Jan. 6—DANBURY — The city will pay firefighters a $3,600 bonus and health department staff a $2,000 bonus for going to work when the rest of Connecticut was locked down by the coronavirus pandemic.
"This is giving a morale boost for those who were out there on the front lines every day fighting through COVID pandemic," Danbury Mayor Dean Esposito said Thursday. "Those that stepped up and provided the services we needed and exposed themselves to the COVID pandemic deserve our praise."
The COVID-19 bonuses for the city's 114 firefighters and another 100 civil service workers in City Hall and the health department bring the total Danbury has spent on pandemic pay to $2.5 million from federal emergency relief funds known as the American Rescue Plan Act.
Earlier this year, Teamsters in Danbury received $2,000 COVID bonuses as part of a new contract, and the police officers received $3,600 each in COVID pay as part of their new contract.
The bonus pay harkens to a harrowing period not long ago before rapid testing and vaccines came to the rescue when returning to normal seemed uncertain. Schools, work and most other places of public interaction were shut down. Across Connecticut, 11,800 people have died due to COVID-19.
"Police and fire and staff at City Hall still had to provide us with the services we needed, and the Teamsters still had to plow the roads," Esposito said. "We praise these men and women. Having the opportunity to help them out (with bonus pay) makes us feel good."
Chip Daly, president of the city's firefighters' union, said the bonus pay was meant to be more of a symbolic recognition of the city's appreciation than actual hazard pay.
"There's a lot of days members of the fire department go above and beyond the job and don't get just compensation for it, but we don't do this to get rich," Daly said. "Our members went above and beyond the call of duty to care for our community during this unprecedented pandemic and we appreciate the fact that the city is recognizing them for it."
Under an agreement approved by the City Council on Wednesday, Danbury municipal workers will receive $1,200 in bonus pay, except for those who work in the Department of Health and Human Services, who will receive $2,000 bonuses.
"It is well deserved," said Paul Rotello, the City Council's Democratic Minority Leader. "(Health and Human Services Director Kara Prunty) and her predecessor was waste deep in this, as was their staff."
Danbury is the latest Connecticut city to hand out COVID bonuses with American Rescue Plan money. In April a majority of the Bridgeport government and public schools workforce receiving bonuses of up to $1,500 for being on the job during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, for a total of $5 million.
Danbury City Hall received $32 million in federal relief money, meant to bail out loses caused by COVID-19 and jump-start the economy. The city has earmarked $21 million, leaving $11 million unspent.
Reach Rob Ryser at [email protected] or 203-731-3342
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