East Point employees get coronavirus pay bump
COVID-19 cases slowly rise as city concerned about second wave
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First responders and frontline workers in East Point will receive a three-month pay boost for their roles in helping the city combat the coronavirus pandemic.
The hazard pay comes as the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the city topped 100 for the first time, continuing a slow but steady increase since county health officials started publicly releasing a coronavirus breakdown by city in late April.
The increase for city employees is paid in three tiers – $250 per month for police, fire, sanitation and detention officers; $150 per month for building and grounds, meter readers, roads, warehouse, water and sewer, and code enforcement; and $1.50 per hour for electric, parks and recreation, and municipal court. Employees will receive the hazard pay for three months – April, May and June – though that could be extended if the coronavirus pandemic continues into summer.
“I think this is awesome,” Councilmember Karen René said Monday as city officials detailed the hazard pay during a City Council work session.
The pay increase will impact hundreds of the city’s nearly 580 employees and cost about $150,000 per month, City Manager Frederick Gardiner said. The city didn’t release the number of employees that will receive the hazard pay on Monday. But firefighters, police officers and sanitation workers alone would total about 230 employees, city officials have said.
The idea of hazard pay surfaced in April as other cities in metro Atlanta began awarding it to first responders. On April 6, College Park finalized hazard pay of $250 to $500 in monthly bonuses for about 150 essential employees.
The city’s current budget, which runs until June 30, can absorb the three-month cost of the hazard pay, Gardiner said. But city officials are concerned a second wave of COVID-19 could strike this summer. That could upend the city’s new budget, which must be approved by June 1 and takes effect in July.
“We have enough to sustain us for the rest of the fiscal year,” Gardiner said. “We really don’t know what we’ll be looking like in June as it relates to where we are with this. We are cautious.”
A new wave of coronavirus cases could force the city – and jurisdictions across metro Atlanta – to shut down government operations again, Gardiner said. The city announced plans to slowly begin reopening its public facilities on June 1.
“If we have to shut back down again based on the severity, if we have a second wave, what the severity looks like, yes we will be prepared to amend the budget,” Gardiner said.
East Point coronavirus cases surpass 110
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the city surpassed 100 for the first time and now total 111, according to an epidemiology report released Wednesday by the Fulton County Board of Health. There were 79 cases in East Point when health officials publicly released the first breakdown of COVID-19 cases on April 22.
The number of coronavirus cases puts East Point tied for fifth among the 14 cities in the county, behind Atlanta (1,677 cases or 45.6 percent of the total in Fulton County), South Fulton (418 or 11.4 percent), Sandy Springs (312 or 8.5 percent) and Roswell (196 or 5.3 percent). Johns Creek has the same number as East Point (111 cases or 3 percent).
East Point’s share of coronavirus cases nearly matches its percentage of the county population. The city’s COVID-19 diagnosis rate is 317.4 per 100,000 people, which is sixth among cities in the county.
Read more coverage of how the coronavirus pandemic is impacting East Point.