Albany City Commission approves employee bonuses totaling $860k

ALBANY – Albany city employees will get a check just in time for the holidays under a proposal from staff recommending a one-time payment of between $500 to $1,000.

City Manager Terrell Jacobs made the recommendation this week to the Albany City Commission. 

Funding for the checks, which would total an estimated $860,000 for the roughly 1,070 full- and part-time workers, would be split between $490,000 from the city’s general fund account and $257,000 from utility funds.

The commission declined to provide a cost-of-living adjustment for the 2006-2027 budget year that began on July 1, so the checks would be a way to reward employees.

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The city has made efforts to promote health and workplace safety a priority in an effort to reduce liability and work-related injury costs, and the bonuses would be a reward toward that initiative.

“We spend $26 million, $27 million on workers comp, health insurance and general liability,” the city manager said. “We can all generate savings. Hopefully, we can incentivise the employees by giving some of the savings back.”

While this is the first year for the initiative, the city already has generated some savings, Jacobs said. Of the $26 million to $27 million referenced, health insurance is the bulk of that amount at about $18 million.

While the health and safety initiative has not been in effect long enough to generate enough savings to fund the initial one-time payments, the goal is to reduce expenditures year by year, the city manager said.

“We want to reduce workers’ comp claims with savings for the city and hopefully give some of those savings back to employees,” he said.

Having different options would have been a help to the commission, Mayor Bo Dorough said. The body also should monitor savings over the course of the year, the mayor recommended.

“I think we ought to have more than one option,” he said. “I think the commission, rather than just rubber-stamping this, ought to see what our options are.”

Under the proposal approved unanimously by commissioners, employees earning less than $50,000 per year will receive $1,000; employees who earn $50,000 to $80,000 will get $750, and those earning more than $80,000 and part-time employees will receive checks totaling $400.

Under current staffing levels, about 407 would receive $1,000, 448 would receive $750 and 116 who earn more than $80,000 and 102 part-time employees will receive $400 bonuses, city CFO Michael Eaton said.

Employees will receive the checks on Nov. 20, he said.