County commissioners on Thursday, April 30, reluctantly agreed to pay $1.5 million for 29,000 overtime hours that county workers accrued between March 15 and April 11 while working under an emergency response pay policy that has since been rescinded.
The Monroe County Board of County Commissioners met virtually for a special meeting Thursday to discuss, among other things, the overtime accrual, the pay policy that allowed it and a proposal by Commissioner Craig Cates that the county retroactively rescind the emergency pay policy and thereby eliminate most of that $1.5 million overtime total.
“I brought this forward due to some concerns about the county’s finances heading into hurricane season and about the decision to implement this emergency pay policy that moved about 490 county employees into a pay policy that provides them time-and-a-half when not everyone is working solely on matters related to COVID-19,” Cates told his fellow commissioners. “I just feel it’s unfair, with thousands of people out of work and hundreds of businesses closed, for us to be paying staff time and a half.”
During the four-week time period that the overtime was accruing, 61 other county employees had been put on paid administrative leave before they were furloughed and encouraged to apply for unemployment. The county commission has since ended the emergency response pay policy, meaning the overall time-and-a-half pay rates are no longer in effect, but hourly employees who work more than 40 hours in a week will be paid overtime, according to the Fair Labor and Standards Act.
County Administrator Roman Gastesi told The Weekly on April 28, “No one has gotten paid that money, and they’re not going to get paid that money.” He was referring to a spreadsheet provided to The Weekly by Clerk of the Court Kevin Madok that outlined employees’ hours and amounts that total $1.5 million.
Denial would be costly
During the April 30 special meeting, County Attorney Bob Shillinger warned the commission that Cates’ resolution could lead to costly legal ramifications.
“We’ll almost certainly face union grievances and possible litigation,” Shillinger said. “It could end up costing us more in the long run.”
Commissioner Sylvia Murphy called the overtime amounts “excessive,” but said she feels the county is obligated to pay it.
“Our employees were told they’d be making excessive overtime, and they’ve planned for it. I think we’re obligated to pay this, but only this amount,” Murphy said, adding that she wants fire/rescue and sheriff’s office workers to be considered separately due to differences in their work responsibilities and higher risk of exposure.
FEMA reimbursement?
Commissioner Michelle Coldiron expressed concern about the payroll amount that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will reimburse the county for payroll expenses related to the COVID-19 disaster and wanted to ensure that staff would complete a line-by-line review of the payroll spreadsheet “to be sure there are checks and balances in place.”
County Finance Director Tina Boan told the commissioners that FEMA is expected to reimburse the county for 75%, or $1.1 million, of confirmed COVID-related payroll expenses. The state would split the remaining 25% with the county, with each agency chipping in 12.5%, or $191,267, of that $1.5 million.
“Is this a hard pill to swallow? Absolutely,” Coldiron said. “Do I think this is an exorbitant amount? Yes, I do. But I feel this is what we must do in light of the potential legal ramifications.”
The question of FEMA payroll reimbursement led to a discussion of whether all employees who logged time-and-a-half hours under the emergency response pay policy were specifically working on COVID-19-related matters.
“To have accrued this many — almost 29,000 hours in four weeks — by people doing their usual job, but getting time-and-a-half for it, I think is unfair to the taxpayers,” Cates said. “And do we know for sure that FEMA will give us a blanket approval and reimburse us for all these hours?”
That led to a discussion of whether the accrued $1.5 million is for hours specifically related to the coronavirus.
‘Rock and a hard place’
Coldiron sought clarification on the distinction between virus-related work and normal work.
The county’s human resources director Bryan Cook told the commissioners that employees and department heads were instructed to record COVID-specific activities separately from their normal work hours on specific timesheets and payroll forms that were submitted to the clerk’s office.
“I’ve seen the total, but I haven’t reviewed it with the clerk,” Cook said, adding that there should not be any regular work reflected in that COVID pay.
“Are all these employees eligible for all these hours?” Cates questioned. “Are all 29,000 hours — in a one-month period — all COVID-related hours?”
He acknowledged that some employees, such as those in the building or planning department may have been working to implement remote operating procedures that became necessary,
“But I also believe people could have been tasked to do those things during their normal work hours.”
Shillinger said it seems likely that FEMA will reimburse the county for valid and documented work hours that are specific to the pandemic.
“But I haven’t done a line-by-line review of that spreadsheet,” Shillinger said. “I don’t know if each one is actually entitled to all that.”
Gastesi emphasized that county staff has been “extremely successful” in the past in securing FEMA reimbursement for payroll.
County Mayor Heather Carruthers said she was “dismayed” by the situation, particularly because the county was in a similar situation with exorbitant overtime costs following Hurricane Irma in 2017.
“I think it’s clear we need more frequent, direct communication between the clerk and our financial staff so we’re not in this position again,” Carruthers said. “I think the reality is, this is water under the bridge and we’re between a rock and a hard place. We should have had this information about the hours and cost of those hours at our last meeting.
“It’s also come to my attention,” Carruthers said, “that some of our employees don’t feel they’re entitled to these payments and have expressed their desire to decline the additional pay.”
That presents another problem, Shilinger said, adding that he’ll have to draft a resolution allowing employees to refuse or return pay, as there currently is no legal precedent to allow that for non-elected employees.
Following more than two hours of discussion, commissioners voted 4 to 1 to approve a motion by Murphy to deny Cates’ proposal “and to honor what we did for those two pay periods while directing staff to bring us back a new pay policy.”
Cates was the dissenting vote.
