Modesto Council OKs pandemic bonuses up to $7,500 for employees, including top officials
The Modesto City Council on Tuesday approved paying as much as $7,500 each in premium pay to city employees who worked through the COVID-19 pandemic. The recipients include City Manager Joe Lopez and other top city officials.
This will cost Modesto $6.7 million from the $45.9 million it received in total over 2021 and 2022 from the American Rescue Plan Act, the $1.9 trillion federal effort to help families, business, cities, counties, schools and others weather the pandemic.
The premium pay is only for full-time employees who still work for the city.
That drew criticism from several city retirees and a former city employee who told council members that they and others like them worked for Modesto in the pandemic and should be recognized for that.
“I feel that this is unfair to exclude former employees from this pay based on our employment status,” said Greg Miculinich, who told council members he worked for Modesto as a heavy equipment mechanic for eight years before taking another job with the Turlock Irrigation District in May 2022. “We deserve to be shown recognition for the risks we took and sacrifices we made with the city.”
Miculinich said he worked on city buses and fire engines and his job site never closed during the pandemic. He said he became a first-time father in the pandemic and worried about bringing COVID-19 home to his newborn.
After voting 7-0 to provide premium pay to employees still with Modesto, council members also voted unanimously to discuss at a future meeting providing premium pay to retirees but not to former employees.
Miculinich said in an email to The Bee after the council meeting that he will file a grievance with the state labor board regarding the legality of the city not providing premium pay to former employees.
Modesto employees can receive as much as $7,500. Employees receive $3,000 for working April 2020 through March 2021, an additional $3,000 for working April 2021 through March 2022, and $1,500 for working April 2022 through September 2022.
Timing of the payments
Some 851 employees will receive $7,500, 33 will receive $4,500 and 116 will receive $1,500, based on The Bee’s calculation of information on a city report.
Other Stanislaus County cities that provided employees with premium pay did so in 2021 and-or 2022. When asked, Modesto officials have said the city’s delay had nothing to do with risking passage of Measure H, the 1% sales tax increase the city put on the November ballot.
Voters approved the tax, which is expected to bring in $39 million annually to the roughly $175 million general fund, reversing more than a decade of annual service reductions in public safety, parks and other basics. “The answer is no,” Human Resources Director Christina Alger said last week. “We didn’t wait until the sales tax measure passed.”
Modesto has spent or committed the bulk of its $45.9 million in American Rescue Plan on such efforts as reducing blight and homelessness, supporting economic development and nonprofits as well as its own needs. That includes $4.5 million to help balance the current general fund budget.
Modesto put the $8.1 million it had left from ARPA in reserves in July 2022. Alger has said the city did not know then whether it would need it to help balance its upcoming general fund budget. The $6.7 million in premium pay is coming from the $8.1 million.
Council members did not talk about the timing of the premium pay, and Councilman Chris Ricci came closest to discussing providing the pay to the city manager and other top officials. Lopez was appointed city manager in July 2018 and has worked for Modesto since January 2012.
Ricci said the premium pay sends the message to city employees at every level of the organization that the council appreciates their hard work and the challenges they faced in the pandemic. He also said Modesto needs to provide compensation that is competitive with other cities to attract and keep good employees.
Low, moderate income
Ricci said city workers made real sacrifices in the pandemic. He said police Officer Matt Ponce and Police Department outreach specialist Randy Limburg both contracted COVID-19. Limburg died, and Ricci said Ponce was hospitalized and sustained a career-ending injury. He said Ponce now uses an oxygen tank.
Alger has said that all full-time employees, including the city manager, would receive premium pay as long as they meet the guidelines of working during the pandemic and still being with the city.
The U.S. Treasury Department allows cities to provide this pay to its employees but its guidelines state the pay should be prioritized for “low- and moderate-income persons” and those that “by virtue of their employment, were forced to take on additional burdens and make great personal sacrifices as a result of the COVID–19 pandemic.”
Six of Stanislaus County’s eight other cities provided their employees with premium pay. But the city managers and other top officials in Riverbank, Oakdale and Hughson did not receive it.
Alger told council members that under the city’s premium pay guidelines about 89 retirees would quality for the pay at a cost of about $522,000 to the city. She added there are roughly 202 former employees who worked for Modesto during the pandemic. She estimated it would cost about $1.2 million to provide them with premium pay.
This story was originally published March 8, 2023 at 10:51 AM.
