Macon County employees will get $750 in hazard pay for their work during the COVID-19 pandemic.
During the November meeting of the Macon County Board of Commissioners, county manager Derek Roland thanked all county departments for efforts to maintain services during a particularly trying year.
From public health and safety to sanitation to transit to senior services and everything in between, he said that every county department had to do things differently when the pandemic began. He pointed out that the individuals who perform these functions are at greater risk of contracting coronavirus because of it.
“As Macon County manager, I can assure you that no department in this organization has been spared from the challenging times that have been brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, but since day one that this pandemic started, the men and women in every county department have stood strong,” Roland said. “They remain dedicated to the mission of this organization, which is to provide the highest level of public service to the citizens of this county.”
In thanks for their service, Roland asked commissioners to authorize spending $328,037 from the general fund balance and $22,181 from solid waste fund balance to issue $750 in hazard pay to all active full time employees hired by Oct. 26, 2019 and $150 to all active part-time employees hired by Nov. 30, 2019 who have worked 500 hours or more in 2020.
The expense will be offset by $364,735 in funding the county received from the CARES Act to covering employees’ salaries and fringe benefits. These funds have saved the county significant money on payroll this year, Roland said. The unused funds are set to roll over into the fund balance, so Roland said that the hazard payments “will essentially be a wash” for the fund balance total and will be “passing along those savings to our employees.”
“This hazard payment is not funded through CARES Act funds,” Roland said. “This hazard payment to Macon County employees is funded using county funds, as I alluded to. It is a one-time payment. It will have a net zero impact on the current fiscal year budget and it will have a net zero impact on the fiscal year ’21 budget.”
Commissioner Paul Higdon voiced opposition to the plan. While he agreed that county employees had gone above and beyond this year, he felt that it was unfair to private sector employees who have also done their jobs throughout the pandemic if public employees got extra subsidies using their tax money.
“When we hire county employees, we hire you to perform a service in good times and bad times,” Higdon said. “Those in the private sector have no guarantees. They have no hazard pay. The benefits that they got through the CARES Act, the same thing came to public employees.”
Commissioner Karl Gillespie supported the hazard pay proposal. He said that county employees have to interact with citizens every day and go through plenty of situations where they’re likely to be exposed to the virus, making supporting them more important.
“I see those folks at the recycling center every day, standing there greeting people, every sneeze somebody brings to them,” Gillespie said. “If you think about the exposure that they get, I just want to make sure that we’re fair.”
The commissioners approved the hazard payment plan as presented by a margin of 4-1 with Higdon voting against.