Some city workers demand, via petition, double pay during COVID-19 crisis

A petition currently circulating on the Internet demands that city employees who are deemed essential receive a series of protections from the Goldsboro City Council.

District 3 Councilman Taj Polack told his colleagues Monday during the board’s work session that he had been in communication with a sanitation worker who said he and his fellow employees were concerned that they were putting themselves in harm’s way and did not feel like they could speak up for fear of retaliation.

That employee shared with Polack a link to the petition, which reads:

It is unclear who created the petition, however, clicking the link at the top of the page redirects you to the North Carolina Public Service Workers Union, EU local 150, website.

Public Works director Rick Fletcher told members of the council that city sanitation workers have access to N95 masks, protective gloves and hand sanitizer, both in their trucks and in the office, and added that he has instructed crews to reduce the number of people per truck to two.

And City Manager Tim Salmon said the city already offers childcare to essential employees, but that only one child has shown up since the onset of the COVID-19 crisis.

Other matters dealt with by the council Monday include:

District 1 Councilman Antonio Williams again defended public records law and his belief that citizens should be able to expect that all records requests, regardless of their scope, be fulfilled for free.

We have already addressed why we think this is a horrible idea – that it would potentially open the city up to years of taxpayer-funded labor and could, quite literally, tie up staff inside City Hall indefinitely. And we also learned that it was a massive records request — some 344,000 emails — from Williams himself that brought the issue to the fore in the first place. Want the details? Click here.

If not, know that the council voted Monday to require those requesting more than four hours of city labor for the purpose of fulfilling a records request to pay a fee of $33 for each additional hour of labor. Charging for excessive requests is lawful under G.S. 132-1.