OBSERVER file photo City of Dunkirk workers repair a water main break on Central Avenue earlier this month.

The city of Dunkirk has released a list of employees who received money from a $300,000 outlay approved for people who worked during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic after a Freedom of Information Law request by the OBSERVER.

The names were compiled by city Fiscal Affairs Officer Marsha Beach and released just two days after the request seeking the information. A total of 144 workers received $2,083.33 each, from money that came through Dunkirk’s share of American Rescue Plan Act funding. The city’s Common Council approved the move in November.

Two Common Council members who voted for the move, Paul VanDenVouver and Don Williams, left office at the end of the year. VanDenVouver did not seek re-election and Williams was defeated by Natalie Luczkowiak. VanDenVouver and Williams each received $2,083.33 payouts.

Only one employee of the city Planning and Development Department, Deputy Director E.J. Hayes, got a payout. Hayes has been a mainstay at the department through turnover in the director’s position. Rebecca Wurster left for a job with the county at the end of 2020, Jill Meaux took her place but lasted only about nine months, then Vince DeJoy took over as department director in November.

Meaux did not get a payment, according to the list. She cited a “political work environment” when she resigned. Meaux also alleged harassment by VanDenVouver and Williams in a letter to Mayor Wilfred Rosas.

The money was distributed only to employees who were still working for the city at the end of 2021. People who moved on for any reason did not get them.

Back in November, when they were proposed, Beach and Treasurer Mark Woods criticized the payments in a letter to Mayor Wilfred Rosas, who also received the one-time incentive.

Williams and fellow council member Nancy Nichols advocated them as a way of saying thanks to the employees who showed up to work for the city during the harrowing early days of the pandemic.

“I believe that our firefighters, our police officers, our DPW people, our supervisors, our office workers, everybody who worked through that, had something different that they had to go through. We all did,” Williams said. “To have a little bit of something extra that we can do through this, I think it’s a good way to tell them, ‘thank you for going out there and keeping the city open.’ Nobody put their garbage out to the curb that wasn’t picked up. Nobody called the fire department that they didn’t show up to go put something out or an emergency call. Same thing with the police department and the people who do all the other stuff.”

Nichols said, “Many, many of our city employees also were in contact with COVID and it did affect their families. We don’t know if there’s going to be any long-term effects. This is not a payback. This is, ‘You guys did your job. You were there.’ “