GCQC to consider hazard bonuses
The $601,323 the Garland County Quorum Court Finance Committee advanced earlier this week would award county employees who have continued to serve the public during the pandemic, County Judge Darryl Mahoney said.
The money would be appropriated from the $2.35 million awarded to the county from the state’s $1.25 billion Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act allocation. The steering committee the governor appointed to review and recommend CARES Act funding applications set aside $150 million for county and city aid in September.
Mahoney said the county applied for and received all of the $2.35 million for which it was eligible, an
amount the steering committee based on the formula used to distribute state turnback money. The CARES Act funding was deposited into the county’s general fund, Mahoney said.
The ordinance the Finance Committee gave a do-pass recommendation to earlier this week appropriated $601,323 for $1,200 hazard bonuses for 396 full-time county employees and a $600 bonus for 23 part-time employees. It included $112,322 in matching Social Security and retirement benefit payments.
The full quorum court will consider the ordinance Monday night. Elected officials, poll workers, the county board of equalization and law library employees would be excluded from the payment. Garland County Library employees are eligible for the bonus, which would be paid from the library’s funding source.
The quorum court will also consider a resolution authorizing Mahoney and the library’s board of directors to issue hazard bonuses.
“We never missed a day here,” Mahoney said. “We never closed our doors in any department, not one day. We’ve kept providing services for the general public throughout the pandemic. I certainly appreciate our employees who’ve been here every day and been exposed to the virus.”
The state Department of Finance and Administration told the steering committee guidance the U.S. Department of the Treasury issued earlier this year eased the burden for local governments to substantiate pandemic-related labor costs.
“You simply have to back it up with duty rosters, payroll records showing that person was paid for how much,” DFA Deputy Director and State Comptroller Paul Louthian told the steering committee in September. “That will be the extent of the documentation that’s necessary. My opinion is they’ve opened this up to say if you have public health and safety employees, and you’re paying them during this time period to work with the public, we’re going to pay you for this expense.”
According to information provided to the Finance Committee, the county detention center would benefit most from the additional pay. Ninety-nine full-time employees paid from the jail fund would receive bonuses totaling
$146,088. The sheriff’s department would receive bonuses of
$100,343 for 68 full-time employees paid from the general fund.
The road department would receive $63,452 for 43 full-time employees paid from the road fund, and environmental services would get $53,123 for 36 full-time employees paid from the solid waste fund.
Mahoney said more spending requests from the county’s CARES Act funding will be presented to the quorum court. The money doesn’t have a spend-down deadline, he said.
“Since the pandemic is still ongoing we’re certainly incurring expenses from it,” Mahoney said. “Right now the detention center and the sheriff’s office removed a lot of man-hours there due to some of them being quarantined or actually testing positive for COVID. We have to fill that gap with overtime money. Our expenses have been large on that. It’s all pandemic related.”