The majority of Fannin County first responders will now receive hazard pay after the Fannin County Board of Commissioners unanimously voted to pay it during a regular meeting Tuesday, November 24, held via teleconference in order to limit the potential spread of COVID-19.
Post One Commissioner Earl Johnson requested to add the topic onto the agenda of the teleconference meeting after he had researched the topic following the November 10 meeting when Post One Commissioner Glenn Patterson asked the board to distribute the hazard pay.
“I’ve since learned that Pickens County had awarded their first responders $2,000 dollars in hazard pay payable four consecutive weeks at $500 a week,” Johnson said. “I mean with what we’re going through right now, we’re all on a teleconference call because of the COVID-19, and you mentioned earlier that other departments, everyone, is going to teleconference calls. In my opinion, these EMS workers, the Sheriff’s Department, the Fire Department, they can’t tele-fix anyone. They’re having to do their job and deal with people. They’re having to be right there with them, hands-on or dealing with them absolutely directly.
“If anyone is deserving of the $500 hazard pay at this moment, it’s out first responders.”
Post Two Commissioner Glenn Patterson again expressed his desire to award the pay, stating, “This, more than ever, is a time that they need to know that we are behind them and we appreciate them. Ya know, there’s always going to be a little bit here and there that may have a problem, not enough, there may be some dissension just a little bit. You’re never going to have 100% support in anything you do, so I think, like Mr. Johnson, this will increase morale and give workers, of course, financial security and confidence, a feeling that they’re supported by us commissioners.”
Following a discussion on who exactly should receive the hazard pay, the board determined that all full-time employees under the EMA Department, 911 employees, badged Sheriff’s Department employees, Detention Center employees and Fire Department employees, not including elected officials or department heads, would get $500. Part-time employees in these same categories will receive $250.
Volunteer firefighters will not receive hazard pay at this time.
Johnson said, “Even though in Fannin County we really depend on them, I think it wouldn’t be fair with the volunteers when their name kind of says it all. They voluntarily go. In other words, they’re not full-time county employees. I think it would be very unfair to start divvying up with them.”
Patterson agreed with Johnson regarding volunteers, but discussed looking into again after the first of the year.
Chairman Stan Helton explained that hazard pay could not be paid retroactively and encouraged the commissioners to consider an “employeed as of” date in order to receive the pay. He also asked how the post commissioners felt it should be distributed.
“We could put all kind of stipulations on it,” Johnson said. “Of all the things I’ve done in eight years, I’ve never seen hairs split like they’ve been split on spending $500 in the middle of a pandemic. I’ve never witnessed this before in my life. We don’t split hairs like this on anything, basically. We definitely don’t do it in our own department, but yet when it comes up to this, with federal money that’s been given for these reasons, now it just seems like here at the end, and we’re coming out a lot better than most cases. We’re giving $500, and others are getting $2,000. I’m not nowhere near ready to go to that yet. $500 is the number we talked about the whole time.
“If it were up to me, as I’ve said before, it wouldn’t have been brought up the Monday before the Tuesday election, if it were up to me, but none of that was up to me. It was brought up in a meeting, alright, it got everyone’s hopes up of getting something, and now we’ve got ourselves here. … It doesn’t matter to me if we pay it out $100 a week for the next five weeks or if we cut one lump sum check for $500. It doesn’t matter to me.”
Helton said, “To answer your question about splitting hairs on this, if we’re dealing with federal money, I want to make sure that we’re not going to do anything that’s going to put us in a bind for next year.”
Patterson said he would prefer to pay the hazard pay out in weekly allotments in an attempt to ease the tax burden on employees, and Helton explained that paying it in a lump sum would be easier on the payroll department.
While the board voted to pay the $500, they chose to pass a motion stating the pay would be paid either in a lump sum or in four increments of $125 “based on what is the most tax advantageous to be determined by the financial person.”