The Lake County sheriff’s department and coroner’s office employees are poised to receive COVID-19 hazard pay for working throughout the pandemic.
At the Lake County Council study session Thursday, the council signaled support for a transfer within the sheriff’s budget of $80,000 and a transfer within the coroner’s budget of $39,000 for COVID-19 pay.
In November, the council approved a transfer of $82,500 in the sheriff’s budget and a $108,000 transfer within the jail’s budget for COVID-19 hazard pay.
If the council approves the $80,000 transfer in the sheriff’s budget for COVID-19 pay Tuesday, the department will have allocated $162,500 for COVID-19 pay for sheriff’s department employees in 2021.
The two approvals would mean police officers would receive $1,000 in COVID-19 hazard pay, said Lake County Sheriff Oscar Martinez. Correctional officers will receive $500 because they received $500 last year while sheriff’s employees didn’t, he said.
Martinez said officials “worked extremely hard to be fiscally responsible and come up with the funding within our current budget.” Martinez said he is “extremely pleased” that officers are on track to receive a higher stipend because “they have endured so much during the pandemic.”
Warden Mike Zenk, the correctional officers and medical staff did an “outstanding job” throughout the pandemic, Martinez said. The jail’s ability to limit the spread of the virus “is directly attributable to our staff effectively assessing new inmates, isolating them, utilizing proper (protective equipment) and following CDC guidelines,” he said.
“Even in the early days of the pandemic, when information about the virus and its spread were extremely limited, our police and correctional officers performed their duties to protect and serve the public without hesitation,” Martinez said.
Lake County Coroner Merrilee Frey said the $39,000 COVID-19 pay will be distributed, in different amounts, to all part-time employees, administrative staff and full-time employees. In total, she said, it’ll be distributed to 25 Coroner’s department employees.
Coroners have had to go into people’s homes and hospitals to pick up bodies and then conduct autopsies, even if the person tested positive for COVID-19, Frey said. The office has been following strict COVID-19 protocols set by the Indiana State Department of Health specific for coroners, Frey said, but the risk is still there.
“Of all the employees of Lake County, the coroner employees are most exposed to COVID-19,” Frey said. “We have to go to our families knowing that we’ve been exposed.”
The council will vote on the transfers at its Tuesday meeting.
