View Agenda Item

Item No. 7.

MEETING DATE: 07/19/2021
TO:	HONORABLE MAYOR AND COUNCILMEMBERS
FROM:	JIM SADRO, CITY MANAGER By: Elvie Balderrama, Human Resources Director
SUBJECT:	APPROVE PROVIDING ONE-TIME LUMP SUM PAY ADJUSTMENTS FOR CERTAIN ESSENTIAL PART-TIME EMPLOYEES

RECOMMENDATION:

That the City Council authorize the City Manager to issue one-time lump sum pay adjustments to certain essential part-time employees who continued to work throughout the COVID-19 pandemic amid “Safer at Home” orders issued by the State of California.

DISCUSSION:

In an attempt to control the spread of the COVID-19 virus last year, executive orders were established on March 19, 2020 in the State of California that advised all non-essential residents in the state to stay in their homes and for non-essential businesses to close temporarily. Although most governmental agencies responsible for providing essential services/supplies to the community were specifically exempted from these orders, the City modified some of its operations to help reduce the risk of COVID-19 exposure to its employees and to the public.

On March 18, 2020, all City facilities were temporarily closed to the public; however, Community Services staff was tasked with organizing meal pick up/delivery services for the City’s senior and disabled residents who needed assistance, as well as continue to provide urgent transportation services for seniors and disabled residents. On April 25, 2021, due to the economic impacts caused by the coronavirus, the City either laid off or furloughed most of its part-time employees. These part-time employees were eligible for unemployment benefits, including new federal aid that often exceed part-time employees regular pay. At the same time, the City shifted many of its service priorities to aid the public through meal deliveries, regular contacts with homebound senior citizens, establishing remote learning classrooms for school aged children, providing day care for essential workers, etc. To accomplish these new responsibilities, some part-time staff were asked to return to work and those who were not furloughed were asked to shift their duties, as needed by the City. These part-time employees include part-time teachers, recreation leaders, office staff, and maintenance staff.

With the critical support from these essential part-time employees, the City was able to:

Provide child-care for dozens of our Police Officers and other city staff, as well as essential workers within the community, when all other privately operated child-care facilities had closed;

Provide a clean working environment for City staff by tasking part-time employees to clean and sanitize City facilities, including the Police Department, multiple times per day;

Continue its graffiti abatement program by tasking Recreation Leaders to take on this responsibility when the City's one full-time employee responsible for graffiti abatement was unable to work due to the “Safer-at-Home” Order;

Deliver fresh and healthy food to home-bound seniors and disabled residents due to a reduction in the number of volunteers who would normally provide this service;

Provide learning assistance to 200 children in families of essential workers;

Perform “welfare checks” on seniors and vulnerable community members who were concerned about exposure to COVID or who had no access to family members;

Painted and cleaned all of the City-operated Child Care facilities when the “Stay-at-Home” Order was in effect and children were not allowed to attend in-person learning;

Provide staff assistance to the La Habra Community Resources Care Center non-profit organization that went from providing food, toiletries, and other staples and supplies to approximately 100 people per week under normal circumstances, to more than 1,000 people per week during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic;

Staffed and supported a local COVID-19 vaccination site at the City's Community Center that provided convenient access for nearly 5,000 La Habra residents to receive COVID-19 vaccinations;

As a result of the dedicated services performed by the City's full and part-time staff, the City was able to continue providing normal services to the community during the entire duration of the pandemic, and was able to quickly adapt its operations to meet the community's needs for new programs and services resulting from the pandemic. In recognition of the stellar effort provided by the City's part-time employees who stayed at work during this challenging time, staff recommends the issuance of one-time lump sum pay adjustments to approximately 75 part-time employees who worked regular hours during most or all of the time period from April 1, 2020 to May 1, 2021, and/or who worked more than 400 hours during this time period.

Staff recommends a one-time lump sum payment to those eligible part-time employees in the following amounts:

· $800 to eligible part-time employees who worked more than 1,000 hours during the designated period
· $400 to eligible part-time employees who worked more than 400 hours during the designated period

The total estimated cost of these one-time pay adjustments will not exceed $52,000.

FISCAL IMPACT/SOURCE OF FUNDING:

If approved, the total cost of the recommended one-time lump sum pay adjustment in the amounts of $400 or $800 is estimated to be approximately $52,000. There are sufficient unspent budgeted funds remaining in the Fiscal Year 2020-2021 budget for the purpose of providing these recommended one-time lump sum payments to eligible essential part-time employees.

GENERAL PLAN RELEVANCE:

ED 9.1 – Balanced Fiscal Practices