New COVID protocols at Fresno City Hall start Monday. Will mandatory vaccines be next?
As the COVID-19 delta variant rages in Fresno County, Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer’s administration and the Fresno City Council appear to be at loggerheads on whether to mandate vaccination for city employees.
On Monday, new COVID-19 protocols at City Hall go into effect, such as requiring masks indoors for all employees and visitors and screening for COVID-19 symptoms. City employees who aren’t vaccinated will be required to get routine COVID-19 tests starting Sept. 20.
Some councilmembers don’t think that’s enough and are pushing Dyer’s team to require vaccination for employees.
“A vaccine mandate in our city is inevitable given the unvaccinated have led to the breakage of our healthcare system,” Councilmember Miguel Arias said. “Doing nothing will only further escalate cost to our city health fund which will lead to higher insurance premiums or reduction in benefits to all employees.”
But “that’s not in the cards,” said Assistant City Manager Gregory Barfield. “I don’t know what it would take for a vaccine mandate. We’re not there yet.”
New COVID protocols
On Monday, all city employees will be required to wear masks in the workplace, whether or not they are vaccinated, Barfield said. City Hall visitors also must wear masks inside the building. Previously policy only required unvaccinated employees to wear masks.
City Hall visitors also will start filling out forms indicating whether they’ve displayed symptoms or been exposed to someone who has coronavirus.
Personnel staff have worked in the past few weeks to identify which employees are and are not vaccinated. Those who are will identify themselves with stickers on their city badges.
Those who are not will be subject to routine COVID-19 tests on Mondays and Fridays starting Sept. 20. The testing clinics will be managed by UCSF Fresno and located at a number of city work sites, Barfield said. The clinics will operate from 5:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. so that employees from every shift can be tested during their work hours.
Barfield noted the new policy, which has been in the works for weeks, is consistent with the policy announced this week by President Joe Biden.
“I almost think we wrote the president’s plan,” he joked.
Workforce effects on city services
Sam Frank, president of the Fresno City Employees Association, told The Bee a vaccine mandate could trigger some employees to retire early or quit, which would in turn affect city services.
“Why would we leap frog to a policy and have 10% workforce quit?” he said. “We’ve received emails from people close enough to retirement or financially capable of leaving their jobs who are very adamant about not taking the vaccine for various reasons.”
Plus, a vaccine mandate will make it harder to fill jobs, Frank said.
“It’s not a very tight job market,” he said. “I think they’ll have fewer people applying because they’ll basically be mandating out those applicants who would rather go to Clovis and not have to be mandated.”
So far, city employees have mostly followed protocol.
“We’ve been down this road for 18-19 months. We had masks, took them off, put them back on. The employees are good at wanting to stay safe, and we’re constantly reminding them of ‘here’s the safety rules,’” Barfield said. “At the end of the day, everyone wants to go home and hug their loved ones. The employees have been great at all of this, and we’ve mostly seen transmission outside the building, not inside.”
Council stances
While Arias has been vocal about supporting a vaccine mandate, Councilmember Garry Bredefeld has been a staunch opponent of most COVID-19 mandates.
Other councilmembers remain in the middle.
Council President Luis Chavez said he doesn’t support a vaccine mandate at this time.
“My preference is to use data we will gather during the next few weeks of testing employees not yet vaccinated,” he said. “If the data shows unvaccinated employees are not able to report to work or cause disruption in the quality of service we provide the public, then we can revisit the mandated vaccination requirement at that time.”
Councilmember Mike Karbassi doesn’t support a vaccine mandate, but he does encourage employees and others to get vaccinated, especially since the Pfizer vaccine has been FDA approved.
“Some have their reasons for not wanting to get vaccinated,” he said. “It’s up to us to restore trust and win back these folks. Mandates just create animosity and erode confidence in trusted institutions.”
Councilmember Nelson Esparza declined to comment. Councilmembers Tyler Maxwell and Esmeralda Soria did not respond to requests for comment.
In the meantime, Dyer’s administration will continue re-evaluating.
“Yes, we have talked about it. Our employee labor groups are asking the same question,” Barfield said. “We’re going to continue to do weekly dialogues with labor groups… just to touch bases with one another.”
This story was originally published September 11, 2021 at 5:00 AM.