STARKVILLE — Insurance surcharges for unvaccinated city employees have again been delayed until Feb. 4.

Aldermen passed a policy in September requiring an additional $75 monthly surcharge on unvaccinated employees’ medical insurance, but in order to meet legal requirements for the increase, board attorney Chris Latimer informed the board it must provide a reasonable alternative to the surcharge.

The board at its special-call meeting Wednesday approved a proposed alternative, crafted by Latimer, Mayor Lynn Spruill and Human Resources Director Navarrete Ashford, that would give employees the possibility of being medically excused from the vaccination, and approved a delay in the $75 increase until Feb. 4.

Spruill requested a special-call meeting Tuesday to establish the same alternative, but the board failed to approve it then with the majority saying it wanted to delay the surcharge until February. Ward 1 Alderman Ben Carver and Ward 7 Alderman Henry Vaughn called Wednesday’s meeting with the intention of solely delaying the surcharge, but Spruill said she wanted to address the issue of not having an alternative instead of bringing it back up again in two months.

“All we’re doing is kicking the can down the road basically,” Spruill said. “So we will bring this whole thing back again for Feb. 1 and have the same discussion all over again. I would really rather us not do that. I would like to see us settle on something that sees us leave this off the table to talk about because this is a difficult issue for us.”

If unvaccinated employees want to apply for the alternative, they will get a form from Ashford that their physician must fill out saying that getting the vaccine is unreasonably difficult for the employee due to a medical condition or medically inadvisable to get vaccinated against COVID-19. The employee must provide the waiver to Ashford any time from now to Jan. 14 with a written statement from the employee’s physician clearing them from the vaccine.

The policy will officially go into effect on Feb. 4, the first pay-period date in February.

The board voted for a delay once before on Nov. 16, but Spruill vetoed the original delay saying she believed it would be detrimental to the health, safety and wellbeing of Starkville residents.

Ward 4 Alderman Mike Brooks, who originally voted against the surcharge delay, said he wanted to “put the issue to bed,” and if the only way to approve an alternative was for the surcharge to be delayed, he would support that.

“I do understand getting through the holidays,” Brooks said. “I know that $75 is a lot of money for a lot of our employees. … I was elected to do what is best for the whole city. … I’m trying to balance not penalizing these 172 employees while not penalizing the other 24,000 people that live here.”

Carver initially moved for only a delay in the surcharge without the alternative, the same motion Spruill had vetoed, but it ultimately failed. He said he does not agree with increasing insurance at all for unvaccinated employees.

“I just don’t support the $75 altogether,” Carver said.

Ward 2 Alderman Sandra Sistrunk voted against the delay with the alternative because she said she believes in order to prevent the spread of the virus, the policy should go into effect now.

“COVID is not done with us, and I think it’s a good policy,” Sistrunk said. “That’s why I would like to see it implemented as soon as possible.”