02/22/2022
2022 City Council Commentaries from Bobby Roberson
BONUS MONEY-What Money?
As promised during the campaign, I am ready to start informing the general public about our Washington's City Council calls-to-action as key activities unfold. It is not possible to comment on every issue, of course, so if there is an item on the agenda that you have a question or concern about please email me directly at [email protected].
First topic I'd like to address is about "City Employee Bonus Money" as featured recently in a WDN article...
I have had a lot of inquiries about my opinion on this, and I want to stress that I do favor bonus money both in the private and government sector for outstanding work performances. I did express a preference to reward our staff based on longevity which differs with some who wanted it across the board one amount for full time and one amount for part time. In other words a city employee hired and employed for 9 years will receive the same amount of the bonus money as an employee who has been with the city for only 9 months.
Unfortunately it was evident by the time we reached this item on the agenda some members were ready to go home. Little discussion took place, so yes of course I voted for the motion to approve $2,000.00 for every full-time employee and $1,000.00 for every part-time employee, regardless of the number of years of service.
Where does the money come from? The answer is the Federal Government. The bonuses are covered by the American Rescue Plan funds and approx. $527,000 worth of bonus dollars will be "passed" through the State Budget to the City of Washington (for purposes of a bonus for Covid pandemic stress and strain plus inflation). The most important thing for all our fulltime and parttime city employees is that City Council voted yes to distribute their bonus checks and I want to stress that I supported and did vote for this.
Be on the lookout for my next topic which will be "closed door meetings" .... better known as Executive Closed Sessions of City Council.
