CULLMAN, Ala. – Cullman County employees will soon receive COVID supplemental payments from CARES Act reimbursement funds. Chairman Jeff Clemons cast the deciding vote Tuesday night at the monthly Cullman County Commission meeting which will give $1,500 to full–time employees and $750 to part–time employees. Commissioner Garry Marchman abstained from voting.
Clemons supported the payments, saying, “I truly believe this is a way we can help our employees right now. We know we’ve got this money set aside and there’s no better way to use it than helping people who need help. If you look at COVID for the last year, a lot of our employees have suffered. We had 13 out at one time at the Sanitation Department and I truly believe we need to help people when we can.”
While Commissioner Marchman agreed with what Clemons had to say, he felt that the method of distribution should be discussed further. He said, “I think the employees are well worth-–since we can’t give them a raise and sustain that raise-– I think they are well worth a little boost in income. I also think that we should have spent a little more time with looking at how it is structured and how we’re going to disseminate it.”
Marchman continued, “I think there could be times in the future that we could give them more money than this or it may even require a little less than this. I am a big advocate of giving them money, but I’m going to abstain from voting on this because I think we need to look at structuring it a little different.”
Clemons asked County Administrator John Bullard about the amount of time had been spent looking into the idea. Bullard said, “Probably one of the first discussions we had when I started, so since January.”
Commissioner Kerry Watson weighed in, “I think it’s something that is good for the employees and good for morale. We’ve had a lot of things happen to employees and our employees have been very dedicated during this time. They’ve showed up and we’ve had people come in, work longer hours and fill in for spots. I think you’ve got to show some appreciation to your employees, and I know Garry (Marchman) appreciates them.”
Marchman reiterated that he agreed with everything Clemons and Watson had to say and that he is not against the CARES funding going to employees. With people recently receiving stimulus money as well as tax money, Marchman argued, “There may be an opportunity later on in the year to give them even more money than this $1,500 and if you can give them $2,000 later on in the year rather than giving them $1,500 now, it would look more appropriate, to me, to give them at a time it’s more needed than at a time when they have already received a little bit a boost from the government.”
The discussion circled back to Clemons who felt, after talking to employees over the past few weeks, that they needed help now. Clemons added, “I know this isn’t an easy situation, but it’s all about helping people. That’s what we are here to do. I truly believe, being a leader in our community, we are supposed to help folks.”
Marchman again stressed, “I agree too, 100%. We have to help people and we have to put that good foot forward to be a steward of the money provided us by taxpayers, because this is all taxpayer’s money. We have to be that steward and I am 100% for helping people. I’m not against that. It’s good if we can work together and disagree and still work together to do what we need to do for the county. I’m not disagreeing with the amount. I’m not disagreeing with anything, but I think the timing could be more appropriate for the employees.”
Watson then made a motion to approve the payments with Chairman Clemons seconding the motion.
Following the approval of the payments to employees, the commission unanimously approved the transfer of the Sheriff’s Office CARES Act Funds in the amount of $993,213 to reimburse the Sheriff’s Department for necessary expenses incurred during the public health emergency.
Sheriff Matt Gentry explained, “Last year we started with the CARES Act money, the government sent so much out.” After researching the CARES Act, he found that law enforcement salaries could be eligible for reimbursement. With the help of Human Resources Manager Judy Bradford, they were able to put together a package that resulted in approximately $2.3 million in reimbursements.
Gentry continued, “As soon as we got it, we started the negotiations of how we could use it for the employees. We were able to come up with this conclusion that I think is a positive for all county employees and it’s a positive for the sheriff’s office.”
After the payments to all county employees and the reimbursement to the CCSO, Clemons said that approximately $400,000 was put into the county’s reserve funds.
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