An Augusta Commission committee voted Wednesday to approve City Administrator Odie Donald’s proposed framework for managing the $82.3 million Augusta Rescue Plan and implementing increased public safety pay, premium pay and vaccination incentives.
The Administrative Services Committee is charged with examining the plan for spending Augusta’ share of the American Rescue Plan funds.
MORE: Commission Committees to Consider Spending Plans, Trash Complaint
Committee members approved awarding $2,500 bonuses to full-time public safety employees and $1,250 bonuses for part-time employees. Full-time employees will receive $500 bonuses and part-time personnel $250 if the full commission approves the plan at a later meeting. The total of the one-time payments, including $747,274 for COVID-19 vacation payouts, would be $4.6 million.
Recurring costs through 2021 total $1.96 million, which includes implementing a $15 per hour minimum wage for all employees beginning Sept. 10, and $700,202 to address salary compression.
[adrotate banner=”19″]
The total 2021 projected cost of one-time bonuses and increased salaries is $6.56 million.
The financial impact of extending the salary increases for an additional year would be $5.68 million.
Donald said he expects confirmation from the federal government to use American Rescue as he’s proposed by the last week of August.
Commissioner John Clarke questions where the money to pay the higher salaries will come from once the American Rescue Plan money is gone.
“What projects are we going to cut out?” he asked. “What consultants are we going to cut out? What non-essential payroll are we going to cut out? The answer is none of the above. That’s what Augusta does. It will all fall on the taxpayers.”
Administrative services committee members also approved using $1.5 million of the ARP money for a VAX UP Augusta program to incentivize unvaccinated residents with $100 rewards for getting a COVID-19 shot.
[adrotate banner=”29″]
Donald had proposed using $1 million for the program, with a goal of vaccinating 9,000 residents, but Ben Hasan proposed raising that amount to $1.5 million to vaccinate 10,000 residents and use the rest for outreach, public education and emergency procurement services if they are needed.
Mayor Pro Tem Bobby Williams said he planned to vote for Hasan’s proposal but had reservations.
“It’s bad to have to pay somebody to save their lives,” he said.
Commissioner Brandon Garett, likewise, had reservations about a $1.5 million incentive program whereby only 10,000 people were vaccinated.
“I’ve got a question,” Clarke said. “If we’re going to pass a motion to pay people $100 to get fully vaccinated, can we go back in retro and pay those who have been vaccinated?”
Donald said he was not sure that would be an allowable use of the money. What has specifically been authorized is to use ARP money as an incentive to promote vaccinations, he said.
Commissioner Jordan Johnson asked what would happen to the funds that don’t get used.
Donald said if only half of the people took advantage of the incentive, commissioners could reallocate the money.
[adrotate banner=”54″]
Mayor Hardie Davis said they should focus on food and security for residents, and they could look at transitioning the $500,000 to those needs and ramping up vaccinations.
“We need to go where they are,” he said. “They are not coming to us.”
Davis said the pandemic was only going to get worse.
MORE: Augusta Commission Approves New Open Records Request Policy
Donald said, “Our burden is to incentivize. … “If you don’t think this is appropriate policy, you could vote it down, and the staff will respond.”
In addition to premium pay, public safety bonuses and vaccination incentives Donald is proposing an Augusta Office of Recovery Program and staff augmentation.
Sylvia Cooper is a Correspondent with The Augusta Press. Reach her at sylvia.cooper@theaugustapress.com.
[adrotate banner=”51″]
