City Council Emergency Meeting & COVID-19 Press Conference 3-19-20

[0:00:00] we will call this meeting to order the emergency provision notice in accordance with Texas Government Code section 55 1.00 4-5 this is an emergency meeting the City Council declaring an emergency urgent public necessity for the purpose of considering the fine emergency agenda items I would like to start off today by making a few comments if I may we are meeting today to ask for our city council to make some tough decisions as it relates to the health and safety of our community I am asking for their support and the community's support without everyone taking personal responsibility and using a sense of integrity we will forever change the face of our community I am asking for your comments but also your support in making this disaster decoration so that we can be prepared and so that there is no need for panic Texans and San Angeles have always come together and have always United this pandemic will not change our character or who we are as a community today we are asking that collectively as a community that we come together and we as leaders of our community met today at 10:00 a.m. to discuss how we the city and the city partners will work together to ensure citizens safety and health we are asking that virtually we are going to put our hands our arms together and circle this community to show conch-shell valley are united support this next few weeks will test our strength but how we react will impact our ability to react and to protect the health and safety of our citizens I am asking all citizens to join this fight together because together we can make a difference

[0:02:04] together we can protect the health and safety of our citizens this is not a time that we should be pointing fingers this is not a time that we should be blaming anyone this is a time that leaders of every organization should be uniting and developing a plan we realize this situation will in fact impact financially many people and many organizations as well as the city and the county we are asking for acts of kindness personal responsibility social responsibility integrity and most of all honesty and with that I would like to say that the governor of the state of Texas issued a declaration today at 12:00 p.m. and I would like to offer his comments and a recap and they are as following order number one in accordance with the guidelines from the president and the CDC every person in Texas shall avoid social gatherings in groups of more than 10 people - in accordance with the guidelines from the president and the CDC people shall avoid eating or drinking at bars restaurants and food courts or visiting gyms or massage parlors provided however that the use of drive-thru pickup or delivery options is allowed and highly encouraged throughout the limited duration of this executive order number three in accordance with the guidelines from the President and the CDC people shall not visit nursing homes or retirement or long-term care facilities unless to provide critical assistance and number four in accordance with the guidelines from the president and the CDC school shall temporary closed that does not mean we will not find a way to continue to educate our

[0:04:07] children with that he also said that these things will go into effect March the 20th at 11:59 p.m. and so as we talk about what we the city want to do I would ask that we also join in his timeline so it gives people time to prepare so with that we would hope that we would also go by Friday night to 11:59 p.m. as we decide what declaration we are going to do today with that are there any other public comments and public comments should be as follows state your name and address or SMD or your area of responsibility each citizen can speak just once per item unless asked to comment by council public comments should be three minutes and less extended by council and proponent or a pound at five minutes and less extended by council council has no obligation to respond to comments or questions from the public in a response from a member of the City Council to non-agenda comments is limited to one a statement of specific factual information to recite a tri-state reciting of existing policy and three directing staff to places subject on a future agenda with that is there any public comment at this point Steve Floyd Judge Steve Floyd would you please come forward Tom Green County in my capacity as the county judge will be executing an order after the conclusion of this meeting we're totally in support of the efforts of the mayor and also of the governor of the state of Texas we've been united on this from the start this is a worldwide pandemic that makes it sound like something that's not personable this thing is very very real to every individual citizen that we have and it has an individual responsibility

[0:06:10] so welcome joining you and United in also with state of Texas let's get this thing taken care of over the next few weeks and get on the battery road I was only awaiting the effective date happy that you're aligning considering aligning with the governor's Proclamation others think that provides a much simpler unified message my declaration looks different than the city's because some of authorities that the city has under this Health and Safety Code but it's basically measures in the chapter for a teen person and so how hardly supported thank you very much judge further public comment with none we will move into the emergency agenda which is to consider declaring an extension of the declaration of a local disaster Theresa will you be presenting this I certainly can mayor what this what this declaration does is it essentially takes what we did on Monday and extends that in accordance with the guidance by the governor but also amends the requirements in the following ways this does prohibit as you said any community gatherings which is 10 people are more at the same time in a single room or single confined space that includes outdoor community gatherings so that is a outdoor gathering enclosed by a fence physical barrier or other structure and where people are present and within arm's length they do not prohibit more than 10 people being in any business with the exception of restaurants or bars restaurants and bars do not are not to have indoor seating but they can still have takeout or carry out services there are some exceptions that includes critical infrastructure which is airports and transit government buildings providing essential services schools or institutions of higher learning grocery stores Building Supply stores and pharmacies hospitals medical offices and facilities and businesses

[0:08:12] that sell items necessary for home or auto repair what we want to make sure and I'm going to ask counsel if you have a comment or want to speak please raise your hand so that we have a sense of order here and make sure that this meeting is held as professionally as we possibly can so yes like to also add that under the health powers that the judge missioned and we are restricting all visitors from health facilities and that includes long-term care facilities and nursing homes in order to protect those vulnerable populations as well as requiring anybody who enters into that facility to have their temperature taken and anyone who has 100.4 or higher to be excluded from those facilities ok I'm going to start with Tommy Hebert do you have questions for Teresa if you would start please well I'll get some other questions I don't these not necessarily for Theresa I don't think I'm curious mayor how many tests that have been administered in Tom Green County for the for the potential of someone I'm having the virus I will say that we have been we have had five negative results from tests have been taken as of about this morning I think there were 47 tests that have our people that have been suspected that they might have under would you like to come forward and give the most up-to-date information that you have Sandra we have Alan the health services director as of about 9:00 this morning we had like 55 or 60 tests and find receipt Sandra I'm sorry I didn't hear what you say how many so we have had about 55 tests as of this morning they keep coming in so as of 8 or 9 it will continue to chan exactly and there was 10 results only so we have like 45 pending results that we have we don't know if the results were negative yes witness how long does it take Harry

[0:10:14] would you like to ask a question how long does it take to get back get these results back from these extended labs that we've got we've gotten out the commercial labs are actually taking a little bit longer obviously you have shipping processing but they're taking on average 7 days we had a conversation with Drew Darby this morning about that he is looking into it so we have there are people looking into that but obviously there's an overload right now and perhaps not the ability to staff up as needed because this has happened virtually overnight or over two weeks but drew Darby is aware of it and the Department of Health Services is also aware of it there are many people who are aware of the situation we don't have at this point a number that will change that but that is one of the issues right now yes this headlamp will we have gotten results quicker from the state lab but we've actually taken the sample like overnighted it and they've actually had been able to put it on that day's run but that's only been four that we have sent that way the others are going commercially so Luci do they have to go to a medical provider the medical provider is the only one that can actually order a test so they have to be assessed by the provider as well have they had any kind of travel history have they been close to someone have they been in an area where there has been widespread cruise ships they are level three so anybody when cruise ship is more susceptible so but the medical provider has to make that assessment and they're the ones that are going to order that test and whether some some people may not be sick enough to actually require tests they made to speak going home and just to monitor themselves and if they get any worse then they can call back the medical provider but they will

[0:12:17] also probably be assessed for influenza I mean we're still in flu season and maybe strapped and some of the other respiratory ailments and Billy you had a question or comment and then Lane I'll get to you yes Billy I had a question for clarification I'm Sandra when you said it's taken about seven days the ten people that you cited whose tests have come back negative they were tested seven or more days ago or we're done at the state lab so we were being able to do them collect him on one day and they were tested the next day but how long ago was that that was the first one was last Sunday and then past Sunday we sent three more so they were able to get on that Monday run from the state but the state can only also the state meaning lubbock lubbock is our laboratory response network and so that's the one that's going to do state testing for us locally and so yeah if we send them that way that's how long it's going to take but the state can only do between 10 and 25 per day so it depends on do we get in or not is no charge for the test the state there's no charge for the state I'm not exactly sure about commercial labs I'm not sure those are I can't speak for that maybe Shane or someone but they might be able to be built to and through an insurance possibly but I'm not exactly sure if everyone's going to be provided a free a free one or not depending on I think what the president has said Thank You Lane that was my question okay that was maybe associated that that would maybe be a preventive item for someone wanting to go in and get tested who might think they have it if they see a charge and say I can't afford it can i right now it's the reminding of you coming into the audience you must be six feet apart from the next person you may not sit next to them okay Lane Thank You Tommy this is a general question where we're following the CDC said you know 15 days

[0:14:20] yet we're we're just on the beginning stage of our testing and results and so forth it's not a question to if it's a question of when we have a positive case here my question is again in the bigger picture why are we just doing two weeks is it simply because that's what the CDC says we're going to be we're going to be back here again in two weeks having this same conversation so why are we just talking two weeks and and I'm looking at the audience I see some professionals in the audience I'm wondering again why why we're only doing this for two weeks you know for two weeks I think so people can plan efficiently for two weeks and we hope that within that time period if everyone follows the guidelines that are given that we will find that the numbers start going down because what we found or what has been found in other countries such as China once they shut everything down the cases started going down it does not mean and of course we will respond to extending it if necessary and the schools are prepared and everyone else is to at that if it continues to look like we need to call another meeting in seven days instead of waiting for two weeks we can adjust as we need to it's really just a matter of trying to to lower that curve right now it's just going so high so quickly that we're about to collapse the health care system and that's what we're really trying to protect I mean we'll right shortages of personal protective equipment we've got to lower that number and that quick rise so if we can do these mitigation things right now and try try those and because they are effective try to lower that number so maybe that the health care system can actually take that pressure because right now it's just starting to and we don't want it to fully collapse you can continue sender you want to tell people about taking their temperature on a regular basis before they overwhelm the emergency room or office yeah sure there's things we can do every single day you know monitor ourselves take temperatures if you wanted twice a day

[0:16:22] you want to make sure that it doesn't go over 100 and of course your dry cough you know those symptoms that you know we've been talking about the coughing and the shortness of breath and and yeah your fever and so those are the three main signs and symptoms that would they're looking for there could be others but those are like the main ones so yeah anybody can do that at home and if you start feeling sick stay home still stay home if you start getting worse and you just feel like you just cannot handle it and you've gotten so bad or getting worse better then better then go ahead and call call ahead to your medical provider and tell them what's going on and they you know call you in or make arrangements for you to to come in in some form or fashion okay further questions for Sandra we want to make sure that people are clear about what this emergency declaration does and to make sure people don't also necessarily ovary so Teresa on things like a regular office of several people as long as they're practicing social distancing and using the correct washing your hands frequently hand sanitizers cleaning the surfaces frequently people may still conduct business we are not shutting down business and that needs to be very clear about what we're doing going forward businesses that can function with exception of restaurants and bars for 10 and under people still shall continue is that correct more than ten people in the same room at the same time okay yes Harry for clarification because I do have a couple of people that have asked does that mean your childcare facilities are going to continue to operate as long as they have ten or less in a particular room yes the direction we've been giving them as long as they keep to the numbers we need within each specific room they are allowed to continue to operate I do

[0:18:24] know that childcare facilities right now are on heightened alert and have extra procedures that they're following I don't think they're allowing anybody in except the kids and you have to have your temperature taken before you go in so they already have some pretty strict things but we are further reducing that to ten people in the room okay Tommy Merritt I want to I want to read into the record to me one of the one of the wisest people we have right now that is a part of this process is dr. Anthony Fauci the National Institute of Health person and he said over the weekend I will say it over and over again when you're dealing with an emerging infectious diseases outbreak you are always behind where you think you are if you think that today reflects where you really are so we ought to all take notice of that statement if we think it's where we are today doctor found she says no that's not where you are today so I I am hopeful we will be ever vigilant on this to make sure that we're doing all we can we're talking about protecting people's lives so I hope we take this that seriously that this is not something to be trifled with with that said we also want to make sure that we are understanding the humanity and people's lives because there will be extra stress on people's lives businesses who were struggling or honest small amount of cash flow are going to hurt and we need to know that our community that the Texas community the County community the nation is made up of a lot of small businesses and this will be a crippling effect and and we all know that and we understand that so we need to make sure we have patience with people and understanding of people's situations a lot of families are going to be stressed for all kinds

[0:20:28] of reasons and we want to make sure that they understand the resources that are out there the small business loans that they can apply for there are a series of things and you may contact Dave Erickson at the Business Resource Center he will be glad to guide and help people with understanding what what's out there what's been approved where they can go for some of those resources Michael Looney and the Chamber six five five four okay I usually can quote this off the top but you know I'm struggling today so it's six five five four one three six that's it Michael Looney will be tickled to death to help advise and consult thanks for being here I know he's received many phone calls already people are laying off people people there you know because at the same point in time that we have this virus we also know that Saudi Arabia being jealous of what we've been able to do over the past few years in our oil and gas industry has made a decision to flood the market with oil and gas and so that has had a huge negative impact on the Goyal and gas industry so you add that to the issues that were struggling with and the virus and it will have a large impact on this community there are cities that created curfews we are not in our emergency declaration saying anything about a curfew that being said everyone needs to be aware if there's situations and issues out there that are problematic you must call chief Carter and he will address it but we are not in putting a curfew out there if anyone feels threatened city council member city staff members or community members if you feel threatened by anyone concerning these the decisions that are being made today and by Governor Abbott please contact chief Carter we want to know and we want to know that everyone feels safe in this community and that you have someone there to help protect you this is about again a community coming together and pulling all of our resources together so that we stay strong and most importantly

[0:22:33] stay healthy yes Billy I have gotten several calls people inquiring if based on the declaration that we you know agree on here today if there is a violation and they notice a violation do we have a hotline who would they call a chief Carter if you want to come in and answer that question I know that there's some concerns of several businesses particularly last night we're definitely beyond the 50 person and many council members have received phone calls considering those businesses so how do they handle that good afternoon chief quarter just called the non-emergency line and we would hope that people use social media to also stop some of this because we know that people using social media in many ways to make fun of point fingers at make a joke and make announcements about their business using social media that does that does not support what we're trying to accomplish so if you're on social media make sure your reply to them is you need to shut that down we can be responsible for shutting some of that done if we walk down if we will act appropriately Thank You chief yes ma'am yes please continue but I didn't know if Tommy was done he said he had several questions so I didn't know I'll come back to go ahead alright and my questions are for Theresa Theresa when you were reading the information you have there you specifically mentioned churches and airports could you say specifically so that all the citizens that are listening to this say specifically what will what should occur with churches and what should occur with the airport churches are

[0:24:37] considered in the general category of community gathering so leaning to limit the number of people in a space to ten so if you have a church facility that has multiple spaces in it like my church has multiple little rooms you can put ten persons in each room and that's okay under the provisions but if there are more than ten people in one space that's a violation that includes outdoor services if there is there's something that contains them so if it's inside of a wall or a gate airports are considered that critical infrastructure in that definition comes from Department of Homeland Security and as such the president in his request to us indicated that those places be left to operate however we are still asking them to make sure that there's some social distancing measures we are requiring for anybody you know that if you're a business that doesn't have 50 people at one time but people come and go over time there is a requirement that you do use hand sanitizer or have soap and water available for people that you have some sort of rules regarding social distancing in all of those areas and that you increase the cleaning of surfaces where you know people tend to touch do you have another question Billy or that that's right Tommy yeah I would like to clarify one thing even though this doesn't go into effect until tomorrow at 11:59 or whenever the declaration from the governor goes into effect we do still have the declaration we made on Monday in effect so it's not go out and have a big party tonight because tomorrow you can't you were still limited to 50 people as of Monday all of those provisions that were we are including today for health facilities health care facilities those all went into effect on Monday so the restriction of visitors from people's from those facilities as well as taking temperatures of everybody including staff who enters those facilities those are the directions of our local health authority because we've been talking about skills Brian dr. may would you like to come forward and just talk about ASU and so all the media that's here will already know the stance you've

[0:26:38] taken and what you've done I'll just kind of give you a brief update we obviously started about two weeks ago announced that we would go completely online till the end of this semester we have postponed graduation we will confer the degrees and mail out diplomas in May will allow the students to walk in in August we have gone to only a very minor group of folks that work at ASU we're down to about we have 90 percent now off campus of our employees and so we have a number of them working at home but some of them are for pandemic reasons are just going to stay at home and then we have encouraged the students not to come back to Angelo State but if they did and they so choose to come back we are housing them on campus and we do provide food service to them and library uses as well as Wi-Fi to complete their studies on online but all of our courses have been converted to online delivery okay thank you Carla would you also like to come forward and discuss your position sure yes and first I want to thank the city and the mayor for hosting our very informative meeting this morning with city officials and elected leaders I think that's what keeps San Angelo strong so thank you for that opportunity starting March 3rd in preparation for this event in situation our curriculum instruction office and leadership team has developed a home based learning platform so we are more than prepared to go through the end of May and the end of school year that platform was released today to principals teachers and it will start on my day so we are completely ready to go to a home-based virtual learning platform just today I learned it of course we sent a survey to all families 15,000 of families and SAISD regarding of what type of internet access or tablets or devices do they

[0:28:42] have that their home based on that survey Monday we are having and I'm understand that it may be even operational tomorrow we will start a drive-thru pickup of devices for our students so we'll start that with secondary first where we are redistributing many Chromebooks smart tablets and in our inventory and we will have a drive-thru pickup for delivery to all of our secondary students right now currently our elementary is still on a platform of a really a text paper and also many of the online platforms that they currently use one nice thing in partnership with one of our educational resources that we currently use we are providing text and backpacks separate individual literacy text and books for kids in backpacks so we will be doing that for the elementary level also as you know we've mobilized our feeding sites we have five current sites and have fed over 700 students in the last three days we may expand that initiative as well following this meeting our plan is to move to a virtual based learning environment through April 10th so through Friday April 10th SAISD plans to move to that virtual based learning environment and again we were fully prepared and actually released that information today to staff and teachers also we have committed knowing that three week lead we are committed to a week in advance to give our many families who we have certainly understand and thinking about and praying for the hardships that they will endure during this with childcare and other you know serious situations so knowing that we want to be able to mobile as if our city our county and our governor and president provides us that opportunity to do that so right now that

[0:30:46] the closure and the move to virtual based learning at home will go through April 10th Thank You Shane by mail would you like to come forward and offer some words please give you an update of how much Shannon's doing primarily we initially focused is basically on safety safety of our our visitors or pay our patients our visitors our staff our doctors we quickly moved to using our telemedicine platform to do we call with Coppa 19 screenings we didn't want find the the dollar amount to be an impact to those screenings so we offered a free coupon code that's gone we're pretty well I will say that telemedicine structure throughout the United States kind of is really gone is getting stressed now so there's some long wait times but we do offer through shanna on demand basically the opportunity for any body within the concho Valley within that this basically the 24 25 counties that we serve to go online through she on-demand and get a free Kovan 19 screening we really have been focused on making sure our staff are at work so we we've worked with the Y in terms of providing day care or our caregivers that's gone really well and I really appreciate the the YMCA we have a secondary plan if if for another daycare site with the one of the local churches so everybody has been a great partner on that we've been really focused on communication communication with our basically our leaders our staff our doctors and we're doing that day

[0:32:48] we were doing it through multiple forms we're doing it to an audio an audio call audio message we're doing it through short videos we are using email in those type of platforms that's gone really well just today we're offering basically eight to five I'm I get the time a little wrong but pretty much eight to five a Shannon number for people who have questions about Cova nineteen about the screening and testing for them to call we have a clinician on the other side to help them with any of their questions we started that today we also started to set up a it's real important when it comes to this particular virus that we really wanted to do the screenings and testing away from the hospital and the clinics to protect our patients and staff and visitors so today we just set up a testing facility kind of downtown and we're doing dis testing there right now today and tomorrow and we're planning on Monday to offer screenings and testing again I think they mentioned that they even have a screen you have to have a physician order but we're gonna staff that with probably an advanced practice professionals and then basically do screenings if people need screenings and a lot of times when people have the screens they don't need the test so if we feel that needed tests and we'll do the test there and it'll be they'll be able to be away from the hospital and the clinics and be more likely in their vehicles depending on that goes and this is kind of new for us too so Tiffany on how that goes we're looking at a secondary site I'm I actually asked dr. may for his help on that but a little bit after this meeting but like a second a secondary site if we have to and I suspect we will big

[0:34:56] concerns that we have are basically the turn around town turn around time on test there it's a little bit out of our control you know that's got a little frustrating to us but I mean it's kind of that's where we're at and we're just dealing with it we've been we are really pretty English compared to a lot of health care systems around the United States we're really in good shape with any kind of protective equipment we can go quite a while luckily so we're in pretty good shape there but we are daily trying to find more just in case this gets prolonged out what we're turning our attention to now is if this goes prolonged and if it gets a little bit more severe and I suspected it could happen so we want to hope for the best plan for the worst so we are just looking at what it looks like a week two weeks three weeks 30 days 60 days and making sure that we have the resources and that we can do our best in terms of taking care of our community we have questions for Shane Harry start with you it's just like make a comment Thank You mayor I met with my cardiologist yesterday by phone which I thought was a little unique but we went through everything that she was gonna she was going to ask me face to face and we did it by phone and and worked out great yeah and the the physicians and the staff have been great they're trying to come up with innovative solutions and and try to we can do a lot of things over the phone and we can do a lot of things virtually and we're looking at those types of avenues to take care of our patients Thank You Billy yes Shane I pray and hope that we don't have anyone that would test positive in San Angelo but I was encouraged to hear you say because I got a call from someone who stated they were a health care

[0:36:58] professional and didn't feel as though we had enough protective equipment to deal with the situation should we in fact start to develop positive cases so what I understood you to say is you feel that we're in good shape you're still looking for more but we're in good shape as far as protective equipment for our health care providers yes ma'am we are we feel like we're in good shape today and in a short term we are though I am every day we spend time looking for more supplies and we're looking at things that we can do differently at Shannon to conserve our supplies too so we've changed some policies and how we do certain things so I feel I would say I feel a lot better about our situations and I feel and I feel badly about some of the other health care providers around the country because I think there is some areas that they're in desperate need of PP&E and we have a pretty good supply but I'm focused on taking care of this this 24 25 counties that we serve go ahead Billy this may be a bit premature but of course you know most of us are glued to the TV for developing situations and one of the things that I heard reported from one of the overseas country is that they're setting up separate facilities for people the test positive and are being cared from a Waifs a separate facility from their regular patients that have other issues that are not tied to Co vat19 are we considering anything like that or is that too premature for this point I think it's premature we are thinking about thinking ahead to see if that happens because I see two kind of two distinct groups I see one group being someone that we're testing and we don't know for sure and then those that are positive and so we're approaching it looking at those two groups and how we

[0:39:01] best care for them and keep them separated so we are though we have no positive cases here in San jalaw or in the concho Valley which is a it was just a great blessing so far we are trying to think ahead to how we will care for the people in this community what when it happens so and in fact every day at noon spend my lunch with eleven great doctors and from surgeons to primary care and where this is stuff that we're talking about how do we take care if if this happens if we go like at tier 3 or tier 4 tier 5 we're trying to plan ahead but it's we're like you we're kind of learning every day there's no guidebook is there there is not and we just kind of keep on moving forward and then kind of refined everything we do each and every day I do not let perfection standing away progress - so Daniel did you want to ask questions or make comment I'd like to make a call me I don't have a question for Shane at this moment but thank you clean I don't know if y'all have your comments for Shane before I say anything mayor all I want to say because we have received phone calls and some of the questions we receive pertain to essential services a lot of concern about well we have water well we have electricity what we have I can assure you right now that the best not shouldn't be an area of concern for our citizens you will have water of course absolutely our essential services PD Fire EMS will all be out there as well that will continue again so those of you that are concerned you don't need to concern yourself about that also the question that Tommy asked a while ago why two weeks I think at this point what we'd love to be able to see is compliance strict compliance the guidelines of this declaration the the the quicker that we do that the quicker that we can return to normal and that's

[0:41:04] what we love to see happen so again just comply with these guidelines and let's get back to normal hopefully within the next two weeks we'll see some really great results of actually this compliance so we're really shooting for that also one thing that concerns me is going into a grocery store I'm telling you right now we don't have a shortage issue at the grocery store it's a a stalking issue the people are going out there and shopping and hoardin a lot of different things you don't need to be doing if we were to return to just our normal buying habits the way we normally go about purchasing our shuri's we would be okay everything would be back to normal so again be mindful especially with the elderly people that need their supplies and they're struggling right now to get that think about them please but again just a call to return to your normal buying habits and you'll see that the the shelves will be restocked fairly quickly as well so anyway those more comments I wanted to invite Colonel Nass to come forward and talk about good fill Air Force Base if we could madam mayor city council community leaders what times we live but there's no greater honor that to get the opportunity to lead them during crisis and and we're doing a good job at that so thank you for letting me be part of that and just to give you a quick update on our good fellow into a service just a general baseline our National Command Authority as well as our DoD senior leadership team the mission that we conduct a good fellow Air Force Base as a mission essential mission for the nation what that means is in terms of our training of our is our professionals and I Fire Department have fire Airmen we must continue doing that mission the reason why the National the National Command Authority has decided that this is a mission essential mission is we are still engaged in

[0:43:10] combat around the world and we still have to replenish forces operational forces we develop those Airmen here I get fellow Air Force Base so the pipeline what we call the pipeline most most continue now that doesn't mean that good fellow is fully open for business across the board I will share with you that we have declared H become Bravo for good fellow Air Force Base essentially what that means is exactly what mr. Valenzuela I just just explained it is a cohesive understanding within the within the installation that we must do exactly what was described by the governor and by the mayor earlier today but most importantly that we as leadership a good federal Air Force Base we are looking and watching for behavior change which is what you alluded to but most importantly behavior change enforcement when they're not adherent to it we are enforcing the the rules so we've also modified some services around the around the base I ordered three days ago to restrict our students to get fellow Air Force Base it was my responsibility to the city not to have 3,000 extra people walking around the city so I've within the confines of having to continue the mission the mission I have done everything that I can to help the city and the community to battle this battle this together I will share this with you on certain times we we know that we know that these are uncertain times but it is how we choose to lead during the certain to certain times that we will be judged I think when the book is written and they write about what you're doing in San Angelo what you're doing in a county judge I think it would be nothing but positive so I'll pray for us we'll do the same for you and I'll

[0:45:13] keep you abreast if anything changes and get fellow I welcome any questions well any questions her curling ass thank you very much I also want to compliment many of our city staff and and our city attorney Theresa because we were the first city in this West Texas area to do the declaration were way ahead of our other West Texas communities and through her guidance and her recommendation and her leadership we were able to react and declare our Proclamation on Monday and that was four and five days ahead of most other cities out here and so we have to say thank you for her leadership because she's the one as I was panicking if you will no I didn't panic but I was a concern yes about what we are about to do and of course that that requires tremendous amount of strength and belief and the recommendation and I thank you for providing that because I needed that to help make the tough decision on Monday so thank you for that all right do we have further comments or questions at this point in time if we Michael Looney would you like to come forward Thank You mayor city council NASA is exactly right it's an honor for us to be in this position and I know that sounds really odd but we are called to lead and to serve and the chamber of commerce the San Angelo Chamber of Commerce is doing just that if you go to San Angelo RJ doesn't matter if you're a member or not go to San Angelo or that's our website you will see a very new newly deployed kovat 19 business resource hub and what this is this is an evolving living document that is a collaborative effort between the Small Business Development Center that's the ASU Small Business Development Center the San Angelo Chamber of Commerce Co CDC which is the city of San Angelo Development Corporation and concho Valley Workforce

[0:47:15] Solutions and the county so Tom Green County as well this provides resources for businesses that right now are are trying to prepare for the impacts of what is happening and may happen regarding workforce layoffs infusion of capital modification of loans these types of very complex things that most businesses don't really think much about until there's a problem so again I would encourage go to San Angelo RG and you will immediately be taken to kovat 19 business resource hub has just deployed a couple of minutes ago we've been working on it for about the past week but this is a collaborative effort between those entities that are that are touching a lot of the industrial businesses so retail businesses and other public services are being well cared for but we wanted to make sure that there were also resources not just for retailers but also for our industrial base as well the industrial base of Santangelo is following the same model as the industrial base of the entire North American air sector you've got supply chains that are being interrupted and there are tools that can be used to help bulwark your company against those those those impending problems and some some companies may have no problems at all but again Santangelo RG and it can go into a much deeper description of the different types of tools that are available and I'd also like to answer any questions if there are any at this point but otherwise Santangelo org Kovac 19 resources we have questions for Michael Looney from anybody ok Thank You Jay we also discussed this morning I think it's an important part to just offer everyone here today is that we know that every organization has a different message in terms of what they're doing how they will be operating so we are going to use Brian groves and our public information office together everybody's information together and put out one message that's inclusive of everybody's

[0:49:20] plan of action so that everyone will know where to go so on a daily basis you're gone you're not getting some new text message about what one organization is doing versus another we know that will create tremendous confusion and will continue to create a little sense of insecurity with people so we will use our public information office to be the source for us getting out the community's plans for addressing what we're going to do to protect the public health and safety of this community ok yes Tommy you've come man that was that was gonna be my last question thank you for addressing that so let me let me let's not clarify but let's repeat that any communication to the community is going through the city of San Angelo public information office all right has it been discussed yet is there going to be it doesn't have to be daily necessarily I wouldn't think but some systematic just for the public yes sir there will be okay good absolutely we'll go out on our Facebook good and there'll be other areas of resources but yes it will be done on a red dealer basis thank you Tom so in this one's mainly for Teresa honey we're consumption based society we're all changing things and you know from the beef business we look at supply and people are going to consume differently now at home but I think something we need to make sure here is real clear restaurants and these businesses are not restricted from operation they just might go to a takeout tops you know scenario correct that's correct you know the mayor and I went to the Restaurant Association I guess it was on Monday or Tuesday Monday and I think everybody agrees that the restaurants are a necessary part of our food supply and so they are open they just do not have dining room services they can do takeout we have lots of home delivery options a lot of those have the option just to leave it outside your door and not even interact with the person delivering it so yes restaurants can still make food deliver food all those sorts of things but if a bar only does liquor they cannot operate is that correct well I have got an opportunity

[0:51:22] actually to read what the governor did yes one thing that I heard is that he did suspend the rules on alcohol sales and that they might be able to do takeout but I don't know that yet we can provide that information to Brian once I have an opportunity to see what actually they said but whatever rules are in effect for the state we're going to allow that and actually the declaration says that any interpretation by the governor as to what he has done that interpretation will also apply to the action that we have taken the governor's statement is very specific I'll read it and he could tell me if it's very specific or not okay it says a void in restaurant slash bar dining and drinking while still allowing for takeout services I think it's a little rubbery they're about a six-pack it's like 14 days of ramen noodles I don't want to do but also remember we have a lot of drive-through restaurants already that are staying in operation they're just not aligned you're in their dining rooms I'm assuming there are many places should somebody choose to need a bottle of wine a six-pack of beer there those things are available so we're not shut as we said there are many available services still out there can I give to people one thing that was discussed in our meeting this morning that is very important if you're changing processes this is especially important to the governmental agencies but I think everybody if you're changing any process or having it buy new equipment in order to address the circumstance please document don't send it all to us right now but make sure you're keeping records of that we're not clear what kind of resources are going to be available for reimbursement as this goes on but we know you can't get reimbursement if you don't properly document it so make sure you're documenting those purchases that you're for things you're taking in response to this emergency I will also in Judge Floyd you might add on this because I'm afraid I won't repeat it correctly but as far as the transit system the bus system what is

[0:53:27] the direction they're taking I can't see him sorry the computers in the way thank you for coming forward Carson Valley Council of Governments at this time we're operating as normal we have seen a decline in ridership but I want to reassure everybody that we are sanitizing those buses three times a day that we are going to be there for folks that are dependent on that and have no other way to get out of their homes and we will do that as long as we can and we'll do it in accordance with the guidelines from the CDC okay great I'm sure there are other people who I can't see at this moment that might want to speak about their organization and what we're doing I think if not I want to also offer that we have had representative Drew Darby very involved in this process he has offered a lot of direction he has been on the phone with us many times every day he was on the conference call with us today to help give us guidance Laura Lewis from Senator Perry's office was also in the conference call today to make sure that he's aware of the actions that were taken and what we are doing but we've had tremendous support from our representatives and I want to make sure everybody's aware of what they have what they have done in terms of supplying the support and saying to us whatever you need we're here to help fight for you we're here to represent you and so I think that's important for everybody to know all right with that I think that it must be time to take a vote and so I'm going to ask for a motion for approval of the emergency declaration for a local disaster so moved by Billy seconded by Tommy any further public comment with none we will take a vote all in favor say aye with none opposed we pass it 7-0 and then I will ask for an adjournment and before I do that let me say that we have

[0:55:30] a lot of media here Brian groves is going to bring some additional set up here another microphone so that the media has an opportunity to ask questions and address any of the things that they feel are important to get out there so with that said may I have a motion for adjournment yes Tommy does that then mean we will not meet Monday morning we will not meet Monday this I asked to move this forward so that we could address it appropriately and quickly good thank you I make move we motion we adjourn mayor okay second by Lane I'm sure there's everyone's in favor say aye all right motion passes 7-0 at this point we are adjourned and of mediu if you would like to hang around ask additional questions please do so and any community folks who would like to hang around and ask questions at City Council or of any of the folks of that our leadership group please do and while everyone's assembling up here I would like to read for immediate release from the Texas House of Representatives and drew Darby the following representative drew darby republican san angelo issued the fine statement regarding recent actions to protect texans and prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus covet 19 today Governor Greg Greg Abbott issued executive orders calling for new efforts to minimize exposure to and transmission of Cova - 19 I am grateful for the governor's leadership and fully support the steps to keep Texans safer I especially appreciate the tireless work of our local West Texas leaders first responders health care professionals and critical customer service workers for their dedication during this challenging time I strongly encourage West Texas residents to heed the direction of local officials as they prescribe important measures aimed at protecting citizens and maintaining our health care

[0:57:33] resources we are strong and we will get this through this together during the press conference Texas Department of State Health Services Commissioner John Heller stood declared a statewide public health disaster which will give state and local officials additional tools to respond to covent 19 governor Abbott issued the fine executive orders effective through midnight on April the 3rd with the possibility and being extended based on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations one avoid social gatherings of more than 10 people to avoid in restaurant / bar dining and drinking while still allowing for take-out services 3 people shall not visit nursing homes unless to provide critical assistance and for schools she'll temporarily close the executive orders do not affect resources such as grocery stores pharmacies gas stations or other businesses and workplaces of more than 10 people as long as necessary precautions are maintained to reduce contact and virus transmission all critical infrastructure will remain operational and he also lists some additional state resources so if you need those please contact Cheryl DeCordova in to Darby's office but they are the Texas Education agencies Texas students meal finder map to find where Texas schools are serving meals amid closures to the Texas Workforce Commission information for employers and job seekers and three the Texas Department of State Health Services updates on the corona virus symptoms testing and prevention and those websites I'm sure you can find quickly but also contact Cheryl's office she has him right here and she will provide those for you we will also have this available through our public information office Brian gross alright with that I want to continue to provide information to everyone and I'm going to start with any questions from the audience if you would

[0:59:36] please come forward to this microphone and our community leaders will address your questions if you would please so who would like to go first gotta have a question thank you laughs we've obviously we saw what happened in Abilene yesterday with him cancelling school for the remaining portion of the school semester does SC ISD have any plans to do so if anything does increase and you know what would be what would be attached to then we talked numerous times you know again with city and elected officials regarding this also our board of trustees our thinking is that because we are very respectful of the financial hardships that it causes many of our parents families staff members also those hardships that they can't work in critical care jobs such as in our local health agencies and hospitals so one of the things that we wanted to do is provide enough of a buffer that perhaps for those that have traveled or were exposed over the spring break to more than encompass that 14-day period which we know can can vary according to your medical source but more than encompass that 14-day period and extend that to a three week buffer so in that three weeks you know our intent is still based on evidence well we practice being evidence informed in our school district and so based on that we want to really provide the best opportunity for to stimulate the economy to get back in the workforce and we thought a three week window might do that for us however we are more than prepared again with our virtual platform to do that until the the end of the the typical school year so all those things work in concert with each other and also while I met the microphone I just want to appreciate all the ladies and gentlemen behind me because I have certainly called or texted them numerous times to get

[1:01:40] information guidance and support as we make this critical decision so thank you next question please I'm sure I have to lower the microphone okay so I have several questions I was wondering is San Angelo planning on extending any deadlines for bills to help relief I know would you come forward one of the last things we want to do is cut off water services right so we do understand and right now there are individuals that are struggling and we get that as well we'll tell you right now that now we're not cutting off a water service we want to continue that service one of the first things we tell people has wash your hands for 20 seconds right how can you do that if you have no water so absolutely not we will not be knopf water service will be working with you so that will continue I was also wondering has the what all is gonna be available as resources for people who are struggling during this time well as far as the resources and we talked about a few of those mayor while ago sure I think that the ones that'll be struggling especially where we're addressing businesses locally is gonna be our business communities so Dave Eric's gonna with the SBA can be contacted he could find him at the Business Resource Center he has a lot of resources available to you as well we talked about Michael Looney there at the Chamber of Commerce with economic development that's another valuable source as well so those businesses I may have some questions as far as how to respond to a certain problem that they're having they can reach out to those two sources and they will direct and what they need to go and what about the sorry workforce solutions group also is a dynamic organization to help answer a lot of those questions in terms of if you've been laid off if your hours have been cut if

[1:03:43] you've been fired any of those issues the workforce solutions people will help you understand what you can do and the resources available for you alright that actually answered my next question so thank you very much next question please for Mary Gunter during this time with restaurants and bars obviously bars will certainly be impacted but for restaurants do you do you urge them to kind of stay open as much as they can at this time I would urge people to follow the direction that has been dictated and that is is that we ends on dining inside a restaurant is not allowed only to go and delivery will be allowed you and that takes effect tomorrow night at midnight so right now under the existing decoration of the city you could continue to dine at restaurants as long as you had 50 people or less at that restaurant effective tomorrow night at midnight in dining inside restaurants will be eliminated I closed my restaurant yesterday so we're prepared to follow suit and to make sure that we're a leader and following the guidelines that have been given I have another question for you mayor and you address people taking responsibility for what they post and say on social media can you relay that message again for us please sure well you know many people have taken this opportunity to bash city leadership or businesses or individuals but you know the reality is is that as a community we are trying to do the best to protect the public and health safety of our community and so this isn't a time to punch it people to to make fun of people we're doing the best that we can we are trying as hard as we can to make sure that we're taking care of the citizens that are out there and we know

[1:05:46] we're asking for tough decisions to be made we know that we are creating a situation where people's personal finances will be impacted as well as their business financials will be impacted we got it but our first priority our first obligation is to the health and safety of this community and so we are going to make those tough decisions I believe that we need to be the leaders in that and we will come out of this if everybody follows the directives as they are given social media should not be used today as a negative let's support each other and as I say take personal responsibility and make sure that we're kind we're honest we show integrity we show intelligence and our decisions whether there are our personal decisions our financial decisions or our shopping decisions thank you so much and then I have another question for a judge Floyd sorry I'm putting you on the spot on your disaster declaration what does that mean for you know your everyday people well primarily the one that was done today is not totally necessary because the governor's actions at noon today but what I did that disaster declaration one to show unity with the community that were united in the fighting against this and the second thing that also puts tombery County in the loop to be able to recover any of the emergency funds from FEMA if and when they ever come so as much as anything they're not going to be effective of course the municipal order does not basically is not effective outside the city limits so this makes those conditions out in the county effective but the governor basically took care of that at noon today so it's to try to get some of the local taxpayers monies back that we will probably end up expended in the and in the battle and the defeat hopefully sooner than later of this issue while I'm here one other issue

[1:07:51] obviously we're we're delivering essential services court services various things we're having a elected official department heads meeting at the county in the morning and try to develop how that's going to look like so tomorrow afternoon there will be some more and released that on our website and through the city which we appreciate the opportunity to post there to give them a little more guidelines how the citizens can interact with the county services answered to be a deliverer thank you so much my first question is so there's a lot of businesses around town that maybe don't have the revenue to stay open past a big shutdown like rent wise they still you know have a lot of rents and bills to pay what advice would any of y'all give these small mom-and-pop businesses good question it's one that we worry a lot about because we are a community of small businesses and we realized that if the revenues not there it's very difficult to pay the bills I again would encourage you and everyone to look at the resources that are out there from Workforce Solutions to the Small Business Development Office in the the BRC I would ask that you call Michael Looney and ask for the resources that he might give somebody to do and I would hope that as we said before that at this point in time that our community would be a community that extends integrity intelligence honesty and kindness at this point in time because getting a smaller amount of rent is better than no rent if a business has to shut down it's a tough time for everybody and not everybody has cash available and we realize that revenue drives income and if income is cut because revenue is cut it's tough to pay the bills and we realize families need to be fed families need to be able to put gas in their car

[1:09:53] and pay for insurance so it's going to be a tough time and we realize that that's why we're asking for really tough measures right now because the tougher we become today the quicker we will deal with this virus and cut it off if we don't honor these restrictions then we will continue to see a climb in the virus and we will not be able to live under a two-week restriction right now I don't want this to become four weeks or six weeks or eight weeks let's get strong let's be strong let's live by these recommendations and let's put this to bed and then another big industry that's going to be hit by this is hotels yes sir um what-what does y'all stand on that they will be hit it's certainly one of the things that other communities have looked at if we need additional beds we certainly for a fee would work with our hotels and use them as a resource it's one thing again we want to we want this to be as small of a timeframe as possible so we can get people back in our hotels but there have been numerous conventions already cancelling many a lot of the facilities that we're going to be used or not so certainly our hotel-motel tax will be way down we realize that it's going to be a it's going to be a tough year financially for many including the city you know we count on sales tax revenue we count on property tax revenue obviously property tax will not be hit but our sales tax is going to be dramatically hit we've planned very conservatively of a city so we have some room right now we planned the city down about six point six percent as of the end of February we were I'm not sure what percent up but we're about a million dollars over and above the plan so we have some room there so we don't have to impact fire safety police etc so we've gotten room there but definitely we're gonna have to manage aggressively over the next few weeks and months and then my final questions for actually for dr. death loss so you spoke earlier

[1:11:56] about the distribution of sorry excuse me distribution of items like electronics laptops Chromebooks stuff like that and you're gonna go for a fully virtual what are gonna be for some of the kids that don't have Wi-Fi at home you'll have plans set up for that already yes in fact earlier today I was shown a map with the sites the mobile sites already indicated for our Wi-Fi buses so I would have to count them but we have a map already created that has all the Wi-Fi buses and where they will be parked to allow greater access and that's throughout the city of San Angeles and then we are taking our devices that we've we've had a implementation of technology the last five years so we're taking those devices kind of reutilizing those and sending those out for students starting Monday and possibly again even tomorrow if we can pull that off Chamber of Commerce and the Chamber of Commerce economic development division and at the city of San Angelo Development Corporation one of the things that we've done is we've been speaking with a lot of our corporations that are manufacturers and energy service companies and they're they're doing a lot to prepare themselves for the squeeze and for the supply interruptions that are happening and are expected to happen they we hope they won't happen but they're there they're being planned for one of the things that the local lenders that sit on our board and serve as advisors to the Chamber of Commerce have have reminded us is is for all companies talk to your lenders communicate with them email them talk to them let them know what's going on let them know where you are in the process let them know what plans you're making what kind of capital needs you have lenders are their businesses too and they want to make sure that they are well communicated with so in a situation like this which is which is uncharted territory this is not a localized

[1:13:59] situation this is a global situation it's very important to maintain good open communication so that so that lenders and corporations and employees aren't aren't wondering what's going on they know what's going on they know that that plans are being made so again I would stress as was stressed to us communicate with your lenders and with your suppliers it's very important to do that additional questions what we might do John you want to come forward and talk about transit just one more time because if somebody doesn't have transportation to get to the school to e what happens yeah so one of the programs that the schools implemented is a mills program from breakfast and lunch we are able to continue to operate as normal at this time we have seen a decline in ridership and so we are ready and able and standing by if you need a ride to one of those locations in order to pick up lunch please call our dispatch I don't have that number handy but I will provide that to Brian so that we can have that up on the website and schedule the trip and we'd be glad to get you there the rules of that program believe require that the child be with a parent but we're happy to get you to and from further questions from the media for our representative from Shannon we saw that and you did it did explain a little bit in the City Council meeting with the mobile testing site just to confirm it was that just going to be for today in tomorrow do you all have plans to extend that out further a great question we're going to do testing and we start today we're going to do testing tomorrow we're looking at Monday to do screening and testing at this one site and based upon demand and utilization we might look to secondary site I've already talked to dr. may he's been a great partner with us in terms of

[1:16:02] looking at a secondary site maybe we're looking at that parking lot that's across from the ASU Shannon Jackson Clinic there's a large parking lot right across from at campus and we're possibly going to look at the secondary site there but we're working on plans for that we're nice ly going to start with a downtown site go from there but we'll do testing today and tomorrow and then look at screening and testing on Monday and remember screenings on screen she still has that the provider order so that's a physician or advanced practice professional anybody else want to make a comment that's here today no and if there's no more questions from the media thank you for being there and thank you for getting the message out to the public about what we've chosen to do today what Governor Abbott has asked us to do and certainly whatever support you can give to us and getting this out would be grandly appreciated so thank you for being here

Captured 2026-07-26 · source: youtube.com/watch?v=9SKai07wpWE