DeKalb County CEO Michael Thurmond and several members of the DeKalb County Board of Commissioners during a virtual Tuesday morning meeting.
By Tyler Estep
DeKalb County CEO Michael Thurmond can pay workers more money during the coronavirus pandemic without approval from the Board of Commissioners — as long as he stays within certain budgetary bounds.
That is according to a recent legal opinion from county attorney Viviane Ernstes, who distributed a memo after Thurmond issued his first coronavirus-related executive order on March 23.
The order — which says employees designated as “front-line” workers during the pandemic will be paid time-and-a-half and accrue extra comp time — has become a point of contention in recent days because it could allow for as many as 3,500 county workers to earn higher pay and will cost taxpayers millions of dollars.
“I do think there’s broad agreement, there isn’t one commissioner that doesn’t support paying people that have increased risk profiles,” Commissioner Nancy Jester said. “But I think we’ve expanded a little beyond that.”
In addition to employees in the county’s various public safety agencies, Thurmond’s order allows for potential front-line designation for workers from departments like sanitation, watershed, the medical examiner’s office, road and drainage, IT, parks and more. The idea is that anyone who works a job that’s essential to county operations and can’t be performed remotely is at greater risk of exposure to the coronavirus and COVID-19, the disease it causes.
