Florida Senate staff receiving $1,000 bonuses for pandemic service

Wilton Simpson gets ahead on the fight for $15. Image via Colin Hackley.

Many front-line workers will be getting $1,000 bonuses from the state this year, thanking them for their dutiful service during the COVID-19 pandemic. First responders like firefighters, police, and paramedics are getting checks and teachers too.

Thanks to Senate President Wilton Simpson, all 117 Senate district staff will also be receiving $1,000 bonuses for their service, which continued through the summer last year.

In letters sent to district staff, Simpson thanked them for their hard work and dedication.

“Like other front-line workers across our state, Senate District Staff worked tirelessly during the pandemic to address the myriad essential needs of our constituents,” Simpson wrote. “From assisting with re-employment claims to food banks to identifying testing and vaccine locations and more, you served as a beacon of hope for Floridians who, in many cases, felt like they had nowhere else to turn.”

March 2020 marked the end of that year’s Legislative Session, but it also marked the pandemic’s beginning in Florida.

“Constituent services are the most important operation of any Senate office, and I want you to know how much I respect the critical work you do each and every day for the people of our state,” Simpson said.

Each of the 40 Senators has as many as four legislative assistants, and they all earned it, said John Learn, an aide to Tampa Democratic Sen. Janet Cruz.

The summer is normally a time to decompress and research legislation. Still, staffers were instead tasked with fielding phone calls and emails from jobless Floridians, which Learn called mentally exhausting work.

“This summer, we all really became social workers, helping constituents at what was really a dire time for them,” he said. “It was up to us to try to help them navigate what was really a broken system that’s become a political football.”

Marina Braynon-Moore, an assistant for Miami Gardens Democratic Sen. Shevrin Jones, said lawmakers began hosting different events to serve their constituents during the pandemic as well. Jones began hosting COVID-19 testing sites, which became a scary prospect for staff.

“We didn’t really know much about the coronavirus at the time or how it was spreading. Information kept changing all the time,” Braynon-Moore said. “We were in gloves and people were in hazmat suits.”

Jones was in his final months as a state Representative at the time, but Braynon-Moore said she was receiving 50 calls a day from constituents and was working weekends, too. A list of staff’s cellphone numbers began circulating on Facebook.

“Some of the calls we received were very hard to deal with because people were desperate,” said Dee Alexander, chief of staff to Fernandina Beach Republican Sen. Aaron Bean.

Some staffers would joke about the possibility of receiving emergency pay.

“We seriously never considered that we would be compensated in any way,” Braynon-Moore said. “This was just our duty.”

Calls have slowed down as more people head back to work. The unemployment rate is back down to 4.8%.

But jobless Floridians continue to reach out to the offices of their lawmakers — and sometimes other legislators.

And fighting the pandemic continues. On Friday, Jones’ office volunteered with the Florida Education Fund to provide personal protective equipment and other school supplies.

Friday was Learn’s last day in Cruz’s office. With his bonus, he plans to sip a stiff alcoholic beverage somewhere in the Florida sun.

Braynon-Moore plans to finish up her bachelor’s degree in political science, which she put on hold at Florida Atlantic University during the pandemic.

Alexander is planning to rent a car to surprise her mother for her 89th birthday. She lives in Oklahoma with Alexander’s sister, has remained locked down, and still practices social distancing.

“I haven’t seen my mom in a year and a half,” Alexander said.