Frank White vetoes ‘illegal’ coronavirus hazard pay for Jackson County employees
Nearly 300 Jackson County employees likely won’t be getting the bonus they were expecting for risking exposure to the new coronavirus while on the job during the first months of the pandemic.
Jackson County Executive Frank White on Friday vetoed an ordinance that would have provided $900 in hazard pay to 295 county employees who the ordinance said were put at risk of catching COVID-19.
White said the retroactive pay was illegal under Missouri law and that county legislators were warned about it before they approved the expenditure at their June 3rd meeting.
Employees of the corrections, public works, park and environmental health departments were to have received $150 for each of six two-week pay periods. Employees of the sheriff’s and medical examiners’ offices were also to have received the same hazard pay.
Other county workers, many of whom worked from home and were less exposed than jail workers and the other beneficiaries to coming in contact with the virus, would not have benefited.
The six legislators who voted in favor of the added pay — Crystal Williams, Dan Tarwater, Theresa Galvin, Scott Burnett, Charlie Franklin and Ron Finley — designated that the $314,000 come from the $123 million in CARES Act funding the county got from the federal government to cover governmental costs of fighting the coronavirus.
Legislator Jeanie Lauer abstained. Tony Miller and Jalen Anderson were absent.
Tarwater said in moving for the ordinance’s adoption that he recognized that the move might not be legal, but said the county’s lawyers could figure that out. Lauer objected to that approach.
“It seems like we’re rushing it through without having everything laid out,” she said.
The effect of that was it put White in the position of being the one to disappoint those employees by saying say no to the pay with his veto.
Tensions between White and the legislature have been growing lately, and it was clear from his letter explaining his reasons for nullifying the ordinance that he viewed the legislature’s action as a political move to make him look bad.
“While there is never an appropriate time to engage in political games,” he said, “doing so in the midst of a pandemic is shocking, even by Jackson County standards.”
This story was originally published June 12, 2020 at 4:21 PM.
