COUNTY TO REWARD ITS ESSENTIAL WORKERS BY AUGUST 30

Special to El Rrun-Rrun

Before the month is over, just a little over 2,000 Cameron County employers – depending on their seniority – will receive raises, including a one-time pandemic bonus ranging – this time based on their salary – between $3,500 to $2,500.

It is estimated that the move will pump more than $4 million into the county's economy.

The county employees will be rewarded by the commissioners who on August 10 designated all full-time personnel who worked in the last year as “critical infrastructure employees” under the American Rescue Plan Act and approved the payments of the stipend funded by the federal act.

The commissioners court said the payments were in appreciation for them staying on the job through the pandemic and potentially exposing their families and friends to the virus.

This has left some non-county employees grumbling that all public employees – especially those in the health departments who dealt with the virus first-hand – should share in the wealth.

"Whether you put shots in arms or picked up brush and trash in the alleys, we were still being exposed to COVID-19 and potentially exposing ourselves and our families to infection." said one. "Not just county employees, but all those who worked through the year of the pandemic, which is still raging, should have been considered by the local public entities for these payments."

Nonetheless, the county commissioners say the bonus is for staying on the job and keeping Cameron County running all through the pandemic, and is a way of saying thanks to all its full-time employees in the form of lump-sum bonuses they described as “premium pay fiscal recovery funds.”

In announcing the payments, the court said it was following  U.S. Department of Treasury guidelines and prioritized  the county’s lowest paid employees. Personnel making up to $40,000 annually will receive $3,500, those making between $40,001 and $59,999 will get $3,000, and employees earning $60,000 and above will receive $2,500 payments. 

“It would not have been possible without these (ARPA) funds,” Cameron County Judge Eddie Trevino Jr. told local news outlets.

Lowest-paid workers were made a top priority because they had been – and still are – on the front lines and continued to work during the pandemic, risking exposure to COVID-19, illness and death to ensure continuity of county operations, he said.

“Even though our budget is a little tighter than we were hoping, we knew we could address this through this funding,” Trevino said. “We were considering initially spreading it out over this year and next year, but we decided to do it all at once now to assist our employees.”

“We appreciate all of their efforts and this is the best way we can show them,” Treviño said.

New hires after August 10 will not be eligible for the stipend and those who were hired for less than a year before that date will be paid at a prorated basis.