LEXINGTON, Ky. — Essential Lexington city employees could see more money before the end of the year. Council members are considering appropriating $15 million from the city’s $120 million allotment from the American Rescue Plan Act to provide what is sometimes called hero pay.
What You Need To Know
- Lexington city council members are weighing how to appropriate $120 million the city received from the federal American Rescue Plan Act
- Council members are moving forward with a plan to allocate $15 million to provide what is often referred to as hero pay to essential city employees who worked through the pandemic
- If passed, it could impact roughly 1,700 essential city employees
- City leaders say, if approved, the goal would be to get the additional funds to essential city employees before the holidays
Council members heard a motion on the matter at a meeting last week. If approved, this premium pay, more commonly referred to as hero pay, could provide a roughly $5,000 boost to an estimated 1,700 essential employees. It would only apply to city employees, not essential workers for private companies.
Council members asked for clarification regarding who would qualify as an essential worker. It’s still unclear exactly how many employees fall under this umbrella in the city, but it would include emergency personnel such as firefighters and police officers.
As for when those employees could see this hero pay, it depends on several factors. City leaders say the process of getting this money out could be a lengthy process after approval. That’s why some council members wanted to get the ball rolling sooner rather than later.
“In light of the retention and employment issues we are having, making the funds available sooner rather than later, I think this is the appropriate motion to make at the time and I plan to support it,” said Councilman James Brown.
However, other council members wanted to table the discussion until this Thursday. That’s because there are more discussions this week regarding the results of the American Rescue Plan Act survey.
“We are talking about $15 million with 15 minutes of discussion with some of our colleagues not even here to weigh in. We are jumping the line of the process we told the public we were going to take. We have been transparent. We got the survey data. We set the timeline. To do this is kind of a betrayal of our trust,” said Councilman David Kloiber.
Ultimately, council members did not push the discussion back until this week. The motion regarding hero pay received the first reading and passage last week. A final vote is expected in two weeks.