The Johnson County Board of Supervisors has moved toward a plan that will require county employees to be vaccinated against Covid or face weekly testing.

The board has not yet formally voted for a mandate.

An Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulation requires employers with over 100 workers to compile a roster of vaccinated employees. The federal law called originally for a December 5 deadline, but a number of legal challenges “kind of leaves things in a pause,” Susie Nehring, a Johnson County attorney, told the board at its work session November 23.

More than 70 employees voluntarily disclosed their vaccination status in a “soft” launch of a questionnaire, said Lora Shramek, Human Resources Director.

The board is taking steps in the direction of a vaccination and testing mandate, and is likely to be discussed this week at another work session on December 1. Pending legal action in federal court, the county is unable to know when OSHA’s hard deadline actually is.

If a mandate is put in place, unvaccinated county employees will not be able to begin work each week until tested and receiving a negative result. It is unclear whether polymerase chain reaction (PCR) or antigen rapid tests will be used and whether the county would pay for those tests to be administered.

Danielle Pettit-Majewski, Johnson County Public Health Director, said the PCR tests are more accurate than the antigen tests.

“Antigen is not a great screening tool,” she said.

Board members were skeptical of rapid at-home tests.

“If you get a negative, it doesn’t mean you don’t have it. And then you’re coming into work,” said Supervisor Lisa Green-Douglass.

And there are also the complications that will surface because some immune-compromised employees can’t receive a vaccination.

“For folks who can’t get vaccinated, it behooves us to push other unvaccinated county employees as forcibly as possible to get vaccinated to protect those who cannot get vaccinated,” said Supervisor Jon Green, former Lone Tree mayor.

Board members appeared to be in agreement of covering the costs of testing for those who are unvaccinated for medical or religious reasons, but not cover the testing cost for those who simply chose not to get vaccinated.

“It would not shock me if we were sued no matter what we do here,” said Supervisor Rod Sullivan.

Case numbers in Johnson County have risen over the last three weeks. As of last Friday, the number of cases in the county was 447 and the positivity rate was 12.43%.

The board previously issued a mask mandate for all county buildings. That order expires in January, but can be extended.

The board will vote Thursday on the Fiscal Year 2022 fall budget amendment calling for $35.4 million in additional spending and $17.4 million in additional revenue.

The new budget would cover $179.5 million in expenditures, up from the original $144.1 million budget approved by the board this past March. The amended budget includes funds for the current budget year allocated by American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) money.

The board will also vote Thursday on a resolution that would establish Johnson County as a Home Base Iowa community, a program that connects veterans, active military and their families with resources in Iowa.

The board updated its list of state legislative priorities to include increasing the early voting period to 40 days (from 29), increasing the state minimum wage to $15 per hour, and restoring local control of minimum wages to local governments, which was taken away by the state in 2017.