Public Workers Stretched Thin By COVID And Overtime

Miami FL

12 January, 2022

3:58 PM

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By Johania Charles, Miami Times Staff Writer, the Miami Times Jan 11, 2022 Miami-Dade County is seeing record-high cases of COVID, reporting a seven-day average positivity rate of 35% compared to a short-lived 1% positivity rate in November 2021. The latest omicron variant brought an increase of 635 cases per day on average, leading to worker shortages in county government and other crucial public service areas, such as police, fire rescue and corrections. According to the mayor's office, the Department of Solid Waste Management (DSWM), with more than 1,000 employees, documented 56 missing employees on Jan. 11. Last week, when 70 employee absences were reported by the county, the department disclosed that 11 garbage routes in the central and deep south parts of the county were not serviced. A Miami-Dade County Department of Solid Waste Management crew completes a garbage collection route. (Miami-Dade County Via Twitter) "We are experiencing COVID-related impacts on our operation with a higher than usual number of employees out sick," read a DSWM tweet last Wednesday. "And we are grateful for our residents' continued patience as we navigate these challenges." Pickups were quickly rescheduled and covered by available staff. Shortages have been marked by an increased presence of hiring and recruitment announcements on several local departments' social media accounts. "Like employers across the county and nation, we are experiencing higher than usual employee absences due to the rapid spread of the omicron variant," said Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava in a statement to The Miami Times, referencing nationwide reports of worsening labor shortages due to COVID. "I'm proud that our extraordinary county teams have responded swiftly by rotating staff and taking on overtime as needed to prevent any significant disruption to county services." "It just takes a few more days to get things like meter inspections done. We expect that the greatest impact this will have is on overtime, not service delivery," said Carmen Viera Baker, deputy director of administration for the county's Water and Sewer Department (WASD). WASD serves roughly 2.3 million residents in the county and maintains about 4,100 miles of sewer lines and more than 8,500 miles of water lines underground. Between Jan. 1 and 9, 126 staff members called out. Viera Baker says the department turned to temporary agencies, contracted employees and redistributed the workload to address the temporary staffing reduction. "Wherever possible, we had some of our staff step up and complete overtime for day-to-day duties," she said, revealing that she thought the department was better equipped to handle COVID-caused staffing issues now than at the start of the pandemic. "[Our staffers] are in the same category as being frontline workers in the fact that if we weren't taking every extreme opportunity in making sure that these vacancies are covered, we would not have reliable water service and wastewater removal," added Jennifer Messemer-Skold, WASD public affairs administrator. "If that were to be impacted, which it's not, I don't think people really understand the public health impact that would have." First responder shortages Omicron is not relinquishing its grip on county and city first responders, either. The Miami-Dade Police Department had 337 sworn and civilian personnel absent from work last week while Miami-Dade County Fire Rescue, with 71 fire rescue stations across unincorporated parts of the county, had 205 of its personnel call out. Both MDPD and MDFR failed to respond to several interview requests. A Miami-Dade Police Department cruiser parked outside a building. (Miami-Dade Police Department Via Facebook) Meanwhile, at the City of Miami Police Department, 145 positive cases of COVID were identified among staff who are now quarantining. Interim Police Chief Manuel Morales says 128 of those in isolation are sworn employees. "Thankfully, none of them have been experiencing serious symptoms so we have been blessed in that aspect," he explained. "However, they're unable to come to work so it's impacting our policing resources." On average, MPD assigns nearly 900 officers to field operations. Morales says this is usually a mix of patrol, neighborhood resource, marine, mounted and beat officers. With the shortage, beat officers who normally assigned to respond to calls in a specified geographical region have been reassigned. "Our first line of defense is to have our beat officers fill in," Morales said. "When the patrol shortages happen, we allocate them to assist in answering calls for service to make sure that we are sending in the closest unit available. We've always maintained a minimum amount of officers on the street at any given time and will continue to do that." MPD has resorted to having officers work 16-hour shifts and recruiting volunteer law enforcement officers to help meet staffing needs. "At one point last week, we had 235 total personnel out who had mild symptoms or were even asymptomatic," said Morales. "But even at that time, we were still able to meet our commitment to maintaining a safe community. We do have a continuity of operations plan, which we call a COOP, and that has a roadmap for us in case things start to head the other way." For now, the department is making every effort to conduct roll call and police briefings outdoors regardless of officers' vaccination status, and mandating masks indoors and outdoors when social distancing can't be maintained. Miami-Dade County Fire Rescue trainees during field training. (Miami-Dade Fire Rescue via Facebook) The 17 other civilian employees from the department were either communications, crime scene or emergency dispatcher personnel whose absence would be filled by volunteers or other available employees. The City of Miami Department of Fire-Rescue (MFR) told The Miami Times that as of Tuesday, only 41 employees were out, compared to 147 in December due to COVID. Like other departments, overtime is the main remedy to staffing issues, along with email blasts to recruit more individuals to staff trucks. "What we're doing is reverting to mandatory staffing to hold over crew members that were initially supposed to get off," said Captain Ignatius Carroll, spokesperson for MFR. "So we make sure we keep those trucks in service until we can find someone to relieve them. One thing we do not want to do is let the issue with COVID prevent us from keeping the truck staffed and its capabilities of responding to calls." Shortages in corrections County-run jails, where an absence of COVID guidelines can prove deadly given limited social distancing capabilities, are also feeling the omicron surge. The Miami-Dade Corrections and Rehabilitation Department (MDCR), operating the eighth-largest jail system in the country, had 205 COVID-related absences according to the county's report. A training class for future correctional officers, hosted by the Miami-Dade Corrections and Rehabilitation Department. (Miami-Dade Corrections Via Facebook) Juan Diasgranados, public affairs manager for MDCR, says that – as of Tuesday – 139 sworn officers were out with COVID and roughly 300 inmates remained in isolation. "MDCR has been experiencing a significant increase in the number of sworn staff testing positive with COVID-19," he told The Miami Times. "Our top priority is to protect the health and well-being of all MDCR staff and the inmates in our custody, as we have worked to do throughout the pandemic." In an effort to maintain security and safety within the four facilities it oversees, the department initiated Alpha/Bravo mobilization for sworn employees, modifying their work schedules into 12-hours-on/12-hours-off shifts. "The adjustments will enable extra personnel to fill critical gaps elsewhere without canceling regular days off and previously approved scheduled leave," said Diasgranados. In Broward County, where the average positivity rate reached 21.6%, the number of inmates across the four jails managed by the Broward Sheriff's Office (BSO) increased, while the number of active cases among sworn and civilian employees decreased. Tuesday, Carey Codd, BSO's senior public information officer, told The Miami Times that 105 inmates tested positive for COVID while 133 employees in the Department of Detention were out with the virus. Last week, those numbers were at 57 and 161, respectively. "The men and women of the Broward Sheriff's Office are not immune to the suffering of the COVID pandemic as this very contagious variant continues to spread throughout the country," said Sheriff Gregory Tony in a statement to The Miami Times. "We will continue to follow CDC guidelines and do everything possible to safeguard our employees so that they can continue to serve the residents and visitors of Broward County." Aside from following Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines – and promoting individual responsibility through vaccination – BSO did not outline measures in place to deal with COVID-related staffing shortages. The Miami Times is the largest Black-owned newspaper in the south serving Miami's Black community since 1923. The award-winning weekly is frequently recognized as the best Black newspaper in the country by the National Newspaper Publishers Association.