City Council Emergency Meeting 4-1-20

[0:00:00] we're going to call this meeting to order on April the 1st 2020 this is an emergency meeting the via audio and video broadcast the meeting today is present with all city council members so we have a quorum every single council member is joining us here today for special instructions all members of the City Council and staff should begin speaking by stating their full name and SMD position or role within the city emergency provision notice in accordance with text texas Government Code section five five one point four zero four five this is an emergency meaning the City Council declared an emergency urgent public necessity for the purpose of considering the following emergency agenda items we will go into public comment at this time council members may ask staff members questions regarding public comments submitted via email but I would like to start first with my public comment and that is to say that I'm going to repeat what Texas Tech Chancellor said who is dr. Ted Mitchel he said it is not always easy to do the right thing but it is always right to do the right thing today council will be asked to support to do the right thing to protect the health and safety of our citizens we are asking for sacrifices and creating financial issues for many of our citizens and their families this is a hard time to continue to ask you for your sacrifice but this is our turn as a generation to do the right thing when 9/11 happened 6,000 people enlisted to help defend our country World War two many sacrificed their lives and lived with rationing and give me in giving in so many ways with that I want to clarify two phrases that I hear many citizens using governor Abbott also clarified

[0:02:03] these phrases during his public address yesterday stay in place means just that wherever you are you stay in place this means if you are at a golf course if you are at a rest stop or if you are at the grocery store you must stay exactly in place no getting in the car going back to your house no turning around so we need to better understand that this phrase is most often used when we had tornadoes or hurricanes it is not something that we are going to be using today or going forward this was made very clear by Governor Abbott he also wanted to make sure that people understood what stayed at home means it means you cannot leave your home for any reason no going to the grocery store no getting gas no walking no job no bicycling no gardening no painting the house we are not going to use this terminology nor declare a stay at home or a stay in place so to be clear what we are discussing today for approval is a declaration of a local disaster the specifies or gives guidelines to what can be done activities that can be done and businesses that can continue to operate a declaration that allows for the operation of doing essential business you may leave your home to take care of essential businesses business businesses may continue to operate by using CDC guidelines activities may be done outside the home including walking jogging bicycling coffee fishing and hunting Theresa will go through the decorations so everyone better understands what we are asking for council approvals but be clear this is not a stay in place or a stay at home order it is a declaration that gives specific guidelines in terms of what can and what not to be do you that you can do we have changed some of the issues

[0:04:05] such as bothof stopping parks being open the position yesterday before Governor Abbott's public address governor Abbott has declared activities such as fishing hunting walking jogging using our parks as essential activities and necessary for the health of our citizens but he also clearly stated we need to minimize contact with people who are not in your household with that I would like to move into item four on your agenda which is the emergency agenda which has considered declaring an extension to the declaration of a local disaster with amendments and Teresa you're on Thank You mayor I'm Teresa James on the city attorney and the first thing that this declaration does is it continues the declarations that you guys did I guess it was on the 19th of March and it also extends some of the requirements in accordance with the action that the governor took yesterday but the first thing that it does do is it tells residents that they need to remain in place of residents as allowed by the declaration as the mayor already said there is a list of essential activities that does allow them to leave their residences those include for health and safety so going to doctor for necessary supplies and services for outdoor activity provided of course social distancing is followed for certain types of work so performing work essential products and services listed as critical infrastructure and we'll go through that in a minute and then to take care of others you can leave to take care of your mom or your aunt or somebody's pet those are all allowable reasons to leave your residence this also in accordance with the prior action we've taken and also the declaration or the executive order by the governor does close some businesses that includes gyms massage services nail salons hair salons tattoo services piercing services face or body waxing services and any business and which person-to-person contact is required in the performance of the service and that's not included in the critical infrastructure so for instance a doctor does use person-to-person

[0:06:06] contact but they're part of critical infrastructure therefore they are not closed under this provision the following private or public recreation or entertainment facilities must be closed and that's things that are already generally closed in our community theaters sexually oriented businesses skating rinks bowling alleys swimming pools dance studios playgrounds basketball courts tennis courts beaches and camping areas we're also in this section asking that people do not congregate at our part stocks or variants the major concern in the boat ramps and the docks was not people on boats but people getting into boats or hanging out in the parking lot and you know hanging out with their friends that activity is prohibited by this declaration it does list the essential activities as I stated what those were and it goes to the cons of is that are considered critical infrastructure and this is the list that is found at the US Department of Homeland Security cyber infrastructure Security Agency I know Brian groves did create a nice little graphic that he'll be putting up if he hasn't already and it shows generally what those businesses are but it also provides the link to the tdum site which is a Texas site which lists all of these things from the US Department of Homeland Security plus any additional things that the governor may in the future list as essential businesses the general categories that we have our health care operations this does not include fitness exercise gyms or other facilities any stores that sell groceries and other essentials we are still keeping in place our hundred people in those stores or half the occupancy so if it's a smaller store they and we're requiring you to maintain some distance between those stores food cultivation which is livestock and you know cultivating food is also any kind of farming activities are allowable social services and charitable organizations are allowed the news media gas stations auto dealerships auto repair supply stores and again these come directly from what the Texas

[0:08:08] Department of Homeland Security has listed as essential services or critical services financial institutions including banks consumer lenders sales and finance lenders credit unions appraisers title companies pawn shops all of those are allowed but as the governor's declaration said these services should be provided remotely as much as possible that is a very important provision that he included in his declaration yesterday that to the extent possible we do you need to be working remotely and any business that's not on these lists they're welcome to operate that they do need to be operating remotely with delivery or those sorts of services to the extent possible hardware Building Supply stores are still listed as an essential service it's important to our health safety and welfare to maintain our structures critical trades which are listed as plumbers electricians exterminators pool cleaners any of those things that if we don't have them come we could have a pest issue or sanitation issue mail and package delivery services laundry services restaurants for carryout delivery which has already been in place businesses that supply items necessary to work for home because we are encouraging so many people to work remotely it is important that we leave open those office supply stores and those other kinds of stores that provide the tools to allow us to do that any business that supplies computers or audio-visual electronics or components for those things again that assists everybody in working remotely food delivery transportation including uber and lyft however we do ask that those vehicles be sanitized after every customer to the extent possible and drivers should not ever arrive if they are feeling sick home based care still listed residential facilities and shelters professional services including legal accounting insurance and real estate IT services hotels and motels funeral services although we are still asking that they limit to the extent possible the number of people that are coming together at those services and educational institutions which we're not regulating that the governor has closed

[0:10:09] for the next month and then childcare facilities we get a lot of questions about that the state is regulating childcare facilities it's very important that we allow those to stay open and they are considered to be essential under the governor's order but we have a lot of nurses and doctors and policemen environment and and we need childcare for their children so they can do their jobs in addition there's three five other actions that we're asking that you take today in response to this emergency the first is to disallow any itinerant or temporary health permits in the city of San Angelo these are the folks who come from out of town and on a temporary basis they set up in the parking lot of you know a big-box store on somebody's personal property and they operate we've had a number of these folks who have come from other places where we know that there are positive cases and they're trying to sell in our city and we want to limit that any fee increases and the fee policy that you adopted that were to take place in this fiscal year we're asking to be postponed and be reevaluated in accordance with the policy in preparation for the next fiscal year so the budget cycle were in right now we're not going to look at those but the next budget cycle we will I'm asking that the city manager be authorized insurance agreements necessary to provide shelter or basic needs related to this declaration we've had numerous conversations with members of the hospital who are looking for places for people to go when they have been told that they need to quarantine themselves and they don't want to go home to their families or their children so we are drafting some agreements and reaching out to hotels and we infer Daniel to execute execute those agreements is necessary and then the last one or two more hillside Drive and Gun Club trail otherwise known as the KOA trail that we've had numerous reports and concerns about the number of people who are congregating on that trail the action that we took to close or limit access to our parks does not apply to that because it's not a park it actually is just a road so we're asking that you close that

[0:12:12] road too for right now too pedestrian traffic to help control the number of people who are congregating there and then late fees assessed by the water utility from April 1st 2020 through April 30th 2020 we're asking that you waive those I did include in this declaration a statement that if there's an event that there might be a conflict between what this is saying is an essential service and what the governor ordered that the governor's controls I mean he made it explicitly clear that he wants control of those things and I'm happy to give it to him so if we do have a conflict which decides between what I've gone over with you and what he has provided then his will control are there any questions about that I know I went through it pretty quickly we'll go to each individual City Council member and let them ask questions the first one is going to be Tommy Hebert he's put his hand up and so Tommy if you would go ahead thank you I'm Tommy City Councilmember single-member district one Teresa did some things chains I had a call literally minutes before this meeting started digits anything changed with respect to golf courses well what happened yesterday is dr. varus and I we were starting to get these positive cases in in kids and so Daniel in the mayor and dr. Bredesen I had a conversation about how can we manage that short term and so he issued an order that closed all recreational facilities part of that included golf courses after watching what the governor did and dr. Rutter's can speak to this if he needs to after watching what the governor did and how he describes what he wants to see as recreational opportunities we looked again at the language that we have prescribed and this morning dr. Rudd has issued another order that essentially limits or explains how we're going to enforce what he did yesterday and so part of that is

[0:14:15] the boats the boat docks and ramps which were a lot of concern for a lot of people and we are going to allow this to remain open again there's no congregating there they can't hang out in the parking lot it's to be used only to put your note in and out and anybody on the boat in accordance with the governor's order and what we're passing today needs household so you can't invite your 14 friends over to get on your boat golf courses it's the same way we felt like that provided that golf courses are operating in such a manner that they don't allow people from different households to be on the same cart or within a certain distance of each other then that would be allowable so his Gorder clarified that that was going to be an allowable recreational service okay thank you you're welcome do I have anyone else raising your hand to ask a question Billy go ahead yes Teresa I understood very clearly what you said the governor's order was that there would be no personal personal contact in certain situations but I've gotten several calls from independent salon owners that are questioning they couldn't commit to scheduling one appointment at a time excuse me so that it would just be the operator and a client and they could wear face masks and you know some of these folks are single parents and this is their only livelihood and at this point I don't think anybody is 100% certain when that stimulus package will come through so that they have some financial relief I just know in the governor's order he said he would leave some things up to the local communities because they knew best talent to handle that so his order was that there be no

[0:16:19] person to person and that salons were included in that so was we have any flexibility at all in that charissa we do not I mean we can be more restrictive than he is on those things that we cannot be less restrictive and he specifically states you know cosmetology salons those kind of activities are part of what people need to be avoiding and I don't know if Sandra the doc can talk a little bit to why that's important and how that kind of contact is not you know say for our community right now but it was in the governor's order what Teresa just said yes ma'am the main reason for wanting to keep this in effect is that even though you're only taking care of one client at a time throughout the day you might have five six seven people in there and so the first patient first client comes in and you get infected from that patient you're spreading it to the next five or six there's no real way of of stopping spread and even though people may wear a mask people you know general public's not trained on how to put on masks how to do proper PPE so I just think it's a short-term gain with a long-term loss I think the big issue is and I've heard many comments to Billy from people who are barbers hairdressers cosmetologist services because they are the breadwinner and it's one of those areas that has truly created some financial burden on the families and we we realize that it's been probably the number one thing I get asked about we are also encouraging people to go ahead and buy gift certificates know so long as if they can or buy products from those folks and they can keep up some sort of line and income but as the mayor said we understood that that was gonna be a very unique situation and a group of people

[0:18:22] who are going to be disproportionately affected by these orders but again it's like the governor has stated in as the doc stated it is necessary when you raise your hand can you hear me yes sir all right land Carter s md5 I think my question is mainly focused both to Teresa and dr. bredis how are we doing in efforts of tracing the contact with the first nine doing I know the CDC likes to track track that how are we doing as a local community of finding out where they've been where they worked warning those places in the bounds of the HIPAA law and then also keeping this one will be for Teresa keeping the positives that have not been hospitalized in place because I know we've all heard the rumors out there seems on Facebook on comments that's a few of them have been out and about in the community what's that great comment Blaine and doctor beretta so you want to talk about that first and then we'll let Theresa add comment your every time anybody comes back to the positive test we're ordering a order of isolation on that person and they're being served with that we said specifically they must stay at home again we heard that people were going out and about so we we've ordered that they cannot do that anymore same thing if there are family members of somebody in their isolation we're putting them under orders of quarantine we're not relying on their good faith of them because so many of them haven't had it yeah and the other thing we do you think we added yesterday is we have a blanket order on anybody who's taking a test that is going to be monitored by one of the either the health department or one of the hospitals they're getting a quarantine order at the time they take the test so that we don't have to wait for them to be all over town and then we issue the order we can start acting on that a little more vigilantly from the beginning and then Sandra actually can

[0:20:28] answer the question about the tracking them well one of the reasons you asked in this declaration for the city to develop a contract with a hotel so that people who do have family members have the ability to isolate other than at home and that's pretty key because we know three of the first six was one family so 30% of the first we're all family members so we know it becomes an issue so we have to have the ability to put people in an isolation that's not the hospital but is in a room away from a family so that is part of what we're asking to have happen today Sandra do you want to add any for the comment to answer lanes question yes good afternoon Sandra me avow and director of health the city and as far as contact tracing yes the nurses and our PTP person will question the individual and ask them where they may have been where they may have traveled to if we can identify as pinpoint a location because oftentimes we cannot specifically we had one yesterday one of our positives we knew exactly where he had been so he contacted that facility and let know that someone obviously without identifying someone had tested positive for Kovan and to please encourage their attendees at this local place to monitor themselves and that was a small small location and we were able to do that however is very difficult if they say I've been all over the stores because we honestly cannot tell but we do try to contact as many of their contacts that they have identified because we will ask them those questions a lot of these are travelers for instance one person came from Georgia so we obviously knew we can't go back to Georgia but we knew this probably was the way that this was

[0:22:31] transmitted to locally here but again yeah we do have a questionnaire we do have a series of those but there's only so far back that we can really go and at that point it's very difficult to really identify and that's where we're getting this community spread if we cannot identify this is a true travel related case that this person came from here from a high from a high play at a location where they've got high numbers then we really there's really not a clear way to identify where this person may have contacted or even to let anybody know because unfortunately I mean that work none unfortunately but we're thinking everyone excuse me if we say we've been they've been at Walmart well yeah they've been at Walmart but also everyone at Walmart really should still be following all of these things all of these you know medication processes that we're asking people to do so we can identify and say Walmart but is it really going to change the outcome and everybody else is supposed to be doing these things but we are contact tracing and we do talk to people if they identify a particular person or a location that you know we will you know we will make those attempts at least to contact their contacts and Thank You Lane you have a question yes Eileen Carter ethyl b5 again we're limiting how many people can go into buildings to a hundred is that I know other towns have done it off of a square footage basis have we looked at that or are we kind of are we stuck at that hundred we have looked at it Lane let Teresa answer that we as part of the declaration yeah we have looked at it and we're we're doing the hundred people but we're being very

[0:24:34] flexible on enforcement of that what we really want them to do is control access to their facilities and and control people in line so we don't have an officer we don't have time for officers and no do we expect our police officers to go into facility and count how many people were in there what we do expect of these places is that they're controlling the people that they're making sure that they're keeping a safe environment for all of us that they're making they're trying to ensure that people you know we're staying six feet apart while they're in line and that the great news is everyone as of Monday was following that guidance and the key thing was one central location to enter instead of having multiple entrances into a facility so they better could control it so we have everyone participating at this point in time so that's a good thing yeah my main concern was going in from you know you have a 125,000 square foot facility like at Lowe's and Home Depot hundred people in there in relation to a smaller facility like like McCoy's City lumber that's that's the train I'm in so those are the buildings that go into the most and my next my last it's not a question but just a comment a lot of people have called me because we they think that we're being a little too extreme but here's here's a little into perspective how we are we're tong Green County of a hundred and eighteen thousand people we had a a caseload of nine so when you when you multiply that out on percentage of population it is the same percentage of affected as Barrett County of a hundred and fifty seven cases as of yesterday with one point eight nine million people so that can almost we can both go either way we can supersede them or they can supersede us but the affected population Tom Green County is relating to a a almost 2,000,000 count county as of

[0:26:37] now in you know anything that we can do to help limit this to where our citizens and our elderly in our infants can not contract this as these is the best that we can do yet the number one thing is our population isn't going to vary but the percentage can go up dramatically and what we're trying to do is to you know when you have a smaller population having three more people in one day has dramatic impact in terms of the percentage so we haven't really mind it might not seem like a large number as the percentage is it and that's a very good point point zero zero eight percent of the population yeah so Lucy you held your hand up here me yes go ahead Theresa I was gonna ask you a question about the parks due to the fact that Easter's coming up that's the main place that people go to can you bring to us again what they need to do if they choose to go to these parks playgrounds are closed any of the facilities at the parks are closed they can't use those and I think the key word in that is congregate we I mean the everything that the governor said is you need to stay with the people that you live with you don't need to be interacting across households and so you can't go there and have a picnic with your family you can use the park to walk you can use the park to bike you can use the park for a lot of big fish you can fish from the shore but we don't want you congregating in the same way that she did we contemplated just completely shutting the parks for Easter we don't want to do that but we do have the ability to do that under our code of ordinances that people do start congregating at Easter time in ways that's going to be detrimental to the health of our community thank you alright mayor can I can i clarify one thing from earlier yeah I want to go back to this notification issue on the patient's doctor brightest and I are doing orders isolation and quarantine orders for all those households where

[0:28:38] there's a positive test but the other thing that we are doing is when we have one of those we notify our dispatchers so that they can provide information to our police and fire fighters that they know there's a positive test in there we've also told them that you know you should assume that when you're going into somebody's house that there could be a positive there but we are trying to keep them a little bit safer by letting them know precisely where those people are located okay I've got two hands up one Tommy Hubert and then after that calm Thompson you'll be on so Tommy hey Bert you're on Tommy Hebert single-member districts want a couple of questions Theresa what about folks that might be in transition and moving literally from one location in town to another that have hired professional moving folks to help them move from one location to another yes moving services are listed under the essential services provided by the governor okay a little Miss this is a little further clarification did I just hear you say that bicycle riding within the park on the you know Spring Creek Park specifically I've gotten a question about can they go out and ride their bicycle Spring Creek Park sounds like you said yes yes I think we're not gonna limit that we're gonna allow bicycles on the roads there are some trails you're not supposed to ride a bike on anyway you still can't ride your bike there but on roads they can okay yeah people using it but they should be able to bicycle at Spring Creek marina and their stores should be allowed to be open and I've indicated that to them so those things are good to go okay thank you Thompson yeah I've got a question here for maybe dr. Ventris um as far as getting the results from this and let's say timely results are paramount and how we deal with this going forward can you explain the people the process from when they

[0:30:40] give a sample and take a test to will get results okay yeah when somebody goes to the drive-in gets their nasal pharyngeal swab basically the q-tip in the nose because put in a viral medium it gets sent off to a lab the lab right now we're getting test results back 7:8 we got one back that 11 days delay for that the FDA has just approved a couple new tests I know we put in for both those machines we're waiting for them it'll probably be before mid April before we actually have Michigan's and have the material start using them those will give us five minutes to ten minute turnarounds significant improvement but for time being we can't speed up everything to get sitting out of town okay so so the key part to that is what we're seeing today is probably eight to ten maybe twelve days behind correct okay the good news for the numbers right now is we have more negative tests than we have test at this point that we still need information on before we had more tests than we had negative results and so the numbers are kind of flipping so the good news is we've got a lot more negatives than we have pending tests I'm good thanks doc what other questions does someone have or comments anyone would like to make Billy you're on Billy I've been said earlier and I missed it but are we going to extend how do we have a date in mind where we're going to recommend extending our orders and the new declarations we're talking about today well that is part of what we're doing today because as of this Friday our old declaration we would have had to

[0:32:43] meet we're moving this up forward on the governor Abbott has extended the state to April 30th and that is gift the question mark is are we allowed to do two weeks at a time and then meet again and extend it or whether we want to today extend ours and quote in coordination with Governor Abbott's April 30th deadline Theresa you want to answer that yeah my recommendation is we stay in line with his recommend what his deadline is I mean he essentially did the same thing that we're doing so there's not a lot of benefit for us we go to achieve week other than we get to all get to come together on this you know fine contraption again in two weeks the other thing is that if the situation drastically changes in two weeks it's a very easy process to rescind all of these orders you don't have to have a big meeting to do it it's not in effect until it dies we do have the ability to resend it so staying in line with the governor's timeline is what I'm recommending I think the key thing is we have the ability to move that deadline backwards let's say this is just an example not what I'm requesting or asking is we could say April 15 we've not had but one more positive test so we could say we're on the other side of it and we would have the opportunity to change that date from April 30th is that correct Teresa that's correct on our declaration of course the governor's will still be in place so it's not going to change on the surface a whole lot of what happens okay Perry you've had a question or comment yes I have a question on since it's taking 7 to 10 days to get these results back are we eating giving any instructions to these patients that are getting these tests done at the time that they are taking them so that if one comes back positive we were able to track that whole that whole situation yes ma'am yes we are

[0:34:50] actually given instructions to everybody when they get tested we inform them that after the time they get tested they are under quarantine and they're in the quarantine for 14 days or until released they're giving those instructions right off the bat so I think we're doing better now than we were before at first we just we totally are quarantine but I don't think they were handed anything so now they've got something in writing and then we've also issued an order saying that if you get tested you're under quarantine so it's not a momentary quarantine anymore doc did a fine job okay here did you have a further comment and then I'll get with you Billy please I just wanted to follow up there I think that's what the concern from citizens are right now is you know we're getting a number of people that are getting tested but they don't have the results back for seven to ten days and they're afraid that these people are going out and basically interacting with with other individuals of course by the middle of a month when we get these two machines in and we get these results back in ten or fifteen minutes I think all citizens will be more at ease about this process all right Billy yes my question is are we testing anyone that wants to get a test are we only testing people after we have strained them and they're showing some symptoms of having COBIT 19 Teresa our doctor which would like to answer that doc would you yes they're only being tested after they've been screened so they have to have coughed fever have to have some symptoms along with it you can't just come up and say I want to test and we don't have the resources to do that we're waiting for it behind on people that have symptoms I don't see why we put in a systematic people because it's not going to change anything all right and ask another question it's along the lines of you

[0:36:57] know the payment for these are people being charged for the tests and their insurance applied for or how is that working Shane my mouth basically has said that if you come through there taking the information down they're not using your credit card at that point because they don't want to use the fingers and the transmission from a credit card acceptor so all that information is being written down if you have insurance now there was a statement of course that it was costing eighty dollars whatever and President Trump had said well they're supposed to be free at the point in time when he declared they were supposed to be free bill had not been signed yet so up until the signature of that bill people who are paying for the tests now with that bill being paid people if they don't have insurance can apply to have that bill covered by the stimulus bill as I believe is correct dr. Redis would you further comment on that I think you're correct on that you know everything up to now has been run by private labs and private labs like any other private business like to get paid for what they do insurance is great I know it Shannon and community nobody is refusing to test anybody based on financial ability you know it's if you meet the criteria you get tested thank you another question that I've been asked a few times is the status of churches I think I know a lot of them have gone to the web-based for those that are not web-based what is the limit that they can have are we still sticking to it's in-person rule or are we going moisture it has been a frequently asked question I think of everybody and there's a certain amount of issue of course with the freedom of religion Act

[0:39:00] and so we're trying to work around what that dictates or says I'm still trying to protect the safety and health of our citizens so Teresa will add further comment to that yeah what the governor's order actually said and churches are listed as an essential business on his order so cities are not able to regulate them beyond what this says but it says if religious services cannot be conducted from home or through remote service then they should be conducted consistent with guidelines from the President and CDC by practicing good hygiene environmental friendliness Sanitation implementing social distancing so in order for churches to get the answer as to what's required they need to go to the CDC website and they do have a specific section that's just for religious institutions and that'll tell them all of those kinds of things I have lots of conversations with pastors of churches and churches are doing some like incredible like creative things out there and stay connected with people in their church as well as other folks and I think with a little bit of creativity that's possible one thing that I know my church did last week and the governor talked about in his press conference is you know doing Drive in Church where Church was broadcast over the radio we all set in our cards and laid the windshield that was a acceptable way that you know dr. Berettas believed we could have Church as well as the governor so lots of creative solutions out there besides meeting I don't know if Sandra wants to talk about this at all in the wrist but I would let her do that system of the drive-in movie where you'd roll down your window and put the speaker in your your window you know and roll it back up because we could get a lot more done that would work in a different time in era right now so any further question then Lucy you had a question I was just gonna ask the doctor you know out of benign positive cases that we've had how many of those nine cases have been hospitalized and are y'all using a different part of the hospital for those people okay three of those nine have been hospitalized we have several other

[0:41:06] patients at both hospitals that we believe have Cova but we don't have positive tests back on them I think probably 17 from what I heard this morning total hospitalized people who we think have Co good that we don't have test results back on they've got all the symptoms for them yes we do actually have I'm speaking for Shannon because I don't really know what community is we do have a separate coated wing where we put all this Tobit suspected patients they heard that we have another respiratory ring for people that have just asthma they don't have the co bid we've tried to cohort the patients with cohorting the doc so only a special coded team goes in and takes care of those people so we're just trying to limit the number of Doc's again thank you what other questions do we have for our experts on the phone or for city manager any further questions about what we're being asked to decide today Tommy dr. Prentiss can you talk to us a little bit I know we hear some and will likely begin to hear more as time moves on can you talk to us a little bit about I don't know what the correct term is but I'd call it the surge the reoccurrence once week it appears we're beginning to get through this can you talk a little bit about what we need to be concerned about or pay attention to once it looks like it may start to get a little better okay well first I'll go over the surge numbers for them the numbers were kind of I'm gonna use Shannon's kind of area because that's if we look at the whole country ovale the area that we serve is about two hundred sixteen thousand people out of those eighty percent or considered adults if we look at a conservative estimate were said 20% of those 173,000 adults 20% of them come down with Kovac that's thirty

[0:43:08] four thousand who get coded in our area from 24 counties around here 20% of them need to be hospitalized which would be six thousand nine hundred being hospitalized five percent of those are critical so that'd be 346 that hadn't end up being admitted to intensive care units that's was a real mild 20% and incidents of infection when you go to moderate 40% then we end up having a 692 critical patients if it's a severe infection at the 60% penetration which they're seen in several places then we're talking about a thousand thirty-eight critically ill patients a total number of almost quarter of a million hospital days yeah if we spread this out could we talk about trying to flatten the curve if we spread it out and this all happened over a six months period then our average daily census for a 20% infection is 461 we could handle that if it's a 40% infection rate this payback yeah it's 923 but if it's severe infection we need thirteen hundred and eighty four beds to handle those people about the 500 that we have so we're going to be out 800 beds we won't have if we read that out over 18 months then the 20 percent number comes out to be 150 for average daily census and a 60% number is 461 and under that we could barely handle but we could handle if this surge all comes at once if we don't do the social distancing they're just going to be a lot of people what other questions I'm just going to follow up blame him but referenced udderly doctor earlier dr. Brett assist them gave us the the statistical information people some people may think what we're doing here today is uncalled for but what we are trying to do is is not

[0:45:11] overwhelm our medical system and to prevent as much spread as we can dr. Redfield the head of the CDC came out in and said something to the same effect within the last 24 to 48 hours and and I quote what he said he said one of the pieces of information that we pretty much confirmed is that a significant number of individuals that are infected actually remain asymptomatic that may be as many as 25% that's important because you now you have individuals that may not have any symptoms that can contribute to transmission and we have learned that in fact they do contribute to transmission so if everybody would just stay at home and not be around people we can live we can get through this it may be may be the longer than we like but we need to pay attention to these professionals dr. Paredes the CDC folks dr. Burks dr. Fauci they are saying let's stay apart so we need them we need to heed what those people are telling us if we don't this thing will last much longer so the key thing is the more aggressive we are today the shorter the time frame will be in terms of impact on this community and we stayed over and over again but this is about social responsibility and using common sense it is not about pointing a finger and blaming anybody at this point time it's about doing the right thing it's about taking personal responsibility and understanding the impact on this community there are people who are greatly being hurt financially and we've got to make sure that we don't carry this burden too far down the road it's it's a crisis right now the faster the quicker the more we pay attention to it the better we'll be and that's one of the reasons for our meeting today is to get more aggressive to be more specific to follow governor Abbott's direction

[0:47:13] and he's falling president Trump's direction so we are only doing what we've been asked to do but it won't matter if people aren't paying attention and not honoring what these guidelines are so it's individual responsibility Lucy you had raised your hand I believe yes ma'am I was just gonna ask you could someone just texted me and they wanted to know Teresa what about the sales side dealerships not the you know our big dealerships ships but what about if you have you know a small business can they still operate well I think it depends what they are selling I mean the governor set out specifically what he considers that critical need are those essential services anybody else outside of that can still stay open but they can't allow customers in their store they can have delivery options they can do online options they can might try to be creative and how to do that I saw this morning somebody posted that the Chamber of Commerce has a website or a site available now to show people how to purchase their services online now but only the ones that are listed as the essential services are the ones that are allowed to remain open and have customers in and out unless they are able to like practice remotely remotely thank you you're welcome okay with that let's proceed with this declaration of disaster did the health emergency I would need a vote I mean I would need a motion to approve what has been presented today and then a second so do I have a motion for approval some is my Tommy Hebert single-member district one Thank You Tommy do I have a second now second land Carter's district - harder yes before we take a vote we do have some public

[0:49:17] comment that was sent to us by email do I have those do we have any questions from any of you regarding questions to staff but we've already done that if you have any comments or questions about the public comments received in your packet and it says what about families that live in hotels and job temporary clothes due to corona member family has heart problems made I think it's virus two days late as of today has been current manager not concerned the Traci want to ask answer that so what was I'm not clear what the question is what kind of help is available to them is that the question now a family who lives in a hotel yeah hotels are considered residences under our our particular declaration under any of them any place that you are residing is considered your residence for the purposes of this so they are allowed to stay in the hotel I mean people are having some housing issues we do still have Neighborhood Services that's trying to assist some of those folks as possible all right so one question was concerning from family Powersports concerning the boat docks we've addressed that issue today already we've talked about from someone else what stay at home means we discuss what that is and what it is not we have asked there's the question about golf courses we've addressed that today as well and given correction concerning that another question concerning boat ramps we've addressed that as well today but see this one says although my employee is not considered an essential business and neither is my husband's place of work they are not going to close until we have a local shelter in place order well this is that I mean to them as much the

[0:51:21] extent if that's going to happen I think that that's where we are today but we do not have a shelter in place we need to remind everybody what you think a shelter in place is not what we're doing and it's not by the legal definition what we are doing but we are asking people to stay at home and not congregate that is correct it's we are asking them to please stay away from other people to reduce the transmission and spread this yes but if office buildings have the ability to have you in your own separate office was six feet just insane social distancing they can continue to operate so one does not we are not closing any business per se as long as they live with the CDC guidelines and social distancing is a key part of that let's see there's a question about buying it says I dub nothing I'd love nothing more than for this city council to lift the public health emergency until testing becomes more readily available and reliable this is an overreaction that will have lasting consequences after world still needs to keep spinning the other half and decide to stop if they want it should be a choice I am a taxpayer doesn't seem like a super important job but I still have clients buying houses now I have clients who need their taxes done to get the stimulus payments I appliance who are still getting letters from the IRS none of these things can just stop because of a virus a virus that is shown to be a little consequent to the vast majority of people who come into contact with it I'm frustrated with my rights being infringed upon without proof of just cause there's nothing behind your decision except fear I'm not a and those who are can go hide while the rest of us live our lives please lift this band and let us get back to living so dr. Bredesen Teresa would you address that comment I'll address it at first at least when you look at the 64,000 cases

[0:53:30] they have in New York State remember that as of this morning 64,000 I believe it was their very first case so even though we've got very few numbers here we're right at the very start of that upswing so you know things could get bad here in a hurry and from when you start doing movement restrictions shelter in place whatever there's a 10 to 14 day lag before you start hitting the top of any curve of any new cases it's going to have you know to to blow this off is putting many lives at risk and you know I understand businesses need to operate and it breaks my heart seeing these places closed but it breaks my heart more when I have to tell somebody that their loved one died because we put money over lunch well let me just say but as a tax preparer you may continue to do your work no one is shutting down the CPA office you may continue to do your work people can still buy houses it is not shutting down the housing the real estate market has nothing to do with that and in order to get the stimulus payments yes you have to work with a CPA you're going to have to work with your banker those those people are going to help you prepare the documents that are going to be required to get these stimulus payments so those surfaces are not shut down they just need to continue to follow the CDC guidelines that's what's important Teresa yes ma'am um the governor even if we didn't do this today the governor's order is still going to regulate how we do it our declaration today just clarifies what he did and what he is saying in particular all services should be provided through remote telework from home unless they're essential service and cannot be provided through remote telework so essential services if you don't you telework you're allowed to remain open everybody else to the extent they can't needs to be working from home they need to be going online they need to be having like delivery services and not

[0:55:33] having people come in and out of their stores and I think that there is more and more help for people out there but again what you guys are doing is clarifying for our community your expectations under the governor's declaration we have no ability to remove the declaration because I put in place we can't and remember we are also under Governor Abbott's direction so he's been very clear about what he expects each of us to do we can be more restrictive but we cannot be less restrictive but construction can continue there have been many people to question construction construction may continue but they must follow the CDC guidelines CPAs can continue to work banks can continue to be open to process the need for money for stimulus reports etc and to and to make sure that they have the right documents to qualify for these payments so we're not holding up anyone's we've been able to do those following things okay so Tommy you've had a question further clarification I would ask golf courses are okay we had specifically also managed mentioned in the dr. bredis order or a couple of days ago about tennis is tennis okay under this order or no this is still tennis is is close tennis courts are closed both under dr. Bredesen order and under this order okay thank you but if two people wanted to play tennis and they were the same family you paid a game with are you were playing with your wife or your son and it's just the two of you on the tennis court can that be allowed you know can it be allowed is really kind of an enforcement issue what we're really trying to manage here and doc can probably speak to this better than I can it's people congregating together who are not already together so if some we get a call that it's a husband and a wife playing tennis we don't have the

[0:57:36] police force and we don't have a desire for a police to go out and manage that if we have a number of people doing that or there's a lot of people those are the kinds of things that get our attention now are we asking people not to play tennis with people here unrelated yes absolutely we are our standard is you do not do those activities with somebody he was not part of your household in order to contain the spread of this virus that's the key thing staying within the household family playing tennis or pickleball it's when we start playing for people with people who are outside the household that becomes problematic claim yes the status of the existing nine can we provide an update to the citizens within the bounds of hip of how their recovery rate is going that way we know exactly how how we are progressing are we looking like it's more infectious or is it is it getting to where they are towards where we're not have nine cases but we have eight with one recovery seven with two recovery and the bounce-back is that a possibility correct I know we have to have two positive or two negative cases after the following the following a positive to make sure that they are truly recovered and the doctor Baretta's does it still take 48 hours within the two tests to prove that they are truly recovered or have they come out with a test that is quicker than that's proven I don't think that there if there is a test that can guarantee that you're negative you know the positive test you've got predictive value it means that indeed you're positive but you know we've seen so many false negatives around the world around the country and when Texas said that's the reason that we don't take a single negative right I know they had a lot of problems in Wuhan China where I read an

[0:59:42] article they were saying that the initial test that they were using that people were showing up positive but then they were considered recovered but then they tested positive again wondering if that initial test was accurate or not were they actually positive at that time yeah and it's hard to say that you know because yeah yeah we are seeing people that will test negative negative then they turn positive with it no new exposure and then we've also seen people that initially were positive they turn negative and then after a while they turn positive again so they're seeing like it's relapses in China now and when they actually instead of doing nasal swabs they do fecal swabs you're finding out that a lot of these people we thought were recovered are actually still shedding virus for a longer period than we thought okay okay so you had another question we were just talking about families just a little bit ago and I was just wanting to make a statement and ask people that if at all possible if you do not have to take your children with you to the grocery store or other places that you're doing in your central please do not take them leave them at home with the other parent this has been a big issue because we are limiting the number of people into these stores and so if mom dad and the three kids show up or eliminating other people from being allowed in so there's no reason to bring the whole family if you've got one of the parents who can stay home with the kids a single member from the family should be doing these parents not the entire family so that is a great courtesy to give to all the rest of the people who need to get their groceries or supplies okay and the last comment that we have is from a construction company and certainly we realize the importance of the construction industry right now so just continue to follow the CDC guidelines those are that completes

[1:01:46] the number of email requests for comments that we have received so again I had a motion and a second for this declaration Daniel would you add comment just very briefly I know that we covered a lot of territory Theresa job as far as deciphering and looking at the executive orders by the governor so there's a lot of information out there but I can tell you right now that Brian growth of our public information officers done a wonderful job of putting together a graphic that really explains what you can and can't do and if you go to our website at Costa TX on us and hit the we have a tab there for the coronavirus get that and you'll find that graphic there and it really will simplify the do's and don'ts so we definitely encourage you to do that I know you definitely can call up here and ask questions but I think you could go there a lot of your questions really will be answering thank you we'll take a vote I'm going to go I'm going to ask each and every one of you so we publicly have that but instead of raising the hatch on this issue so with that I want to go to SMD one Tommy your vet on SMD to your vote Tom Thompson do we undo these so we can hear hold on one second we're trying to unmute everybody okay okay I'm Tom Thompson single-member district 2 I vote aye snd 3 Harry Harry Thomas SMD 3 I vote aye snd for Lucy SMD for Lisa Gonzales at vote aye SMD five-lane Carter SMD 5 I vote aye SMD 6 Billy do it bill Billy do it SMD 6 I thought I Brenda got you the mayor votes aye with that we have passed with a 7 to 0 vote the new continued declaration of

[1:03:52] disaster due to public health emergency for the city of San Angelo Texas I want to thank you for your time I want to thank each of you for what you're doing to help get the message out there and fill in all the emails and the telephone calls and the text messages it's a full-time job right now just making sure all the citizens understand the direction and the need for their compliance and to answer the questions on a timely basis so they don't feel like they're lacking information to move on with their lives thank you thank you everybody thank you I move we adjourn mayor thank you and I suppose and all say I together aye aye motion passes for adjournment 7 to 0 thank you very much

Captured 2026-07-26 · source: youtube.com/watch?v=3Yiu8Gw9JyY