The Tippecanoe County Council voted against putting grant money towards hazard pay for health department employees at their meeting Tuesday.
The decision comes after health department administrator Khala Hochstedler left last month, a decision she said was made in part because the council tabled the issue of hazard pay despite countless hours of staff overtime, much of it unpaid, over the course of the pandemic.
Councilmember Ben Murray said he couldn’t agree to the hazard pay because it made it seem that the county valued some staff over others. He pointed out that the majority of the health department’s staff had already been paid overtime.
“Regarding the exempt positions - that’s the nature of the job,” he said. “Does that make me heartless? Quite possibly.”
Council Vice President Kathy Vernon echoed Murray, pointing out that the county paid overtime to health department employees to the tune of $31,000 in 2020 and $46,000 in 2021.
“We all have in our job description ‘performs related duties as assigned.’ We all take on extra things when we take a job,” she said. “I can’t support just doing bonuses for one segment of our population here in the county.”
The council did approve hazard pay funding for the prosecutor's office - but council members say those funds were only distributed because of the specifics of that grant.
The grant awarded to the health department is for costs incurred for distributing the vaccine, and does not specifically stipulate it needs to be used for hazard pay.
Councilmember Barry Richard said he understood why someone like Khala Hochstedler would be insulted by the move.
“They went above and beyond, changed their life. They lived a different life for years to make it better and safer for our community,” he said. “For us to not allow a funding opportunity to recognize their efforts - that would be offensive.”
In his final comments, Health Department Officer Dr. Jeremy Adler offered to lower the amount of hazard pay going to employees if that would win the council's support. In total, the department was asking to spend roughly $100,000 in hazard pay for 33 staff members, out of an approximately $287,000 grant.
The motion still failed.
