Hazard pay for City of Greenville employees and city revenue being impacted by the Coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis was discussed during Tuesday’s regular city council meeting.
With several businesses being closed or operating under tight restrictions out of an abundance of caution, the City of Greenville has seen a downturn in revenue and “would be” incoming funds.
Mayor Errick Simmons and the city council heard from external financial consultant Steve Osso, who said the city would be “looking at a loss of around $3.5 million.”
Simmons added the loss is largely attributed to the decreased revenue in sales taxes and gaming revenues.
Despite the projected loss, Simmons said he and the council are committed to exploring ways to compensate city employees for still providing services in hazardous conditions.
“I am going to ask the council to take a look at this and investigate further regarding any other sources of revenue so we can attempt to provide hazard pay for our employees. We absolutely need to do that, they are essential,” Simmons said.
The mayor proposed a motion be made and seconded to further investigate the ability of the city to provide hazard pay for its employees, as they are deemed essential to the operation of city business and affairs.
Ward 4 Councilwoman Lurann Thomas made the motion to continue to explore means of hazard pay for city employees, and the council voted unanimously.
Simmons informed the council the consideration right now for hazard pay is $150 as a lump sum for each employee — an estimated $60,000 total.
“We’re looking at that amount and any other streams of revenue for things that can be reimbursed. Our employees continue to be on the front lines and are providing essential services to the folks in Greenville and we want to most definitely show our appreciation to them,” Simmons said.
Ward 6 Councilman James Wilson said he is concerned about the city’s water department revenues being down, particularly residents being aware they are still responsible for paying their bill and keeping it current.
“If you’re pocketing the money now and aren’t paying your water bill, it’s going to come up down the line,” Wilson said. “We need to make sure they understand that we hadn’t told them they don’t have to pay their water bill, we said we aren’t going to cut it off right now.”
While the Public Works Department made the recommendation to keep utilities connected until the COVID-19 crisis is somewhat averted, water department manager Jessie Whitey confirmed the city is down in water bill collections.
Acknowledging Wilson’s concerns, Whitley told the council, “We are down a little bit and we do have customers who for some reason feel like the bills have been forgiven and what we’re trying to let them know is it’s just an extension.”
Whitley echoed Wilson’s remarks that when COVID-19 is no longer having the impact it is currently, residents will have to pay their bill or services will be disconnected.
Osso recommended residents who received stimulus checks allocate some of it toward their current bill so it won’t be a burden later down the road.
Simmons stressed that residents should still regularly pay their bills if they can.
“We’re asking our residents, although we have entered that order not to make disconnections, your water bill is still due,” Simmons said. “It doesn’t mean that they are forgiven; you need to go ahead and pay your bill if you have the funds to pay it.”
Washington County
Possibly providing hazard pay to county employees was also a topic of discussion at Monday’s regular Washington County Board of Supervisors meeting.
With the county feeling the brunt of Coronavirus (COVID-19) financially, the BOS intend to proceed thoughtfully and cautiously regarding hazard pay.
“Anything that we do, especially when it comes to compensating people who are not furloughed, has to be meaningful and it has to be affordable,” BOS president Carl McGee said.
McGee said the BOS agreed to basically begin by running some numbers along with different percentages to determine what the overall impact would be on the county’s finances.
The BOS cannot guarantee anything at this stage, but McGee said his position is if hazard pay is going to be dispersed, it needs to be fair, noting as an example, the typical percentage for military personnel put in hazardous situations is 20% and above.
“I don’t want to insult anybody by not recognizing it’s a hazardous situation because people are being put in harm’s way,” he said.
Due to the COVID-19 crisis, the county’s revenues have been greatly reduced.
“We still have quite a long ways to go in this fiscal year,” McGee said.
McGee said it is too early to pinpoint where their biggest drop in revenue is.
“But there has been some drop off with tags as well as property taxes. Anytime you limit access to the place where those bills are paid, there’s going to be an impact,” he said.
The BOS consulted with their auditor to determine what the appropriate numbers are to consider and the appropriate time to actually take a measurement of what the overall impact is going to be on the county financially.
“We don’t have the actual information just yet, but hopefully we will get those numbers soon,” McGee said.
