DENVER — Denver City Council voted for city employees to receive a $400 bonus if they complied with the city’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate or were exempted without facing any disciplinary actions.
In two 8-3 votes, council voted to pass bills 21-1056 and 21-1058 during Monday’s meeting.
Bill 1056 is for an ordinance to pull $5 million from the city’s general fund to provide one-time $400 payments to employees who complied with the city’s vaccine mandate.
Bill 1058 revises the city’s municipal code to allow for the one-time payments. It also specifies the payments can go to employees who received religious or medical exemptions and have not been disciplined or had discipline proceedings initiated against them for violating their accommodation requirements through Dec. 10.
According to Michael Strott, a city spokesperson, 99.1% of full-time city employees came into compliance by the Sept. 30 deadline, which is 10,607 employees.
Mayor Michael Hancock announced the mandate in August, which required all city and county employees to be vaccinated for COVID-19.
Since the announcement, the city received hundreds of requests for medical or religious exemptions and granted most of them. On Oct. 1, the city said nearly 99% of Denver city employees were either fully vaccinated or received an exemption.
The mandate led to seven Denver police officers filing a lawsuit against the mayor, police chief and health department, however, a judge ultimately dismissed the suit.
