[UPDATED] City Manager Steve Mermell said that he has asked the human resources department to develop a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy for city employees.
According to Mermell the policy will be similar to one already in effect in San Francisco.
“The City of Pasadena announced at their City Council meeting tonight that the City Manager is implementing a policy to require mandatory vaccinations for their over 2,000 employees,” said Public Information Officer Lisa Derderian. “Currently, they are at approximately 60% of employees who attested to being vaccinated although with an upward trend in positive cases in city employees and the new variant in our community, a mandatory policy is the right thing to do to protect employees who at times spend more hours at work then home. The policy will be effective when there is official FDA approval for the vaccines. The City of Pasadena would be the first to initiate this policy in Southern California and the UC System recently announced they have a similar mandate.”
It is not known how the city will deal with noncompliant employees.
In San Francisco, city employees must prove they have been vaccinated. As of June 28, employees were given 30 days to prove they had been vaccinated.
City employees in that region who do not comply with the new rule could be disciplined or even fired. However, workers are able to request an exemption for either medical conditions or religious beliefs.
It is not known if Pasadena’s city employees will be placed on a deadline.
Mermell told the City Council that the city employee vaccination rate is lower than the city’s vaccination rate.
About 80% of the city’s population over 12 years old has been vaccinated.
Mermell said the vaccination rate of city employees is in the mid to high 60% range, and the rate among public safety employees could also be in that range, but about 1,100 of the city’s employees responded that they had been vaccinated in a survey.
This is a breaking news story and Pasadena Now will update it as more information becomes available.
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3 thoughts on “City to Mandate All City Employees Must Receive COVID-19 Vaccination”
Via Email
Mr. Steve Mermell
Pasadena City Manager
(cc: Mayor Victor Gordo; Lisa Dederian, Public Information Officer)
Mr. Mermell:
As an experienced city manager, are you certain Pasadena should emulate San Francisco?
A poll this month showed 40% of SF residents planning to leave.
Your recommendation to mandate Covid shots for all Pasadena city employees as a condition of employment – like San Francisco – is a major misstep . . . even if the FDA gives approval.
As you well-know the current Covid “vaccines” remain at the clinical trial stage, with unknowns for many categories, uncharted side-effects and zero autopsy data for break-through cases.
Why would you force city employees into political behavioral mandates with unknown hazards?
I would wholly support an employee lawsuit challenging your mandate.
Those of us who fund the city don’t look forward to paying for the lawyers you will undoubtedly need – and the legal fees accrued by the prevailing employees.
Mary Dee Romney
Pasadena
I have never worked for a city, but this sounds like a lawsuit. I mean, Can a city dictate that an employee be forced to put something into his or her body if they don’t want it or want to wait longer until longer term side effects are known? And if they refuse? Punishment by firing? Or can they work from home where they aren’t around others and everyone is safe?
Most of us would not have survived past 5 without vaccines in the last 100 years. 160 MILLION Americans have taken the Covid19 vaccines and are alive. THOSE city employees that refuse the vaccine are welcome to enjoy working in the private sector where they won’t put others at risk. This is a public safety issue. WELL done Pasadena