The Suwannee County Board of County Commissioners discuss how to handle non-essential county employees at an April 7 meeting at the Suwannee County Coliseum.

LIVE OAK — It wasn’t a decision any of them wanted to do, but the Suwannee County Board of County Commissioners agreed to move forward with laying off non-essential employees.

Following a lengthy discussion Feb. 7 at its special called meeting at the Suwannee County Coliseum, the board reluctantly voted to lay off the county’s employees that currently aren’t working due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. The board agreed to continuing paying those employees through this Friday — the end of a pay period.

At that point, those employees will be laid off and need to begin the process of seeking unemployment compensation.

“I want to do what’s best for our community, where we all benefit from it,” District 2 Commissioner Clyde Fleming said. “I don’t want to starve anybody.”

County Administrator Randy Harris added: “We all want the employees to have an income. The question is, ‘Is the federal government better suited, at this time, to provide that income? Or is the county?’”

The discussion came after Harris asked the board early in the meeting for its guidance on what to do with those employees, mainly from the library, which has been closed during the pandemic. The board voted the week prior to continue paying them until more information was gathered about what kind of assistance would be available from the federal government of those employees.

That assistance in the federal government’s plan is an additional $600 per week on top of the normal unemployment compensation.

“i think everyone has recognized that’s more income than your typical employee receives anyway that is working in these positions,” Harris said. “You can’t match that. I don’t envision you being able to come up with that type of additional income.”

Still, the board had reservations about taking that step.

Those reservations stemmed about the wellbeing of the employees until that unemployment compensation begins.

“The only holdup I have on this is the gap in time they’ll have to go without a paycheck,” District 3 Commissioner Ricky Gamble said, adding private businesses have had to lay off employees, especially after the county clarified which businesses weren’t essential. “Paying people indefinitely is not going to work in the long term for us.”

District 1 Commissioner Don Hale agreed that the biggest issue with moving forward was the concern for the employees until they begin receiving that compensation.

Harris did tell the board that the county had received word that the retirement payments for some of the employees would not be affected by those layoffs.

Hale asked if that extra assurance that employees won’t lose anything — whether it’s their status in the Florida Retirement System’s Deferred Retirement Option Program (DROP) or their ability to return to work after the crisis is over — was in writing. He said he just wants to make sure the employees will be able to return to work.

That won’t be an issue, Harris said.

“That decision sits right here,” he said, adding his suggestion would be for the county to continue paying the health insurance for those employees.

“I plan to bring employee back, unless something outside of our control affects that ultimate decision.”

Additional supplies coming

Harris also told the board that the county was working on trying to locate extra personal protective equipment for its employees and any other entity that may need some. That work included external sources providing assistance.

He said there was the possibility of obtaining respirators, medical grade gloves and hand sanitizer by looking through “outside traditional channels.”

“We’re going to be talking with the health care providers in the community and trying to find out what kind of inventory they have on all the critical items and how we may be able to help facilitate the requests for additional equipment and materials moving forward,” Harris said, adding they likely don’t have the staff to try and find all the equipment needed.

Social distance signs

One other way the county is looking to help the community through the pandemic is providing constant reminders of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidance of social distancing, keeping at least six feet of space between each other.

In addition to moving its meeting to the Coliseum in order to provide additional spacing, the county had yellow signs posted in the room as a reminder. Harris said he is hopeful the color will help them stand out from the normal political signs posted in yards.

Harris said the county had ordered 600 signs and will be placing them throughout the county, at major intersections, and will also provide some to the City of Live Oak and the Town of Branford.

Harris added he would be reaching out to the Florida Department of Transportation to see if signs could be placed along their roads as well.

“It’s unfortunate but all of the experts that you watch on the news every day indicate that one of our big problems today is getting people to comply with this six-foot distancing that they feel is going to be the most effective thing that we can do right now to try and curtail the number of cases,” he said. “We know we don’t have medicine to fix this. We don’t have a vaccine. We don’t have the antibodies. We don’t have anything really to battle this virus right now, except self discipline.

“This is the only defense we have right now is signage.”