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HomeMy WebLinkAbout03-18-2020 Emergency Council Minutes MINUTES OF THE ORONO EMERGENCY CITY COUNCIL MEETING Wednesday, March 18,2020 3:30 o'clock p.m. ROLL CALL The Orono City Council met on the above-mentioned date with the following members present: Mayor Dennis Walsh, City Council Members Richard Crosby, II, Matt Johnson,Aaron Printup, and Victoria Seals(attending remotely). Representing Staff were City Administrator Dustin Rief, Development Director Jeremy Barnhart, Public Works Director/City Engineer Adam Edwards,City Attorney Soren Mattick. and Police Chief Correy Farniok. Mayor Walsh called the meeting to order at 3:30 p.m., followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. Walsh stated the purpose for the emergency meeting was in regard to the coronavirus; an emergency meeting has never been called before in Orono. He said initially the Department of Health guidelines included spatial distances,groups of less than 50, and increased hand-washing. The previous Friday, Governor Walz made the decision to close public schools on Wednesday; Orono made the decision to close on Monday. On Monday evening,the Governor ordered all bars,restaurants, and nightclubs to close. He noted no matter what kind of stimulus package is offered,money will be lost by Minnesota citizens. While talking to a barista at a coffee shop,he discovered that teenagers are still out and about, and some people are not being allowed to go to their jobs and will be struggling financially. He encouraged everyone to help by going out for take-out as much as possible,tip often, and tip a lot to help support the community. He noted this is the time when the City Council needs to make thoughtful, careful decisions and stand behind Staff. He and Rief made a decision that the Department of Health guidelines were good and still are good guidelines. Codes allow the City to re-manage schedules, furlough people, and make decisions on hours and where people are going to make sure things are taken care of. In addition,the President declared aNational Emergency, which means there are federal dollars available for some type of relief, which is being looked at daily. Because a state of emergency has been declared in Orono, it allows the City to have access to those funds for work issues such as if extra people are needed, overtime hours, etc. Once the City decided to declare an emergency,the City Attorney did extensive research in order to come up with a plan. He noted they would like to give Staff as much flexibility as possible to take care of whatever issues are in front of them. Crosby suggested neighborhood emails as a good way to contact others. He said the finger-pointing is irrelevant. People need to be able to help their neighbors, especially the elderly and sick. He noted the virus is not the issue. People need to come to the forefront and help each other, and they need to stop hoarding. He stated the more countries that work together to find a cure, the better off everyone is going to be. He encouraged kindness, politeness, and respectfulness. He thanked everyone for all of their work to this point and stated that we will get through this together. Printup noted he had a list of statements and questions which may or may not be contained in the emergency responses. In his world,he has covered a lot of these issues and wants to make sure they are covered at the City level as far as the internal controls and mechanisms for Staff. He thanked everyone for their work so far. Walsh said Printup might have some of the same items that would be presented. He asked if Johnson had any general comments he wished to make. Printup said leave time has been brought up and satisfied. In addition, authorizing work from home for those who can, if there is anything covering the at-risk employees and children, and canceling or postponing public face-to-face services and creating plans for how to deliver those services. If vacations Page I of 8 MINUTES OF THE ORONO EMERGENCY CITY COUNCIL MEETING Wednesday,March 18,2020 3:30 o'clock p.m. are canceled, can accruals go above the caps to make up time.Authorizing negative comp balances up to X amount of hours,possibly 80. Reminders to Staff about law enforcement,healthcare,emergency personnel that have daycare options and what type of employee assistance there might be.The development of work comp plans if Staff test positive for anything. Waiving the initial requirements to produce doctor's notes before work accommodations can be made. Daily/as-things-change updates as new directives from national, State,and County authorities regarding Police,Fire,Public Safety,Public Works, City Hall,and Admin Staff. For upcoming Council,Planning,Park meetings, do triaging so action can be taken. Cost-tracking for incident responses.Reminders and employee trainings on personal protective equipment(PPE)such as gloves,masks,goggles,and gowns when dealing with potential hazards.Follow the universal precaution that everything is dirty. When things calm down, a review with the Fire Department in regards to box alarms. It's a great opportunity to learn how to help each other out and expand to other areas so they aren't confined to geographic areas and can back each other up. Eat and shop local. Johnson stated all of the plans need to be fluid and able to change because no one knows where anything is going.Also,things need to keep moving as best as possible. Crosby said Orono should share best practices with neighboring cities: if Orono comes up with a good idea,other cities can make a decision if they think that idea/practice might help their city. Seals indicated she had nothing to add. Rief said the points Printup discussed were also points on his list.He noted the purpose of the meeting was to provide a Response Plan for the Council for adoption and to consider the Emergency Declaration with an extension until the next planned Council meeting and beyond.He encouraged the plan to stay in place until the end of the State Declaration but reviewed at every Council meeting. Orono is in a State of Emergency through the Executive Order last week;the Executive Orders continue coming both from the Federal and State. He noted the primary goal for the City is to be able to continue operations,keep City employees safe,and keep residents safe and healthy.He stated the Mayor's Emergency Proclamation is valid for 3 days.By Council Resolution,it can be extended for the duration of the emergency. An Emergency Response Plan has been developed.The Proclamation and Resolution put the City into the Lake Area Emergency Management Plan,which the Council has received.He noted that nothing in the information was related to pandemics and everything they are doing is new. Walsh read the Proclamation Declaring a Local Emergency, effective 3:55 p.m. on March 18,2020. Printup moved,Crosby seconded,to approve the Proclamation Declaring a Local Emergency. VOTE: Ayes 5,Nays 0. Walsh read the Resolution Enacted Under Authority of Minnesota Statutes 12.29 and 12.37 to extend the Period of a Mayor-Declared Local Emergency,to be adopted on March 18,2020. Printup moved,Crosby seconded,to approve the Resolution No.7080 Enacted Under Authority of Minnesota Statutes 12.29 and 12.37 to Extend the Period of a Mayor-Declared Local Emergency. VOTE: Ayes 5,Nays 0. Rief reviewed the COVID-19 Emergency Response Plan, indicating that there are staffing plans to back each of the levels,but Levels 4 and 5 are still being developed on a daily basis as situations change and resources become available. Page 2 of 8 MINUTES OF THE ORONO EMERGENCY CITY COUNCIL MEETING Wednesday, March 18,2020 3:30 o'clock p.m. Rief noted the Background has been discussed. The City's goal is to continue operations and provide high quality public services to residents while taking necessary precautions to limit resident and staff exposure during the COViD-19 outbreak. He discussed the Response, which includes a total of 6 levels of operations, and said the City was at Level 2 on Monday morning. After the Governor's message Tuesday night,the City moved to Level 3: no in-person meetings; City Hall and Police doors locked; drop tables and signage in place; all Staff at work; limited contact by Police, Building Inspections, and Public Works. The City is working through the process for the potential of getting to Level 4: no in-person meetings; City Hall closed; mission-essential Staff at work, some Staff work from home; remote Council Meetings; limited contact by Police, Building Inspections, and Public Works. if the City needs to go to Level 5,the protocol is: City Hall and all offices closed; mission-essential personnel only; Police and Public Works emergency contacts only; Public Works employees work on-call,two at a time, unless a larger emergency arises like a water main break or snowfall. He said the City will operate at Level 3 or as long as possible and is working on the resources to move to a more remote-type work setting. As resources for remote work become available for more Staff, they will be moved, but one person from each department will be in-house. He stated he used information from OSHA regarding Control and Prevention regarding interim guidance for employees, how they interact and their potential exposures, and how to address those exposures. He discussed the plans for Employee Staffing and Finances. He said the Emergency Declaration gives help to businesses related to unemployment. Walsh asked if businesses would apply for that help through the City. Rief said the resources are being fed to the City, and as they become available, there is an alert on the City webpage with resource information. The information will also be sent to anyone who signed up for any kind of an alert from the City. He encouraged people to sign up for alerts so they get them via email as the webpage is updated,which is changing continually. Walsh mentioned changes are occurring almost on an hourly basis. He also encouraged everyone to sign up at the City's website. Johnson asked if the City needs to provide resources to respond to unemployment for small businesses. Rief clarified that the City does not provide the resources;the City is providing access to the resources. Walsh asked City Attorney Mattick to comment, given his knowledge. Mattick said there is a debate about when cities should declare a Declaration of Emergency. He felt the City of Orono made a wise decision because it may free up some reimbursements later on. With the Emergency Declaration, if there is a needed expense in an emergency situation,the City Administrator and Staff can make that decision in real-time rather than a 1-2-week turnaround period. He noted the plan put together by Rief is consistent with what he has seen in other communities. Ile said most communities have preparedness as it relates to natural disasters such as storms, but what has been challenging is providing a service while distancing yourself from the people you are providing the service to. The plan does a nice job of ensuring continuity of services while protecting employees. He reminded everyone the plan was put together in 1-2 days and is a starting point. The plan may change as information changes, or the City may be working off-script sometimes. Page 3 of 8 MINUTES OF THE ORONO EMERGENCY CITY COUNCIL MEETING Wednesday,March 18,2020 3:30 o'clock p.m. Crosby asked young people to keep in mind that although they might not be at a high risk,they don't want to pick the virus up and transfer it to Grandma and Grandpa.He asked young people to stay at home, hang out with siblings, etc.,even though it will be difficult. Johnson asked what would cause the City to go to Level 4. Rief indicated part of the challenge is that there are not enough testing kits available,which changes the data available. He said the City would take some guidance from County and Public Health before that determination would be made. Johnson noted the key difference is the City Hall is closed,resulting in phone lines being closed. Rief clarified it would be minimum staffing at Level 4.Essential personnel would be at City Hall;the majority of Staff would be away from City Hall. They are working on how to conduct inspections via video as far as the Building Inspections component. Johnson stated he is in favor of as many people as possible working from home,but if someone calls the City, someone should answer as long as is reasonably possible. He suggested there being a hybrid between the two levels as far as people working from home. Rief said part of the analysis got tied into the staffing and resources that each of the departments are reviewing, such as reimbursement for cell phone usage. The pandemic guide starts with Preparation, Intermediate to Full Response, and Full Response. Staff went basically without Preparation and jumped to near Full Response and are backtracking to meet those accommodations.They are also challenged a bit technology-wise. If they need to do video conferencing,there's some supply line issues in addition to their IT guy being out of the country and trying to come back. The goal is to answer phones.Police staff will be at the City because of the information they handle. If the Governor shuts them down and they have to figure that component out,phones could be transferred to the Police Department in the interim. Johnson said that is what he hopes to avoid, and he wants calls to the City to go to the City Department and emergency calls to go to the Police Department. Rief stated that is what they are working on for the Level 4 and 5 Employee Staffing plan,understanding the resources and ability to get someone to work from home. The focus now will be asking what every department needs,get those items ordered and to City Hall,and then start transitioning.His goal is to get to Level 4 and get Staff from having to come to work. Johnson clarified that the City office building would be closed,not City Hall. Printup asked if the City phones had rollover capabilities. Rief stated that is part of the challenge with the technician being gone. They are working on forwarding numbers that are able to be forwarded. Printup asked whether the technician,when he returns,will be asked to stay home for 2 weeks. Rief stated that may be the case,or they will have to keep an extra distance from him;but regardless,they would have him to help walk through the process. Page 4 of 8 MINUTES OF THE ORONO EMERGENCY CITY COUNCIL MEETING Wednesday, March 18,2020 3:30 o'clock p.m. Walsh moved,Johnson seconded,to accept the COVID-19 Emergency Response Plan.VOTE: Ayes 5,Nays 0. Rief displayed COVID-19 Plan Administration and Finance information. The plan is segmented into people who work at City Hall,Police Officers, and Public Works. He discussed efforts Staff at City Hall have taken as far as cleaning at Level 3. lie indicated the plan addresses the additional impacts on each of the departments and how Staff should react. The technology piece comes into place more so at Levels 4- 5. They have pretty much eliminated face-to-face services other than applying social distancing rules at building inspections until Metro West Inspection indicates they are not willing to do so anymore. Forniak stated the Police Department does not really have any restrictions in place on how they respond to the public. They are responding to calls as normal. Once they get to the scene,they are evaluating at- scene as to whether to enter the house, meet the individual outside or from their driveway, or from within sight of their house to deal with the situation. They are patrolling as usual, making sure they have a visible presence to have somewhat of a calming effect. At the Police Department,they have a barrier with glass at the front and deal with people through the glass. For office staff,they may look at a rotating schedule to make sure they always have one person coming in and one is off so they can remain healthy. They are also working with 8 other Police Departments on a plan that, in the case of an emergency,there are roughly 106 officers in the lake area and, if certain conditions are met,it enforces a certain service protocol to combine and act as one department. He described the schedule that is in place in that event. For any calls that require medicals,they will go in houses and wear proper gloves, etc., and decontaminate as necessary. There are restrictions in place as far as transportation of those individuals. Printup asked whether the Lake area plan was with Police Departments or whether it was Police, Fire, and all emergency personnel. Forniak said at this point it is just the Police Department. The Fire Department already has a good system set up with box alarms. The Fire Chief sat in on the meeting with the Lake Area Police Chiefs when they went through their plan, and the Fire Chief is working on a response plan with situations from both a state fire level as well as neighboring departments to implement if necessary. Printup clarified whether the Fire Department is also working on a response plan. Forniak said he was correct. Crosby asked if the Police Department felt like they had ample PPE equipment. Forniak said currently they do because they are not wearing masks since there are no identifiable situations in the area. They are debating as to whether to put the masks on the person versus Police Department personnel. They can put requests in through Hennepin County Emergency Management, it goes up the chain to the State and Feds, and comes back down. There are stockpiles but it may take a few days and quantities may be limited to what you need, not what you want to have on hand. They have protocols on what to do when an officer leaves a scene before they get into a car so they don't bring anything back. Crosby stated if they suspect a person, it would be a good idea to get a mask on them as opposed to anyone else. Page 5 of 8 MINUTES OF THE ORONO EMERGENCY CITY COUNCIL MEETING Wednesday,March 18,2020 3:30 o'clock p.m. Forniak agreed and said the masks are a one-time use so they want to use them sparingly. That is why the first person on-scene goes in; if there is not a need for other personnel to enter,they stay outside. Edwards stated there has been minimal impact within Public Works with the exception of doing in-person meetings, and they have ceased doing non-emergency appointments inside of homes or businesses.They are still doing emergency work, all normal utilities testing,inspections, etc. other than when they need to go into people's houses.He noted one of the benefits of Public Works is that it already has the social distance aspect and PPE built into it.They will not be opening the golf course/golf course clubhouse until everything settles down.Within the Engineering Department,they have stopped doing in-person meetings; most of that has been able to be rolled over into digital. Some services will be limited if the City moves into a Level 4 such as utility inspections,and he will also enforce a mandatory separation of personnel in Public Works.At Level 5,the main priority would be to maintain at least 2 healthy crew members so the water and sewer systems can be maintained on a daily basis and kept operational. Printup asked if isolating the crews would include changing the hours or making sure there is someone working in the shop and another one outside. Edwards said his thought was separating the utility crew from the streets and storm crew. In normal operations,they all meet together every morning to discuss the day's activities.They would not put all 10-11 people in the same confined space.He would change hours if need be--that probably would not be until Level 5 --in order to keep a healthy 2-man crew.He may have a rotation cycle go into place. Mr.Jonathan Aanestad,3185 North Shore Drive,thanked the City of Orono for their work at this time. He said he works at the State Capitol.The State Capitol is at Orono's Level 4:the Capitol is closed;many employees are telecommuting; limited floor votes by the legislature,which will be on an as-needed basis, mostly emergency;essential personnel only.All of the people at the Capitol are taking this very seriously. He noted it was good to see that the State,County, and City levels are doing the same thing,because it will take a lot of effort to follow the protocol that's been initiated from the President on down. Walsh said he is glad the State has not spent all of the surplus yet. He suggested they pause and think about all the people that have been and will be in harm's way. Mr.Aanestad stated the surplus will be downgraded in the next two months but,more importantly,the surplus is in stasis right now,being held for emergency situations.There is legislation in the pipeline that may spend part of it. Rief reiterated that Planning is still taking phone calls and issuing permits. The City Clerk is also still issuing permits. The majority of everything related to those departments can now be done online.While there are not in-person meetings,they will be implementing a GoToMeeting to allow those to still happen and give video as it is available. Walsh stated the foresight that the City had in bringing online permitting and everything else the past couple of years has helped the City's situation a lot. Johnson commented those are the type of projects that can be worked on if/when the City slows down. Page 6 of 8 MINUTES OF THE ORONO EMERGENCY CITY COUNCIL MEETING Wednesday,March 18,2020 3:30 o'clock p.m. Crosby said when someone in the City does something well such as a City employee, the Police Department, or the Long Lake Fire Department,he uses the tagline"Orono Proud."He asked the citizens to make Orono proud by helping out neighbors, being good neighbors, adding that everyone will get through this. Rief reviewed the City of Orono COVID-19 Leave Plan. He noted the City will implement a flexible leave and scheduling policy for the duration of this emergency. The City may need to make modifications as time goes on because the full extent of the emergency is unknown. It is the City's plan to be flexible, still meet all City service needs,but also ensure that all employees are taken care of as well. Rief noted the highlights: employees will be allowed to earn vacation, sick, or compensatory time above the current allowed limits; if an employee or their direct family member is exposed to COVID-19 and are required to stay home or sent home for health, welfare, and safety of other employees and residents for a minimum of 14 days, a doctor's note may be required to allow the employee to return to work; if an employee is currently ill,they are required to stay home or be sent home; an employee who is currently sick may return to work after exhibiting no symptoms of fever, cough, sore throat for 24 hours without the aid of cough suppressants, ibuprofen, acetaminophen, or other designated drug as authorized by their doctor; for employees that do not have enough sick, vacation, or compensatory time available,they will be allowed to maintain a negative balance up to 80 hours, which may be earned back through future accrual of leave time; an employee can also choose to take this time unpaid; for Staff working around daycare and dual working households that need to accommodate school-age dependents' needs during closures, individual staffing plans may be flexible to ensure 40 hours of work is met and the needs of the dependents are also able to be met. Walsh noted the City has great employees and the City Council's commitment is to take care of them. The City will stay fully staffed whether the City shuts down or not, and everyone will be taken care of. Seals left the meeting. Crosby moved,Printup seconded, to adopt the City of Orono COVID-19 Leave Plan. VOTE: Ayes 4,Nays 0. Rief stated there is some guidance coming from the Governor that if it is determined an employee contracted COVID-19 in the line of work,they are entitled to workers' compensation. The City will follow the guidelines in the workers' compensation policy. There is legislation at the Federal level relating to unemployment, etc. If the City had to shut down and the Governor ordered there to be no more work, some of those things might be instituted. As directives come in, the website will be updated. He plans to update the Council, at a minimum, at the end of every day; if things change overnight, he may update them in the morning as well. Walsh and Councilmembers thanked Rief for his help and hard work. Rief said they are working on figuring out how to have remote meetings for the City Council, including taking public comment. Walsh expressed his desire to have the meetings in-person if possible. Printup stated the remote meetings/having the public call in would only be during an Emergency Declaration. Page 7 of 8 MINUTES OF THE ORONO EMERGENCY CITY COUNCIL MEETING Wednesday,March 18,2020 3:30 o'clock p.m. ADJOURNMENT Crosby moved,Printup seconded,to adjourn the Orono City Council meeting at 4:43 p.m. VOTE: Ayes 4,Nays 0. ATTEST: Anna Carlson,City Clerk Dennis W sh,Mayor Page 8 of 8