Gainesville says Florida law doesn't allow $250 vaccine incentive payments for workers - Gainesville Sun
The city of Gainesville has rescinded its offer to pay a $250 incentive payment to employees who get their COVID-19 vaccinations after the city’s legal staff concluded that state law prevents them from making the payments.
However, other counties in Florida have continued to make incentive payments to employees after the state law that Gainesville officials say prevents them from paying employees here was in effect.
City commissioners say they trust the city attorney's legal advice.
But a spokeswoman for Gov. Ron DeSantis said Tuesday that she doesn't understand Gainesville's logic in saying that the state is prohibiting the incentive payments.
"It is unclear why the city of Gainesville believes that these (state law) provisions, which prohibit vaccination requirements or mandates, would prohibit incentive payments, provided that an employee who does not supply proof of vaccination is not required to do so as a condition of employment," said spokeswoman Christina Pushaw in an emailed statement.
Instead of the incentive payment, Gainesville officials are considering paying out $250 to each of the city’s 2,333 workers, which adds up to $583,250.
Mayor Lauren Poe said that by paying all employees, it would no longer be an incentive for people to get vaccinated.
He said the city's senior leadership made a promise to employees they would be eligible for the payment, “and for us to just go back on it now just feels wrong.”
“We would maybe give a bonus to folks who never (got vaccinated), but at least the folks that did are getting what we told them they would get,” he said Monday.
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Poe said that for the city to implement a vaccine incentive program, workers would have to divulge their vaccination status to receive the payment, which city attorneys have concluded is not allowed under this law.
“We would have to say, ‘Are you vaxed? And show us evidence or proof,’ and we’re not allowed to do that," Poe said.
City Commissioner Harvey Ward pointed out that his motion at the commission’s General Policy meeting on Dec. 9 to offer all of the employees a $250 payment was not seconded by another commissioner for a vote.
He said he plans to bring the issue back up again at the commission’s regular Jan. 6 meeting.
“I intend for us to come out of that meeting with a plan,” he said. “It’s a discussion we need to have. I want to make sure that people who did the right thing are compensated the way we promised compensating them.”
Commissioner Adrian Hayes-Santos said Tuesday that it is clear that state officials through laws and rules are preventing Gainesville from paying out the incentive payment.
“It was designed to help get more people vaccinated,” he said. “That’s what it should be for, and hopefully the governor, the attorney general and Department of Health will change their minds so we can give employees those funds.”
He said he is not inclined to support an incentive for every employee that would include those who have not had their shots.
Gainesville Regional Utilities
In an email dated Dec. 10 to Gainesville Regional Utilities' 852 employees, General Manager Ed Bielarski says he is disappointed that the incentive payments can’t be made.
“Based upon that rescission, and following further legal guidance, the directives enumerated in the City Manager’s memo — including an incentive payment of $250 — are void,” Bielarski writes to GRU’s employees.
He added that “great efforts were made to deliver on the promised incentive payment.”
“But this decision was made necessary due to policy directives by the Florida Governor and Florida Attorney General, along with the State Department of Health’s rules and enforcement actions of Florida’s statutory ‘vaccine passport ban,’ ” he said.
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In his email, Bielarski says Florida Statute 381.00316 forbids local governments from requiring individuals to be vaccinated and providing benefits based on proof of vaccination.
However, that state law does not specifically mention a ban on incentive payments to people who are vaccinated. It does say that “a governmental entity may not require persons to provide any documentation certifying COVID-19 vaccination or post-infection recovery to gain access to, entry upon, or service from the governmental entity's operations in this state.”
Other counties in Florida have not let the state law that was passed in May stop them from continuing the vaccine incentive payments.
“Alachua County is confident that its guaranteed incentive programs were following the letter of the law, both for citizens and employees,” County spokesman Mark Sexton said.
Brevard, Orange counties still making payments
In September, the Orange County Commission unanimously approved a cash award of $250 and paid time off for employees who get vaccinated.
The county is still paying the incentive payment to employees who sign a document attesting they have received the shots, but the county does not require employees to present vaccination cards as proof, said senior public information officer Kelly Finkelstein.
Brevard County, with almost the same number of employees as Gainesville, paid out on Oct. 13 about $1,500 to each employee who presented evidence they had received their shots. The funds came from The American Rescue Plan Act.
Don Walker, a spokesman for the county, said he did not recall any discussion by officials there about state law preventing the payment. “That issue never came up,” he said.
source: https://www.gainesville.com/story/news/2021/12/14/gainesville-says-florida-law-prevents-250-vaccine-incentive-payments/8894962002/
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