Tarrant County employees to receive $4,900 one-time payments

Tarrant County’s 4,615 full-time employees will receive $4,900 payments as a part of an employee retention plan. County commissioners voted 3-0 Tuesday to spend $27 million — $26.5 million from the American Rescue Plan Act and $500,000 from the county’s general fund — for the payments. Commissioners Devan Allen and J.D. Johnson were absent, but Johnson passed along his support for the measure. The county has lost 1,625 employees to terminations, resignations and retirements from March 2020 to mid-June 2022. Nationwide, employers are struggling to fill openings after a record 47.4 million quit their jobs in 2021, according to the U.S. Labor Department.

There is no word on potential raises for county employees, a spokesperson said, but they will be considered in the upcoming budget process that begins in August. Full-time employees will receive $1,000 on Aug. 5 and Sept. 23 and $2,900 on Dec. 9. Part-time employees will receive two $500 checks, but the timeline for when they will be given out is still being determined, a spokesperson said. Elected officials will not be eligible for payments, county administrator G.K. Maenius told commissioners. Commissioner Roy Brooks told his fellow commissioners they needed to market the county as being a caring organization people wanted to work for. Judge Glen Whitley characterized the past two years as a tough time for county employees. He said staffers in the jail have been working overtime upward six days a week and public health employees have been working vaccine and testing sites over weekends. Impacts have spread to everyone, Whitley said. “It’s something that we’re glad that we’re able to do,” Whitley said.