Costa Mesa city council approved a hazard pay urgency ordinance March 16, requiring grocers and retail drug stores to boost the salaries of frontline employees during the COVID-19 pandemic. The ordinance, which takes immediate effect, requires stores to increase the hourly wage of frontline workers by $4 for 120 days. It applies to stores with at least 15 employees locally, or 300 nationwide. In explaining her support of the measure, Mayor Pro Tem Andrea Marr referred to a quote by Franklin D. Roosevelt, “Better the occasional faults of a government that lives in a spirit of charity than the consistent omissions of a government frozen in the ice of its own indifference.” According to a report presented by city manager Lori Ann Farrell Harrison during the meeting, COVID-19 has killed 116 people in Costa Mesa, and 4,313 people countywide. Councilmember Don Harper was the motion’s sole dissenting vote. Harper referenced …