The Valparaiso City Council approved and passed an ordinance at their May 23 meeting to grant added pay stipends to key “essential city employees” from the $7.6 million in funds allotted to the city from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) after further discussion from council members.

Clerk-Treasurer Holly Taylor explained Ordinance No. 13-2022 provides the necessary funds of $600,000 for premium pay for eligible city workers, such as police and fire departments who performed essential work during COVID, as well as the amount billed for consultant fees totaling a $750,000 appropriation.

Council meeting discussion prompted Valparaiso City Council Member Robert Cotton to raise questions about how much money is being provided to city workers and what assessment was used to make the pay determination.

“At the last meeting, I had asked for what we were promised, prior to appropriation of any funds, the city council was to be given a list of all eligible employees and the amount of premium pay recommended,” Cotton said.

“It’s important to do this (process of payments) in a very transparent way. I’m concerned we are being asked to vote on this without seeing the who, what, why and when for how these people were selected to receive this money.”

Cotton asked if the list “was forthcoming” of all the premium pay employees and their amounts.

Taylor said the list requested by Cotton is available in the clerk-treasurer office for council members to review.

Council President Casey Schmidt clarified to Cotton and the other members that the city department heads reviewed the list and were responsible for making the recommendations for which employees would receive premium pay and at what amount.

“The department heads have already talked to their employees and now we are ready to get these employees their money,” Schmidt said.

“I’m in full support of this ordinance.”

Taylor clarified the ordinance requested amount of $750,000 includes the $600,000 for city employee premium pay, as well as $25,000 each for the Valparaiso police and fire departments for needed building maintenance, and $25,000 for the consultant fees generated for guidance for distributing funds.

Taylor said the ordinance also provides “an additional $25,000 of buffer funds,” as a precaution if needed to correct a scenario if an eligible city employee was unintentionally overlooked for the additional pay.

Taylor said employees eligible to receive premium pay are were given one of three levels, spanning $1,000, $2,000 and $3,000, with the highest amount given to first responders such as police and fire employees. The payments were included on the city employees’ May 31 paychecks.

The $7.6 million provided to Valparaiso by Congress is part of a $19.53 billion assistance package from the Coronavirus Local Fiscal Recovery Fund.

Earlier this year, the federal government provided the final guidance and clarification for eligible expenses, with an emphasis that funding should be used to compensate essential workers performing necessary work during the pandemic and to “build a strong, resilient, and equitable recovery by making investments that support long-term growth and opportunity.”

Phil Potempa is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.