Eligible metropolis of Fort Smith employees, together with police and hearth personnel, could receive bonuses between $2,500 and $750, and metropolis employees could additionally get a break on insurance premiums deducted from paychecks throughout the December pay interval.
The Fort Smith Board of Directors on Tuesday (Sept. 13) reviewed proposals from Rick Lolley, the town’s human assets director, to supply one-time bonuses to sure metropolis employees as a reward for his or her “demonstrated hard work and commitment” throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Lolley famous in his memo to City Administrator Carl Geffken that many “cities and counties in our region have paid similar one-time payments to their employees.”
According to Lolley, full-time police and hearth, and full-time telecom and dispatch employees within the police division’s dispatch middle would receive a bonus of $2,500. Non uniformed, full-time metropolis employees would receive a $1,500 bonus, and part-time uniformed and non-uniformed employees would receive $750.
Those eligible for the bonus would have been employed by the town between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2021, and have been energetic full- or part-time employees as of Aug. 31, 2022.
Lolley mentioned the overall price for the bonuses can be $1.63 million and would come from the town’s common fund. The funding is made out there by means of metropolis funds made out there when federal reimbursements – made doable by the American Rescue Plan – offset metropolis prices for some security and safety personnel.
Lolley can also be proposing waiving medical, dental, and imaginative and prescient insurance premiums for 3 pay intervals throughout December. He mentioned the town’s well being and wellness account has $6.3 million, which is round $2 million greater than the earlier 4 years of bills.
“The amount of money in reserve far exceeds the amount needed for that account. As you and I have discussed, we would like to reward employees for helping control our costs by waiving the premiums the employees pay for medical, dental, and vision coverage for the three pay periods in the month of December,” Lolley famous in a Sept. 8 memo to Geffken. “The timing of this payment would result in a ‘bonus’ for employees during the holiday season. The amount of premiums not collected for the three pay periods would be approximately $238,000.”
Board members on the Tuesday research session expressed assist for the bonus and insurance premium plan. The board is predicted to vote Sept. 20 throughout its common assembly on the bonuses and insurance premium vacation.
