LULA – Lula may be small but the effects of COVID-19 aren’t, so on Monday night the city council approved a new policy to better help the city’s limited staff deal with the threats presented by the pandemic.
Earlier this year the city adopted a plan for what to do in the event of infection and ordered compliance with CDC guidelines, but when a couple of city employees recently tested positive for Coronavirus that led to the decision to close city hall to public access.
City Manager Dennis Bergin said city hall was too small to provide for good social distancing. “Our biggest challenge that we have here is our limited size of facility, actually the size of the building. The reason we’re having an online (city council) meeting tonight is because we couldn’t accommodate the public with the facilities we have right now.”
In early April the city cancelled several events, including the city’s keystone annual celebration: Railroad Days. City parks and other facilities were (and still remain) closed.
“We’ve got to protect our staff,” Bergin said at Monday’s city council meeting. “We’ve got to limit the amount of contact they have.” At present the city has 12 employees, eleven of whom are full time.
City Attorney Joey Homans discussed one provision in the new policy under consideration: when an employee may return to work.
Under the current policy whenever there is a positive COVID-19 test by an employee, or a positive test by a family member of an employee, or a positive test by someone with whom an employee had close contact, that employee must isolate.
Homans said, “What this policy does is amplify what the council previously adopted.”
According to Homans and Bergin the requirement for a return to work under the new policy would be proof of a negative test result or written authorization from a physician clearing the employee to return to work.
“There are reasons a person can refuse to take the test but as a city, as their employer, we’re entitled to ask, and if we can reasonably accommodate the employees’ concerns then we could require that they go forward with the test,” Homans explained.
Bergin said the city would pay for all required COVID tests.
In addition to the new pre-emptive measures being adopted, city leaders thought the time had come to compensate staff members for working under the health risk conditions. Bergin said after conferring with other jurisdictions a $2-per-hour premium was something the city could afford.
The premium pay would extend through the end of the calendar year and be paid retroactive back to March 15th.
“For full time employees that would be $1583,” Bergin said about the retroactive pay that would soon be available for staff members.
“I think we’ve done a good thing here and, hopefully, helped clarify some things for our employees, as far as the policy goes,” Mayor Jim Grier said following the unanimous vote to approve the measure which takes effect immediately.
