Youngstown City Council’s finance committee today is expected to continue discussions about the administration’s request to extend $24,298 in overtime pay to seven health district employees for the additional work they did this year during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The discussion is controversial because the request includes six workers who are management and not normally eligible for extra pay.

We are concerned that if the finance committee and ultimately city council as a whole votes to pay overtime to salaried employees, it will set a precedent that could end up increasing city personnel costs for many years to come, not just in the health department but in every city department, anytime a salaried manager or department head works extra hours.

But perhaps there are different options for the city to reward and compensate the extraordinary amount of effort and service of these dedicated employees.

Among the overtime pay requests being made, the most, $9,916 for 179 hours at time-and-a-half, would go to Health Commissioner Erin Bishop. Her hourly rate is $36.93. As a department head, Bishop normally is ineligible for overtime.

Bishop said: “I put in a lot of time. This doesn’t include any overtime I put in during 2020. I’ve worked here since 2011 and have never been compensated for overtime. During the pandemic, there are things that are uncontrollable. We didn’t want to close clinics during the pandemic.”

The other big payout would be $8,938 to Anthea Mickens, director of nursing, for 205.25 hours of overtime. Her hourly salary is $29.03.

The ordinance was first suggested several weeks ago by Mayor Jamael Tito Brown, after the overtime payments were approved May 3 by the city’s board of health, of which Brown is chairman.

The funds would come from a state COVID-19 grant. While that might make the payment more palatable for council members and city residents, it won’t eliminate the fact that these public dollars still are taxpayer-funded, nor the precedent that could be set in the long run.

Indeed, Health Commissioner Erin Bishop has pointed to almost $30,000 in overtime paid to health district employees for overtime related to the H1N1 outbreak in 2009 and 2010, which she indicates already has set a precedent.

But since then, city officials changed the salary ordinance and determined who is exempt from overtime, including management employees at the health district.

To be clear, Youngstown Law Director Jeff Limbian already has issued a legal opinion stating the latest request for overtime pay is permissible.

But permissible doesn’t mean the city is obligated to pay it — other than in instances where overtime pay rules are spelled out in city labor union contracts and under Ohio law, particularly to overtime non-exempt hourly employees.

One of the seven employees whose overtime payment is being debated is a unionized employee.

In his opinion, Limbian said: “Ms. Bishop would have been irresponsible and neglectful of her responsibilities if she had not exercised her duties as enumerated in the Ohio Revised Code. Certainly, those duties extend past a 40-hour work week. It would be unconscionable to deny her remuneration for work that was mandated by statute.”

Undoubtedly, the number of hours worked by these dedicated employees in reacting to the pandemic is commendable. They answered the call and acted responsibly and with an excellent work ethic in doing their jobs and responding to the needs of the public.

However, we agree with Councilwoman Anita Davis, D-6th Ward, who said it would set a horrible precedent because, for department heads and management, this is part of the job.

Perhaps, though, there is a way to recognize and reward these salaried health department workers for their commendable service. We suggest council publicly recognize these workers and place commendations in their personnel files. If council agrees that fiscal rewards are warranted — and we believe they are — then we suggest that council debate and consider the possibility of one-time bonus checks be issued to the workers.

These dollar amounts could be set as they see fit, rather than being specifically based on hourly wages and number of extra hours worked.

Doing it that way would be considered a one-time reward and would help to deflect future arguments of precedence of overtime pay to management employees.