"If we can get ahead of the curve, we're going to beat this."

"

the initiative's communications director, Jack Sorensen, told the Inlander in 2016.





The initiative also allowed parents to take sick leave in order to care for their ill children. "Seventy percent of all norovirus outbreaks start with food handlers."The initiative also allowed parents to take sick leave in order to care for their ill children.

Seattle Councilwoman Teresa Mosqueda, one of the key champions of the initiative says that Seattle recently expanded the initiative's protections, allowing parents to take sick leave if their school was closed out of an abundance of caution. Today, Gov. Jay Inslee ordered all schools in Washington state to be closed out of an abundance of caution.



In the case of Spokane, Burke wants to expand the amount of sick leave days businesses are mandated to offer, anticipating that the coronavirus will hang around longer than your average illness.



City Council President Breean Beggs says he's looked through Burke's proposed reforms but hasn't spoken with her and other council members about it.





"Some of them are things that the council can do, some of them are things that the mayor could do with emergency powers," Beggs says. "Ideally, [some proposals] would happen at the state level, because then it would be uniform across the whole state — not 'Just, are you in Millwood or are you in Spokane?'"

Let’s say I am a restaurant owner and I have eight employees. It is still vitally important to the workers and the community to [provide enough paid sick leave],"