The Soldotna City Council passed a resolution that would amend the authorized uses for COVID-19 community funding from state Department of Health and Social Services grant, to include temporary emergency leave for city employees. Council entered into an agreement with the DHSS to accept $195,195.86 to support community-driven strategies that support COVID-19 related activities. It was later amended to make an additional $100,000 under the program.
Stephanie Queen, City Manager, asked the council for approval of up to 40 hours of paid temporary emergency leave for city employees, if they are unable to work due to receiving a positive COVID-19 test and having to isolate:
“I have, for the past several weeks, been working, soliciting the input from department heads, and working to update our internal employee COVID personnel rules. Those outline the expectations of our employees in terms of what to do if they are sick, what to do if they believe they have been potentially exposed to COVID, isolation periods, etc. One of the pieces of the proposal that I’d like to ask the council for authorization for is reinstituting a temporary emergency leave. The city has provided employees with temporary emergency leave at several points in time during the pandemic, mostly early on. Those were traditionally funded through CARES act funding. I think it’s going to be an important piece of our policy, especially over the next few weeks, next month or so, because what we’re trying to do is allow employees to test often. We’re going to be giving them at-home tests so they can self-administer if they believe they’ve been potentially exposed or if they’re not feeling well, they’re not sure if the symptoms might be COVID or something unrelated, but really I wanted to remove any financial barrier from people fully complying with the policy.”
Queen states that temporary emergency leave for staff is an eligible use under the current grant agreement. Because the temporary emergency leave would be entirely paid through existing grant funds, there would be no financial impact to the city.
To date, the funding has been used to establish a walk-in COVID-19 vaccination clinic operated under an agreement with Soldotna Professional Pharmacy. The original agreement was set to terminate on March 31. It has, since, been extended to June 30, 2023.
