How much some municipal workers get in COVID payouts depends on where you live

Hudson Valley governments are of different minds when it comes to divvying up hazard pay bonuses for workers who showed up to serve the public during the early days of the COVID pandemic.

In New Rochelle, the proposed awards would go to 408 frontline workers, with the city targeting the city’s lowest paid essential workers and first responders for the highest bonuses of $3,000.

Most Mount Vernon city workers, meanwhile, received up to $5,000 in hazard pay while almost every Dutchess County employees received $1,000 for their work in the early days of COVID, before vaccines slowed the spread in 2021.

The hazard pay came from federal money sent to municipalities and counties through the American Rescue Plan, which a few governments opted to share with their employees, with discretion on how it's doled out.

More than a year after the $1.9 trillion COVID bill passed, some municipal workers are  now receiving their piece of the COVID relief pie.

In New Rochelle, retirees who worked during early COVID as well as the estate of a New Rochelle captain who died of COVID, would also receive payment, said City Manager Chuck Strome.

COVID was first detected in New Rochelle in late February 2020. The plan is expected to be voted upon by the City Council next week, with checks cut in July.

“Our people are well-paid at the higher end, so we felt it was the right thing to give the most to those who don’t make as much – those who do maintenance in the parks, the sanitation workers, and those on police patrol, who tend to be the lower-paid newer employees,” said Strome.

Document: How much each Mount Vernon employee received in hazard pay 

ARPA: How federal COVID relief monies will be spent in Hudson Valley 

Education: How schools are spending American Rescue Plan funds 

There's considerable discretion in how these one-time awards federals funds get spent.

Mount Vernon had the region's most generous hazard-pay program, with the biggest checks of $5,000 issued to 375 city employees. Many of the city’s highest-paid municipal workers in the fire and police departments enjoyed the top awards, though some City Hall clerks and youth recreation workers also received $5,000.

While city department heads were excluded from hazard pay, most all city workers received a check, including almost 200 Mount Vernon city workers who received checks ranging from $833 to $4,583 for working during the first year of COVID – from March 2020 to March 2021.

With $600,000 of the city's $3 million hazard pay fund yet to be spent, Mount Vernon  firefighters are clamoring for payments for retirees who worked during that time period but have since retired. They were deemed ineligible by city policy, according to a March 31 memo obtained by Tax Watch.

Kevin Holt, president of the Uniformed Firefighters Association, has asked the administration of Mount Vernon Mayor Shawyn Patterson-Howard to send hazard-pay checks to five retired workers as well.

“This money was supposed to be for those who worked during the heat of COVID, when the whole world shut down until they came up with a vaccination,” said Holt. “The city still has to address the issue of compensating those who retired but worked during that period. It should be an easy fix.”

The Mount Vernon city administration is reviewing the firefighters' request.

“Safe budgeting practices require a liquidity cushion preventing the complete obligation of the entirety of the designated funds to allow for adjustments and inclusion of other classes within the allocated amount, in the future, if necessary,” said city spokesman Timothy Allen.

In Dutchess County, the government used $1.8 million from its American Rescue Plan monies to give $1,000 payments to 1,606 county employees who worked during the pandemic in 2020, and remain employed by the county.

That included almost every county worker, including department heads, though the county’s elected officials did not receive hazard pay, said county spokeswoman Colleen Pillus.

Mount Vernon's approach

The bonus payment came at an opportune time for N’Quan Stephens, a senior accountant in Mount Vernon’s City Clerk’s office, who struggled  during the worst of COVID times in 2020.

Her daughter’s kindergarten class went remote, so her monthly daycare costs rose $600 when her daughter had to stay home and sign onto her computer. Then Stephans’ grandmother died of COVID in a nursing home. So Stephens, with her savings already depleted, put the funeral expenses on her credit card.

Stephens doubted she’d receive anything from the $3 million pot of “premium pay” set aside for city workers from the city’s federal American Rescue Plan allotment because she was working in an office in City Hall.

Then she was surprised to receive a check for $3,750.

“I was climbing my way out of a hole,” said Stephens. “And that check helped me get out of that hole.”

In Mount Vernon, partial payments were made to employees who didn’t work the entire year, worked part-time, or like Stephens, had a hybrid schedule that included some work from home.

Among Mount Vernon’s 375 employees who receiving $5,000 were 134 employees of the Mount Vernon Police Department, including dispatchers and office employees, according to the city's Hazard Pay Register.

There were 98 employees from the city’s Fire Department, including dispatchers and office workers who qualified for $5,000. So did 66 employees of the Mount Vernon Public Works Department, including workers in the DPW’s commissioner’s office, as well as sanitation and street cleaning workers.

Also receiving $5,000 were Mount Vernon employees in its Department of Parks and Facilities, Youth Board, Doles Center, Parking Bureau, Building Department, Recreation Department,  animal shelter, Assessor’s office, Mayor’s office,  program for the developmentally disabled, and Office for the Aging.

New Rochelle's hazard pay

New Rochelle set $908,000 from its American Rescue Plan funds for hazard pay.

It was allocated in a way that most benefited the lowest paid public workers in the city’s roster of essential workers and first responders. New Rochelle would give its the highest award - $3,000 – to the  lowest paid in its essential worker roster – those making up to $100,000. Those earning between $100,000 and $150,000 would receive $2,000 while those earning more than $150,000 would get $1,000.

Among those earning more than $150,000 were 66 police employees and 54 in the fire department.

Only two City Hall workers in its tax office qualified for hazard pay of $500, according to a plan under review by the City Council, with approval as early as next week.

The New Rochelle employees mostly like to receive $3,000 were those in the Department of Public Works, with 77 of 86 recipients receiving the top award, compared to 40 of 161 police employees; 21 of 145 firefighters; and 11 of 14 parks and recreation employees.

Just two administrators at City Hall were granted hazard pay, with each receiving $500.

"We were the epicenter here," said Strome, recalling those early days of March 2020. "This is a token of thanks to the workers who had to come in when we had no idea how it would develop."

Follow Tax Watch columnist David McKay Wilson on Facebook or Twitter @davidmckay415. He has written about Hudson Valley public affairs since 1986. Check out his latest columns at lohud.com.

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Working during early COVID pays off in Mount Vernon, New Rochelle