the President’s opposition to the bill belies his emphasis on “family values,” a key feature of his faltering reelection campaign.

“I’m accusing George Bush of being tops as a world class hypocrite . . . when he mouths off about family values,” Picus said.