More than 200 employees are set to be terminated after failing to get vaccinated by the Dec. 31 deadline set by the Pima County Board of Supervisors.
A total of 213 employees remained unvaccinated on Thursday, 112 of which are corrections workers at the Pima County jail, according to a memo from acting County Administrator Jan Lesher.
Employees subject to the mandate who remained unvaccinated on Dec. 20 were sent notices of intent to terminate with final notices to be issued by the Dec. 31 deadline.
Lesher wrote in the memo that the county’s department heads have been instructed to issue the final paperwork for unvaccinated employees’ final notice of involuntary termination no later than Jan. 7.
“While unvaccinated employees working with vulnerable populations will not be permitted in the work environment, delaying the issuance of the final paperwork will ensure that each affected employee was given the full opportunity to comply with the vaccination directive,” Lesher wrote in the memo. “As such, more definitive numbers of actual terminations will be forthcoming early next week.”
The Board of Supervisors voted in October to approve a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for employees who primarily work with vulnerable populations confined in a detention facility or nursing home or who provide direct services to children or the elderly. Of the county’s more than 7,000 employees, 2,095 were deemed to work with vulnerable populations.
Jail employees within the Sheriff’s Department share the largest count of employees who remain unvaccinated and are subject to the mandate at 122, followed by 30 employees within the parks and recreation department and 26 employees who work for the county’s libraries.
The county has recently engaged in an effort to lower the jail population amid the anticipated reduction in staff, materializing with County Attorney Laura Conover’s announcement her office will no longer charge people for simple drug possession as of Dec. 14.
Lesher wrote to the board in a Dec. 13 memo that Sheriff Chris Nanos “made clear” his department “is able to adapt as needed to meet the jail’s staffing needs” and said public safety won’t be placed at risk.
The city of Tucson enacted a vaccine mandate for all its employees with a Dec. 1 cutoff date to comply or face termination. While nearly all city employees were considered in compliance, 10% of them were granted religious or medical exemptions and remained unvaccinated.
While the county is also accepting medical exemptions and religious accommodations based on “sincerely held religious beliefs,” it’s not allowing employees granted exemptions to continue working with vulnerable populations. Instead, these employees can be reappointed to a new county position, but the onus is on them to find a new one within 30 days.
