Board of Aldermen 6-09-2020 Page 19
Alderman Lopez
Yeah, | just want to express my support for this, | wasn’t sure which is why | didn’t endorse it. | know we’ve
had sort of a shaky history with the unaffiliated employees. So | was going to look at it first before
committing but thank you to Alderman O’Brien for explaining.
President Wilshire
The motion is to suspend the rules. Further discussion on that motion? Alderman Clemons?
Alderman Clemons
Before we do this, | guess my question would be on why and | know Corporation Counsel tried to explain
this and | understand the mechanism anyway, but why we aren’t doing this for all unaffiliated employees
and why just the Public Health Department?
President Wilshire
Attorney Bolton do you know why, do you have any insight for us?
Attorney Bolton
Yes, maybe.
Mayor Donchess
| can possibly answer that, Madam President. We should look at the other unaffiliated employees. Now it
depends on the employee’s responsibility. Some people are still working remotely but able to take
vacation, because they have a normal amount of demands as opposed to the Public Health where the
demands have been 7 days a week. Certainly, there are others who may be in the same position. So |
would be glad to check that out and make a recommendation to you. Maybe it should be all unaffiliated
employees. But we can come back with that; but this was just because the Public Health people have
been working 7 days a week, working with the COVID-19 positive patients as well as all the contract
tracing that we’ve discussed before. So that was the reason for Public Health but I’d be glad to look at the
other employees and come back to you.
President Wilshire
Thank you, Mayor.
Alderman Clemons
Thank you, Mayor, | appreciate that. And | don’t want to diminish what the Health Department has done,
certainly they have done a fantastic job in working day in and day out. But there is some other fairness
issues around it, in particular the fact that in the last 3 or 4 months there’s been nowhere to go to take
your vacation so you are at home anyway.
Mayor Donchess
Yes and another group that has worked very hard and so | am glad that you’ve raised this and have been
working feverishly especially over the last few weeks are the automobile registration people because of
the difficulties of remote registration. So there’s another group that has put in extra efforts and may not
have been able to take vacation. So again, I’d be glad to look into the whole situation.
