FEMA Grant Money Vote Delayed After Denver Health Executives Get Bonuses

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DENVER (CBS4) - A Denver City Council member blocked a last-minute vote Monday night to approve $38 million in FEMA grant money. The money would have provided reimbursements for costs associated with the coronavirus.

(credit: CBS)

Denver Health Medical Center was slated to get some of that money, but after a report by CBS4 investigator Brian Maass, one council member wasn't ready to hand over the funding. Maass found the hospital paid its executives bonuses ranging from $50,000 to $230,000, one week after asking front-line workers to take pay cuts.

Denver City Councilman Chris Hinds said it was "disgraceful," and that the money should be returned to benefit health care workers at the hospital.

"That there are certain executives that are receiving large bonuses of tens or sometimes even hundreds of thousands of dollars, that is not okay," said Hinds, during a Facebook Live statement. "I'm really frustrated that we have public health administrators… that are taking tens of hundreds of thousands of dollars of bonuses… while working families are sacrificing themselves."

Chris Hinds (credit: CBS)

Hinds specifically cited the CBS4 Investigation as one of the reasons he delayed the vote. A vote on that money is now delayed until next week.