City Council on Tuesday approved the purchase of 168 more $50 gift cards so that 300 will be available as COVID-19 vaccination rewards for an 8:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 18 vaccination clinic at the Jones-Love Cultural Center in Luetta Moore Park.

Any gift cards left over then could be carried over to further city-sponsored clinics, council members suggested.

But also during Tuesday’s regular council meeting, City Manager Charles Penny reported that a previous staff proposal to hold prize drawings as vaccination incentives would not be legal unless the city works through a nonprofit organization. Council members asked him to identify a nonprofit willing to do this, if possible, before the next council meeting, which will be Sept.  21. But no drawings are planned for the Sept.  18 clinic.

“After our last discussion you gave us some direction, and when we left that meeting our staff did a little bit more digging and (about) the incentives that we laid out to you, the city can’t actually run a drawing,” Penny told the mayor and council Tuesday. “The drawing has to be run by a 501-c-3.”

That means a tax-exempt, charitable organization as defined in the federal Internal Revenue Code. When contacted by Statesboro City Hall staff members, the Georgia Municipal Association’s legal counsel had advised them that the city holding a prize drawing of its own would violate state law, Penny explained.

 “This morning what I want to say to the council is that, first, the simplest thing we can do, which we can do with federal funds, is we can utilize the gift cards that you funded the last time,” he said.

Previous plan

During the Aug.  24 meeting, Penny had presented a proposal, with slides, for a vaccine incentive program funded with about $50,000 from the city’s federal  reimbursement for  public safety expenses  under Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act of 2020. The first $10,000 went for two hundred $50 gift cards purchased as same-day rewards for adults who got vaccinated during a Sept. 1 clinic held inside City Hall.

At that time, Penny and staff members suggested using a further $20,000 as prizes for cash drawings for Statesboro  residents and city employees ages 18 and up who have gotten vaccinated or do so in the near future, whether at city-hosted events or elsewhere. The proposal also included a suggestion that about $15,000 be spent for prize items, such as laptops, videogame consoles and popular-brand headphones, for Statesboro-resident youth in the 12-17 age range who get vaccinated.

However, council members in August approved only the initial gift card expenditure and that a “tiered structure” be adopted for the drawings while asking Penny to bring a more developed plan to Tuesday’s meeting. In the meantime, the Sept. 1 vaccination opportunity at City Hall achieved partial success when 68 people were vaccinated, and according to city staff, exactly that many gift cards were awarded.

After announcing that the Bulloch County Health Department has agreed to staff the four-hour Sept.  18 clinic in the Jones-Love Building on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, Penny said the city could give the remaining 132 gift cards away to vaccine recipients then.

Details of next clinic

Last week’s clinic was only for people 18 years old and up. But since Health Department personnel brought all three vaccine types – including the Pfizer vaccine, which remains the only one approved for youth 12 to 17 years old – Penny has said that people age 12 and up will be included in the Sept.  18 clinic.

For any youth under age 18 to be vaccinated, they will have to be accompanied by a parent or guardian who gives permission, he noted. No COVID-19 vaccine is approved for children under 12.

If the council wanted the city to do some “same-day drawings” for electronic items for youth and two $250 cash drawings for adults, all among the people who come to the clinic, Penny would look into having a nonprofit organization handle this, he said.

Council’s decision

What the council ended up approving on a 4-0 vote Tuesday was buying the 168 additional $50 gift cards, on a motion from Councilman Phil Boyum that appeared to be simultaneously seconded by the other three members present. Councilwoman Paulette Chavers was away.

Stating that a nonprofit organization would charge the city a fee for handling the drawings, Boyum had suggested offering more gift cards and holding more public clinics as the easiest approach to increasing vaccinations.

“Maybe we just should, since it’s the easiest, cleanest and clearest way to do this, just focus on giving out those cards and maybe doing as many of these things as we can,” he said.

He also suggested sponsoring vaccine clinics at other locations, such as the tailgating areas outside football games.

“Instead of trying to attract people, let’s go to where the people are,” Boyum said.

During Tuesday’s discussion Mayor Jonathan McCollar proclaimed last week’s City Hall clinic a success.

“What I think needs  to be made clear is we did vaccinations for four hours, and 68 people showed up, so if you break that down that’s a shot in an arm every five minutes,” he said.  “So to me, that’s successful.”

After city Finance Director Cindy West suggested rounding up the number of gift cards on hand to either 250 or 300, council members chose 300.

The authorized purchase of 168 more $50 gift cards boosts the city’s funding for the cards as incentives to $18,400, including the 68 cards awarded last week.