An estimated 1,000 Lake County employees who completed essential work during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic are set to receive a bonus of $1,200 after the Lake County Board unanimously adopted the provision as part of a plan issuing more than $31 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds Tuesday.
The move to award the bonuses follows a steady push by employees of the Lake County sheriff’s office and Teamsters Local 700 representatives, which gained traction with some board members, including the approval of the special board committee responsible for allocating the funds.
Employees who completed essential work between March 16 and November of 2020 may be eligible.
The bonus comes after repeated calls from District 16 member Esiah Campos, D-Round Lake Beach, pushing board members to consider spending some of its federally allocated pandemic funding on its first responders.
“When I got onto the board, (premium pay) was one of the main things … discussed with me with rank-and-file members, as well as the sheriff (John Idleburg),” Campos said. “They didn’t feel recognized.”
Campos, a 26-year-old Teamsters pension analyst and Navy reservist who was elected to the board in November, was vocally supportive of a group of Lake County jail correctional division and court security officers who pressed the board in February to award employees additional compensation
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to account for being exposed to the coronavirus through the nature of their work.“I would have liked for it to be more, but obviously, I’m not on the ARPA committee and we have advocated for higher than what was given,” Campos said. “But we got there, and the recognition part, I think, is the main part of it.”
District 7 member Carissa Casbon, D-Gurnee, District 19 member Marah Altenberg, D-Buffalo Grove and District 1 member Linda Pedersen, R-Antioch were among a group of board members who made calls during 2022 to issue premium pay.
Casbon recalled pitching the board on some form of premium pay in 2022 and the response being that “the timing was not right then.” She then thanked Campos, Altenberg and District 5 member Kevin Hunter, R-Ingleside, for supporting the move, and county staff for researching what options could work.
“I’m proud that we joined only a couple of counties in Illinois to recognize the bravery, sacrifice and commitment of the hardworking men and women who kept our county government going during those scary and difficult early days of the pandemic,” Casbon said. “You are all heroes.”
Altenberg said, “We are showing the state of Illinois that we’re leaders in doing the right thing.”
After employees addressed the board in February, the County Board’s Special Committee on COVID-19 Pandemic Recovery and Investment discussed the idea in March.
The committee, chaired by District 11 member Paul Frank, D-Highland Park, reached a bipartisan consensus to adopt premium pay in some form in late April. The $1,200 payment plan progressed through the Financial & Administrative Committee, and then was included in the larger ARPA appropriation resolution that was unanimously approved.
“At the end of the day, the County Board wanted to recognize the heroic efforts of our public health and public safety professionals, as well as all of our county administration leaders who performed admirably during the COVID public health emergency and are still serving us,” Frank said.
In 2021, Lake County was awarded more than $135 million in U.S. Treasury funds to support the public health response to the pandemic, maintain or build infrastructure, counteract negative economic impacts, provide services and other select uses, including pay for employees whose work is considered essential under federal guidelines.
Frank said county employees demonstrated the “true meaning of public service” throughout the pandemic. He and Campos each acknowledged that it’s difficult to put a dollar amount on that service in the context of the pool of funds available.
“Getting to the right number, it’s of course never enough,” Frank said, “but it really came down to what did the board feel was a substantial recognition? Does this mean something to the employees, to our team members? And we feel like we’re in a good spot.”
Campos added after Tuesday’s meeting that he was pleased Lake County will award essential employees about half of what Cook County has planned to allocate to employees from ARPA funding.
The passage of premium pay also marks an early political win for Campos, who is the board’s youngest member and first-ever Latino representative.
“Being a new member, having a big initiative get passed really brings a smile to my face,” Campos said. “This has been on my mind since before I got onto the board, and then actually getting it pushed through and working with people to get it pushed through, it’s a big accomplishment personally. But I want to keep everybody in mind.”
Members of the Special Committee on COVID-19 Pandemic Recovery and Investment members weighed how to distribute funding among county departments and community-based organizations, carried out public input surveys and hosted meetings and received more than 100 applications for potential projects.
Along with the premium pay, which is about a $1.2 million slice of more than $31 million in the round of funding, the board is allocating $14.5 million for its effort to improve countywide broadband use and accessibility, $7.5 million to expand the scope of a project constructing a new Emergency Operations Center in Libertyville and $2.5 million on a strategy to improve forest health.
A project expanding the Depke Juvenile Complex Center in Vernon Hills is also set to receive $2 million, and the Lake County Clerk’s Office will is set to get about $1.1 million to provide on-demand ballot printing capabilities at polling sites.