Concord City Council unanimously approved $400,000 for weekly bonuses for snow removal employees this winter, as Concord’s public works director said they had stemmed the outflow of CDL employees after an “exodus” ahead of last winter.
The money funds $300 per week for “staff available and related to winter operations for city streets, sidewalks, and airport,” or, generally, staff with commercial driver licenses deployed for winter storm cleanup, according to a city report. Other staff who do clean up but who do not have that license will receive $150 per week. The payments will run from the beginning of December to the end of March, totaling $5,100 and $2,550 per person, respectively, for the whole winter.
The payments, as well as a program where the city pays for new plow drivers to get their commercial licenses, are aimed at attracting and retaining employees in an economy where pay in the private sector is often higher. The city currently has a team of 56 of the 67 it needs for a full winter operations staff. But almost a dozen of those are employees that have CDLs but who have not previously driven snow plows and still need training. When the department requested the stipends last year, it had 18 winter operations vacancies…