By Blake Haas

BLOOMINGTON – More and more government employees are receiving their COVID-19 vaccine in the city of Bloomington.

According to City Manager Tim Gleason, vaccines are not required to hold a position within city government; however, if an employee chooses not to receive their vaccine, they must submit to COVID-19 testing.

“We have good vaccination rates probably on the fire department side than on the police side, no concerns on my part. (I) respect the fact that this is a choice that both of those departments and all my city employees can make.”

Ultimately, the cost of the COVID-19 tests is the employer’s responsibility, which in this case is the city of Bloomington.

“There’s value in making it as convenient as we possibly can, and that might be a cost worth considering the bear by the city just to make sure that we continue to deliver city services to the community,” Gleason told WJBC’s, Scott Miller. “It’s a topic that counties and municipalities across the nation are taking this up.”

Gleason said there are also legitimate privacy concerns with testing information.

“I’m not going to say it’s a mess, but it’s something that we’ve been watching for several months now. And now that OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) has come down with these rules, the implementation is one that is going to be a challenge for us. But, we’ll get beyond it. That’s exactly what we’ve done the last year and a half, shown the resilience of the city as an organization.”

Funding for testing is a tax write-off for the city who could claim the cost through the Disaster Recovery Program (DRP) since the cost to the city is COVID-19 related.

Blake Haas can be reached at [email protected].