CITY OF BRENHAM REQUIRING EMPLOYEES TO TAKE UNPAID LEAVE, INSTITUTES HIRING FREEZE
As the City of Brenham prepares for a financially bumpy road ahead due to the COVID-19 pandemic, its leaders have had to make some difficult decisions regarding its employees.
During his COVID-19 update at Thursday's meeting of the Brenham City Council, City Manager James Fisher explained that, heading into the next fiscal year, the city is looking at a drop of about $1.4 million in revenue.
To mitigate the revenue decrease, all city employees in all departments are being required to take up to five days off without pay, and the city has put a hiring freeze into effect.
Update @ 8:20 a.m. Friday: Fisher clarified this (Friday) morning that the unpaid leave requirement does extend to department heads and administrative employees, including himself. The estimated savings from the unpaid leave come out to $132,000.
Fisher said the hiring freeze was instituted near the beginning of the pandemic, and did not affect those who had a job offer in place when the crisis hit.
The city has also furloughed all part-time and seasonal employees in an effort to bridge the gap, in addition to cutting capital expenditures and putting many capital projects on hold. Many city employees continue to work remotely, if possible, and all nonessential travel has been cancelled.
Fisher noted that the decision to implement unpaid leave was understood and accepted by many employees, with some asking if the city needed them to take off more time. He said he is proud of and thankful for the employees that are doing this for the city.
At the council’s last meeting, the city contributed $50,000 to the Washington County COVID-19 Response Fund to assist local small businesses in their recovery efforts. Fisher said some people have asked him why the city made that decision if it was facing challenges of its own, and answered it was because many of these businesses have stepped up for the community during this time. He said it was only appropriate that the city do the same for them.
Fisher reassured the city is trying its best and doing everything it can to arrange the dollars it has and take care of its employees, while navigating through a time of great unknowns.