San Mateo eyes worker bonuses

A merit employee is a permanent full-time staff member and to qualify for the merit pay, they had to be employed with the city between March 17 and May 30, 2020, and still be on staff now. There are 414 merit employees who meet the requirements.

“I think COVID-19 forced us to make some incredibly hard decisions. And city staff were asked to take compensation cuts due to our budget taking a big hit during the pandemic. And now, thankfully, our budget looked better than we expected last year due to support from the Federal American Rescue Plan and an increase in collected property transfer taxes,” Rodriguez said.

City staff have provided many services throughout the pandemic, including maintenance of parks that were heavily used by the community during the stay-home order, round-the-clock operations of the wastewater treatment plant, 911 emergency response, child care and learning education assistance programs, providing support to local businesses and establishing city workplace safety protocol.

The staff also made operational improvements during this time including technology enhancements implemented by the Community Development Department and Department of Information Technology that transitioned much of the development review process online.

“Public service is our core mission,” said City Manager Drew Corbett. “Because we’re a service organization, it’s people and it’s our city staff who serve the public, whether you flush your toilet, go to a local park, drive through a downtown or a neighborhood street, or know someone that’s going to help you if you call 911, those are all public servants. Those are all city employees.”

One of the city’s major revenue sources, its property transfer tax, exceeded expectations last year which has allowed it to be able to do this one-time recognition pay without creating an issue from a budgetary perspective, he said.

“We really asked our staff to go above and beyond to continue providing service. And it was a very challenging time. And our employees really stepped up to that challenge. And the City Council felt like providing them with recognition. Pay recognition was warranted given what they did during an obviously difficult and uncertain time,” Corbett said.

The total cost of COVID-19 Recognition Pay, including Medicare and Social Security, is $879,314. Based on the fixed cost distribution of all eligible merit staff, $627,305 of the total cost will be allocated to the General Fund, including all sub-funds, $65,774 to the Construction Services Fund, $136,285 to the Sewer Fund, and $49,950 to all other funds. The General Fund’s allocation will be covered by revenues in excess of projections from the real property transfer tax. The council meets 7 p.m. Monday, Aug. 16. Go to cityofsanmateo.org/publicmeetings to stream the meeting or to get more information.

julia@smdailyjournal.com

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