Was a municipal employee that made sure the wastewater treatment plant continued to function during the early days of the pandemic performing an essential task for Manteca residents?

A number of rank and file workers contend the answer city leadership had to that question is costing them between 40 and 80 hours of additional paid leave Manteca has awarded to “essential workers” such as police, firefighters and members of the operating engineers unit for continuing to report to work throughout the pandemic.

City management contends they are defining “essential workers” by a federal definition employed in the early days of the pandemic to make sure cities were able to keep services such as law enforcement and fire protection up and running.

But a number of workers indicated the previous City Manager Miranda Lutzow after shutting down city hall and most municipal operations for a week in March 2020 at the start of the pandemic started calling many employees back.

It was before vaccines were available and indoor social distancing was less than stellar.

Disgruntled workers sent letters and appeared in person to share their dissatisfaction Tuesday with the City Council.

Worker Chad Adams was among the speakers that noted the city has hired the consulting firm known as Common Thread to determine why the City of Manteca has an employee morale problem and to identify potential fixes.

“And you wonder why the city has a morale problem?” Adams asked after he referenced how Manteca appeared to be treating employees differently.

The council, after hearing employee concerns, expressed a desire to see if the issue can be addressed.

“What it comes down to is every public employee is essential; that’s the only way we can provide public services,” Mayor Ben Cantu said.

The council directed staff to work with the employees on their concerns and bring back a possible resolution to the council early next year.

Senior management is currently negotiating with bargaining units representing the workers with one of the items being whether they will also receive $5,000 one-time bonus for working during the pandemic as other workers have received.

The employees in question worked throughout the early months of the pandemic making sure the wastewater treatment plant kept running, the council could conduct meetings, and the city could continue collecting money among other tasks.

The impacted employees noted city taxpayers would not be impacted by granting the leave as it would come from nearly $14 million in federal COVID relief funds to help covers costs the city incurred due to the pandemic.

Somewhere between $2 million and $3 million of the relief funds Manteca is receiving could end up being paid to municipal employees in the form of $5,000 bonuses as well as cash out for those workers that hit caps on vacation and leave during the pandemic.

The city has already negotiated side letters to established contracts with other bargaining groups that granted members a pair of $2,500 payments.

The cash out provision for vacation days that could not be taken due to the pandemic as well as additional paid leave for those that worked through the pandemic differs based on the employee group.

The cash out is for leave and vacation for workers that hit their limit and couldn’t keep accumulating it. They workers were prevented from taking the time off due to the city needing the workforce to handle pandemic emergency issues.

Police officers are receiving 80 hours of sworn safety worker leave for continuing to report to work through the COVID pandemic plus being able to cash out for up to 80 hours during the current fiscal year if they hit caps.

Police department support employees are receiving up to 50 hours of essential worker leave for continuing to report to work through the pandemic. They can also cash out up to 80 hours that exceed the cap.

The operating engineers are receiving 40 hours of essential workers leave as well as being able to cash out.

A police officer near the top of the pay scale based on the cost of the extra 80 hours of leave and the $5,000 payment without cashing any excess leave time that exceeded the caps would receive compensation worth roughly $10,000.

A staff report for the Nov. 26 meeting indicated the additional payment and time off will not impact the general fund as it can be legally paid from American Rescue Plan Act funds. That includes payroll costs the city would incur such as retirement contributions.

Not mentioned in reports available to the general public is the overall price tag on the council’s action even though the funds come from the federal relief funds.

Based on the number of city employees that will receive the $5,000 payment plus a conservative estimate of the cost of the additional paid leave and any cash outs, the final tab could easily run between $2 million and $3 million.

Assuming it doesn’t exceed $3 million and the city uses COVID relief funds to reimburse $4 million they had to use from the general fund reserve to balance last year’s budget impacted by the pandemic, there would be less than $7 million in COVID funds left for the City Council to spend.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com