City Council Special Meeting 3520

Good afternoon, everyone.

Today is March 5th, 2020, and the special meeting of the Seattle City Council will come to order.

It is 1.04 p.m.

I'm Teresa Mosqueda, President Pro Tem of the Council.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Peterson.

Aye.

Sawant.

Here.

Sawant.

Strauss.

Present.

Herbold.

Here.

Juarez.

Here.

Here.

Thank you, Lewis.

I'm here.

Here.

Morales.

Council President Pro Tem Mosqueda.

Here.

Six present.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

So today, March 5th, is a special emergency meeting of the Seattle City Council called to order pursuant to the provisions of the revised Code of Washington and the Seattle City Chapter.

We appreciate all the hard work of those individuals who've been on the front line providing a response to COVID-19 or to the coronavirus.

We applaud the work of our friends on the front line who are our firefighters and who are our police officers, those who are in public health as direct service providers, and those who are human service providers working with our most vulnerable.

appreciate the great information that has been shared from Director Patty Hayes and Dr. Duchin, Executive Dow Constantine yesterday at 1 p.m.

in their briefing.

This is a really important time for our city and our state, our region, and our nation to come together to show true solidarity and lead by example.

I think the work that we have in front of us today to make sure that the public has the best information possible about how to protect themselves and their family, their community from the virus is really critical, and that we all take a moment to remain calm, take a deep breath, and recognize we have some of the most expert public health officials in the county, in our county, who are represented right here.

The best of the country is right here.

So we applaud all of their work.

We also want to take a moment to send our deepest sympathies to the families who've lost their lives as a result of contracting COVID-19.

And I know many of us watching on TV or in the audience, we're looking for some certainty, for a plan.

There's a lot of things that are unknown still, but there's a lot of things that are known that public health will share with us and our good department heads will help explain to us.

Many people are worried about their families and their loved ones, and we have shared repeatedly this week and last week that some of the best ways to help prevent the spread of the virus is by practicing good public health hygiene.

Again, washing your hands for 20 to 30 seconds, avoid touching your face, make sure to stay home, period, and especially to stay home if you feel sick, If you are an individual who's had an underlying health condition or you have a chronic illness or disease or you're elderly like we heard yesterday, please do stay home and appreciate, really strongly appreciate our executive, the mayor and executive Dow Constantine and their directive to encourage people to work from home and to telecommute and to make that possible.

That is true leadership.

So today we have a few items on our agenda today in terms of our special meeting.

One will be to hear about this best practices and what our departments are doing in collaboration with Public Health Seattle King County and with King County as a region.

We have, I'll turn it over in a moment to Council Member Herbold who will walk us through the first part of the presentation who was to hear, we're here to hear from the department directors about what has already been put into place.

We will then take a moment to hear from the public.

I know there's folks here who would like to make some public comment.

We will welcome that after we hear from the department directors as part of our presentation.

We will then take a moment to go into executive session and we will also have then a follow-up in terms of our conversation around the possible ordinance that's in front of us.

As you will note and under state and city laws, the mayor is authorized to issue a proclamation of civil emergency when a public disturbance or natural disaster causes or threatens to cause personal injury or property damage.

Because of this, the mayor has issued a proclamation of civil emergency on March 3rd, 2020 at 2.25 p.m.

Once a civil emergency proclamation has been issued, the mayor can issue emergency orders establishing curfews, closing public places, and other orders designated to protect life and property.

City code requires that the mayor's emergency proclamation and any emergency orders issued be filed with the city clerk and presented to the city council at the earliest practical time for ratification or rejection.

The current version of the resolution before council would ratify the emergency proclamation, attached to the resolution is a copy of the proclamation issued by Mayor Durkan.

Before consideration of the resolution, the council will be provided updates from Public Health Seattle-King County per Council Member Herbold's upcoming panel presentation, and then we will have the opportunity to consider this proclamation before the committee wraps up.

So that's our agenda for today.

At this time I'd like to invite members of the Public Health Seattle King County Department and City Department leaders to join us and I will turn it over to Councilmember Herbold to lead us through the discussion with opening remarks.

Thank you.

I think I'll begin my remarks as you join the committee table.

I want to just really thank you and let you know how grateful I am that department directors, both from the city and the county and leaders who are here to share with us the best information that we have about responding to the coronavirus, what individuals can do and how the city is working hard to contain the impact of COVID-19.

There's a lot that we can do as individuals and as an institution to stop the spread, and simple steps can be really powerful.

Seattle and King County announced earlier today 20 additional confirmed cases in King County residents.

This brings the total number of confirmed cases to 51, including 10 deaths.

As more laboratory capacity for testing comes online, more tests and results will be reported.

However, King County has indicated they will not be routinely providing details about each case at this time, and we can hear more about their thinking for why that is a best practice.

as we move into the presentations.

We all have uncertainty about how best to respond, and what we're trying to do now is we're trying to limit that uncertainty to ensure that people do not take actions that not only might not help us, but could harm us.

As we've all heard, the best precautions we've heard from public health officials is to stay at home when you're sick, cover your coughs and sneezes with an elbow sleeve or tissue, frequently wash your hands with soap and water for 20 seconds and sing that happy birthday song.

If you're in King County, you believe you were exposed, stay at home.

Contact your doctor or the coronavirus hotline.

That number is 206-477-3977.

You can make that call between 8 a.m.

to 7 p.m.

This is a really critical moment in the outbreak in this region.

In an effort to slow the spread and transmission, King County Public Health has made recommendations in consultation with the Federal Centers for Disease Control.

And this is all based on the best information that we have currently to protect the public's health.

Right now, those recommendations include not holding gatherings of more than 10 people, staying at home if you're over 60 or have underlying medical conditions, and working from home if you're able.

The steps we take now will have a tremendous and far-reaching impact on the lives of people in our community.

As of noon today, the city of Seattle has encouraged all city employees to telework, effective immediately, and using the city's alternative work arrangements COVID-19 guidelines.

Coronavirus doesn't recognize race, nationality, or ethnicity.

Discrimination based on ethnicity or ancestry will make the situation worse.

Many of us work in places with easy access to hand washing stations and can use sick and safe leave or access health care via insurance provided by our employers.

Or if we're sick, we can stay home.

care for a family member, or get in to see a doctor the same day that we have symptoms that concern us.

And that's not the case for everyone.

And that's another area that I know council members are interested in hearing from our panel presenters about how to address those issues.

Our first responders, fire, police, nurses, doctors, caregivers, public health scientists, they don't get to call in sick.

The teachers, staffs, and custodians who are asked to stay behind and sanitize the schools while their students and many of their parents stay home during the exercise, they don't get to stay home.

And the folks who provide us services that we rely on, perhaps even more so at times like these, those who hand us the hand sanitizer, who deliver our grocery, our online orders, or drive buses, or carry our mail, who prepare our food.

It's their job and they do it because no one else can.

And they risk their health and safety to keep us safe too.

And I want to recognize and thank them for that.

And I want this conversation to have the needs of those people as a focus as well.

We must take this health crisis seriously.

We're going to hear from folks who are on the front line about the actions that they are taking.

And there are several steps that have already been taken.

As mentioned earlier, there has been the decision not only on the part of the city of Seattle and King County government to encourage telecommuting, but many of our largest employers are also telling their workers to work from home.

The mayor has issued a proclamation of civil emergency as Council President Pro Tem Mosqueda referenced earlier.

King County Executive Dow Constantine also issued a state of emergency enabling extraordinary measures to fight the outbreak including waiving some procurement protocols and authorizing overtime for King County employees among other powers.

I want to thank the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs for translating coronavirus information into multiple languages.

And the public can find that information on welcoming.seattle.gov.

The county has also started to set up quarantine sites in multiple areas throughout the county using portable trailers.

This is critically important.

The executive has indicated that King County is also in the process of purchasing a hotel to use a quarantine site.

The mayor is also announcing, I believe either has announced or will be announcing later today, the location of some additional tiny village sites as well.

We've been told that the city's navigation team is distributing hygiene kits and sharing information on COVID-19 with people who are living unsheltered.

And we look forward to hearing more about that.

The Seattle Times has also lowered, deactivated their paywall to ensure that all of our neighbors have access to the latest information and updates.

And Washington State's Insurance Commissioner has issued an emergency order today directing all health insurance carriers through May 4th to provide health care provider visits and coronavirus testing without copayments and deductible payments to enrollees who meet criteria for testing.

So for those who have health insurance, costs should not keep people from testing or healthcare.

But again, there is the reality that we're faced that testing, it has to be directed by a doctor and there are people in our community who do not have access to doctors and don't have access to any insurance.

The University of Washington announced that they now have permission and ability to test for coronavirus and the region could possibly test up to a thousand samples a day.

This is a significant expansion in our testing capacity and public health officials throughout the county have been very consistent on keeping the public up to date and sharing information on how we can remain healthy, and they're giving daily media updates to the public.

Their website has a helpful fact sheet and answers to frequently asked questions.

I thank them because I think one of the most important things that we can do for the public is about providing that consistent and frequent message that we're all rowing in the same direction and speaking the same language.

I would really, again, I want to welcome our presenters, and I want to thank you sincerely for being here.

Thank you for the hard work that you're doing to ensure that the city is responding with all of our capabilities to keep Seattle safe.

And I believe Senior Deputy Mayor Fong is going to kick us off.

Thank you, Council Member.

Would you like us to do introductions?

I think a round of introductions, and then maybe if you could just let us know who we're going to hear from first.

Sure, absolutely.

Mike Fong, Deputy Mayor.

Acting Director for the Office of Emergency Management.

Hello, I'm Dennis Worsham.

I am with the Prevention Division of Public Health Seattle and King County, and we oversee all the infectious diseases.

Good afternoon, Casey Sixkiller, Deputy Mayor.

Jason Johnson, Human Services Department.

Andres Montilla, Department of Neighborhoods.

Ben Noble, Budget Director.

Bobby Lee, OED.

Barb Brack, recent retiree from Emergency Management.

Kuvu, Director of the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs.

his consecutive parks and migration.

Harold Scoggins, Fire Chief.

Good afternoon, Council Members.

First of all, I want to thank you for inviting us today to provide an update on our public health and concurrent operational response efforts related to COVID-19.

And I want to especially thank Council Members Mosqueda and Council Member Herbold.

I understand that We had originally been scheduled to brief the council yesterday.

I appreciate the flexibility you've given us in the context of a very dynamic situation that our team is responding and reacting to in real time.

So the opportunity to have that flexibility and reschedule for today is much appreciated.

As you know, The public health response and the stand-up of the Health and Medical Area Command has existed since last week of January.

Subsequent to that, the City of Seattle has been in pandemic response planning for much of February.

And this past Monday, we activated the Emergency Operations Center.

Important to just remind everyone that this is not our first experience with pandemic response, and we are building off of our previous experiences and lessons learned from H1N1 in 2008 and 2009, and the existence of the work that the Office of Emergency Management carries out on its regular mission and purpose allows us to be able to respond nimbly and flexibly while updating our continuity of operations planning in a way to be able to work and respond quickly and effectively to the current situation.

situation, excuse me.

So this afternoon, we will start with Dennis Worsham, who will provide you some context with regard to the latest situational awareness from public health.

And then subsequent to that, we have a series of presenters that can provide you context with regard to our concurrent city operational response.

I assure you that our alignment is in lockstep with public health, and because of that, per hour, the context we set at the beginning of our discussion, Dennis will have to depart after his portion of the presentation, if that's fine with all of you, so that he can return into the field and do the important work that he must do in the context of public health.

I appreciate you being here.

Great.

So with that, unless there are any questions about the table setting here, we'll go ahead and turn it over to our team.

And I will play the role of facilitation here to kind of move the conversation along, if that helps.

OK?

Dennis?

All right.

Thank you for the opportunity to be here.

I'll just tell you, I've been so head down with my team that coming up for a moment, pulling my head together, hopefully we'll be able to provide some things that are helpful, and give you some current updates.

Thank you so much for the summary.

You took all my talking points, and so we'll see where we go with that.

Put the microphone a little bit closer.

Yeah, absolutely.

Thank you.

So, just from a public health perspective, you know, I think one of the things that we do in public health and we do well is what we call surveillance.

And surveillance is really about our data collection and able to tell when we have something going on within our community.

We rely on that data for a variety of sources, public health labs, larger commercial labs, through doctors and medical community doing reporting.

They're mandated to do reporting.

And that surveillance tells us kind of in real time where we're at.

We're in a unique situation at this time.

This is unprecedented in my career, and I've been in public health for 27 years with what we are doing and responding to at this point.

I will also, just in the context of reminding people, because I think it's important to remind people that this is a novel coronavirus, and novel in sense that we are learning every day a little bit more about this virus and transmission and what it goes.

So what I'm presenting today is really to ground you in what we know today.

and what is our best thinking today and our best strategies based on a variety of things.

And so we'll see where it goes and we'll continue to update you and we appreciate you being ambassadors in this process with us because in order to be where we need to be in the community, it's going to take all of us as a collective in order to do that.

So I really appreciate the colleagues around the table.

who are doing that.

Sorry that Patty couldn't be here tonight.

We are all, today we're pulled in a thousand different directions, and so I'll try to give you my best from on the ground.

We've been in activation, as it was said, since January, when we first heard of the virus breaking in China, and really thinking and watching what that was going to be doing.

and how it was preparing for if it should or when it would hit the shores here within our own country.

We've been the first on a couple things in the state of Washington to have the first confirmed case, and now, unfortunately, have the first deaths that are occurring from this virus.

The, our heart goes out, you know, when we talk about numbers, I just want to remind we're talking about people, and we're talking about families.

And so everybody's impacted about this in a different way, and we oftentimes get into our space, and we think broad populations, and so just not to lose track that these are people, and people that we care about in our communities.

It's important, I think, for what I can share for an update, I think it was already doing, but just to reemphasize that, currently, in the state of Washington, we have 70 confirmed cases and 11 deaths.

Here in King County, we have 51 of those cases and 10 deaths.

The epicenter hit in one of our most vulnerable places within our community is in long-term care facilities.

and unfortunately has taken the life of many family members from that community within the Life Care Center over in Kirkland.

It's tragic.

It's unfortunate.

But I think in text that we need to keep in mind here as we see these numbers of these 10 deaths in King County, all of them are related to this healthcare facility other than one.

So that the epicenter is pretty focused and quickly spreading.

And so I wanted to just keep that in context to numbers of a bit of a reality.

I know that most of you know because you're following the media and following public health and our website.

But it's also, every time we get an opportunity is that 80% of the people who will come in contact with this virus are going to receive it in a moderate to mild thing, just like a typical regular flu.

It's the 20% that have underlying health conditions that are over 60 years old.

that are the most impacted from this virus.

So in public health, in any reportable condition, our goal is to do what we call contact tracing.

In our surveillance system, we get reports of cases, we then follow up, we do an interview with those people, we then figure out where they've been, if there's businesses, schools, other things that we need to notify, we do that, and as well as we try to follow up with every contact to be able to shut the disease down as quickly as we can.

As this disease grows, our strategy is going to have to change.

And we talk about it in public health in two fields.

We talk about it in containment and in mitigation.

So the containment of the virus is about how do we stop the spread and not contain it as best we can so that there isn't a wide community spread.

In the area of mitigation is once it's out of the box is then how do we mitigate it as best we can.

From our modeling and where we're looking at, we decided very quickly knowing what happened in Wuhan and other parts of the world, is that our mitigation strategies are going to have to come fast and hard.

And we have implemented those and we're implementing those as we go.

The important thing and unfortunate thing is, as we know, of government officials and trying to be responsible to the communities that we serve and the people that we serve, is we usually want to take time do community engagement, have people weigh in on what these mitigation strategies are.

We're doing our best with the information we have.

We have an equity and social justice officer who's sitting with us.

We have ethicists sitting with us, really helping us to make these decisions as best we can without doing a full process that we would normally do as a public health and a government agency.

So we're going to get it wrong sometimes.

We're going to step on toes and I'm sure we're going to overstep sometimes, but we just really ask that you join us and be a partner with us and help us.

And if we have a blind spot, bring it to our attention and let's work together on what we need to do.

We're moving as quick as we can in order to really mitigate the strategies of this work.

In our, let me just kind of bucket those two things in containment and mitigation and talk a little bit more in detail about both of those components.

In the mitigation strategy, in the containment strategy right now, we are getting our lab results.

We're trying to follow up with everybody who's reported.

It's, it's, the state lab has only been operational in our state since last Friday.

So we're not even a week into this.

And so we're are, we're trying to build these systems in real time in order to be able to do it.

And the numbers are coming in rather rapidly.

and with incomplete information, which makes it harder to do our contact investigations and containment.

We've done a really strong and hard reach and look into the long-term care facility and the best we can do within that environment and the healthcare workers.

The people on the front line not only are the public health folks who are working hard and around the clock to do what they do.

I will tell you when this broke over the weekend, We had a staff of probably 35, 40 that were in the office, and I had 100 people show up that weren't assigned and asked what they could do.

So people are showing up and doing their jobs.

So you should be proud of your public health system.

Around the containment strategy with the Life Care Center and all of the health care facilities, that have been transported out.

As people, as they get, as residents are not able to be cared for any longer in that facility because of their worsening conditions, they are moved out into the hospitals in the community and in a variety of places.

And of course, that puts our healthcare workers also at risk and exposure to these areas.

So we're trying to work, prioritize our healthcare workers, our first responders, and the people who we're getting early diagnoses on.

Those are our primary focuses in the containment of this work.

In the mitigation strategies, we're really trying to implement, we oftentimes, these are called, in the public health world, they're called non-pharmaceutical interventions.

With the absence of medications and vaccines, what we try to do is we implement the best strategies.

The messages, as you've heard here, wash your hands often, social distancing, elbow bumps, maybe we've got to be careful about shaking hands, and a variety of other things.

When you're sick, stay home.

Those are all typical mitigation strategies that we put in place around anything where we know that, especially that's airborne or that is droplet.

With this particular virus, we know it's droplet form.

And so covering your cough and stay home if you're sick are all the messages around mitigation.

We've taken a bit more aggressive steps the last couple days around some of the community mitigations asking that if businesses and government agencies can have people telecommute, they should be home telecommuting to really isolate and separate folks out so that we don't spread the virus if it's in our area.

probably shouldn't be so adamant, but it's going to show up in your work environment.

It's going to show up with people we know.

And so we need to do our best to mitigate this in every way possible.

We are asking people to reconsider.

These are all recommendations.

We're asking people to really consider about community gatherings and what those numbers need to be.

The number you heard earlier was 10. I will tell you there's no magic number.

We, it's a number that came out as one suggestion.

But I think you have to look at that a case-by-case and really take those into consideration and make decisions what's best for you and your community and where those gatherings are happening.

So we got pushed on what is a large group, and that's a hard thing to respond because there's context with every one of those that we want to consider a little bit differently.

We're also looking around community mitigations, and we're trying to get sector-based, and we have deployed I've lost, I don't know what's happened in the last two days.

We had 17 people show up on Monday from the CDC.

They're here building policy with us.

We are the epicenter of this in this country.

We are building policies and recommendations in real time.

And again, those are going to change.

And so we're grateful for them, and they've been really helpful in this process.

We have the best thinkers and the best experienced people working with us in these areas.

So we are thinking by sectors.

We're thinking about schools.

We're thinking about business environments.

We're thinking about large gatherings such as sports arenas.

We're thinking about people who travel through airplanes and ferry boats and everything that we can to build a really sector-based approach so that it is the most helpful advice that we can give.

Those are rolling out as best we can, as fast as we can, and there'll be more coming out.

The school-based recommendations we're hoping will roll out today.

And we are working today, we are working with the CDC finalizing up around homelessness and shelters and what is the recommendations that should be happening to help guide what happens within our shelter environment.

So again, really being built in real time.

So these are some of our mitigation strategies and really trying to stop the spread of disease.

Colleagues, I know there's a number of people who have questions.

What I'm hoping is that we can get through the presentation from each presenter and then we'll offer ample time for each of our colleagues to ask a series of questions.

And I know you have a, time constraints so we want you to get through your presentation and then to our council colleagues I'll make sure that we go down the line and folks get their questions answered.

Okay I'll just hit one more area then maybe it's better to stop and just answer questions because I want to make sure I'm getting what you need.

A big push from everyone is testing and so let me tell you a little bit about where we're at in testing.

This is probably one of the hottest questions right now that we get through our call center.

So just want to set of context is, again, brand new virus, quickly developed an ability to test for this virus, and when it came on through CDC a few weeks ago, we really had to prioritize who were the highest risk and who we thought would be at risk.

We needed to really hold the people that we thought needed to be tested who, from an epi perspective, were most likely to be infected and could be carrying the virus.

As I said last Friday, we pushed those testing kits out.

We've been able to do that now at the state lab.

They are operationalizing about 200 tests a day.

And as reported, UW has now made their contribution in setting up their labs and will be bringing it up to 1,000.

And we are really pushing for commercial labs to follow.

And my understanding in an earlier briefing today that there are a number of commercial labs that will be coming online.

So testing as a whole will be more accessible for folks and they should be working with their healthcare providers.

in determining if they need to do that.

I will say that it's an important thing to say because I think it helps quiet the fear a bit is the treatment after a confirmed case of COVID is no different because there is no way, there's no medication that is a dedicated medication or a vaccine for COVID.

So, we treat it like other aggressive respiratory illnesses, and we work with medical providers in order to do that.

So, I understand the urgency to test for people, but they should, if they are having symptoms, those symptoms are worsening, they should be working with their medical providers, and those medical providers will be attending to them based on what their health needs are at that time.

So, I'll stop there, and I'll be happy to answer questions before I go, if that's however you'd like to go.

Well, we really appreciate your time, and thank you for the detailed summary of all that you have been up to.

I know that your team, your front of the line team, have been working 24-7, so please extend our huge amount of appreciation for both your team and Director Patty Hayes.

First, Councilmember Herbold, and then Councilmember Morales.

Thank you.

And I'm just going to ask both of my questions and maybe what we could do is just get all the questions out and then you could answer rather than, I'm just suggesting that.

Yeah, go ahead and then we'll.

A little faster.

You assume my brain is still really working well.

Okay.

All right.

All right.

Anyway you want to do it.

So when you were talking about the containment strategies, you mentioned that you were working to follow up with folks who had, with whom you had had contact, are you referring to, because people are getting referrals for testing from their health care providers, but they're not coming to you.

Right.

So when you said you're following up with your contacts, who, whom did you mean?

Thank you.

Thank you.

So the way that the public health system works throughout the country, is there are what we call diseases that people are mandated to report.

They are required to report that in two ways, a confirmed lab test or a medical community, whether that's an individual provider or the facilities themselves.

They're mandated to report the results of a test.

And we get that information through an electronic process.

It's called the Washington Disease Tracking System.

And we are able to see a positive in that system, and we get the person's information and phone numbers.

So when you said contacts, you meant people who have been positively identified as having the virus.

Right.

And then we talk to them about who they've been in contact with in order to be able to do the quarantine mitigation strategies.

You'd mentioned that you're, it sounded as if you haven't gotten through to all those people yet.

Is that accurate?

Yeah, that's accurate.

We are getting, this is one of the part of the systems that we're trying to improve is some of the results that are coming in is when we move out of the public health system only doing the testing and we move into the broader community.

The Seattle flu study has, as you know, found a case that was our case that was reported up in Snohomish County through their process.

So we're working with all of these different systems that are out testing as to making sure that they're using complete information about the individual and how we contact them.

Not everything has had complete information, so we have not been able to follow up on all of them.

So what percentage would you say?

I would say the majority of them.

We've been able to follow up with All right, and then moving over to specifically testing, you know, I think it's important to place this in the context you mentioned that State testing has only been up since last Friday And in the United States, I thought saw reported.

I think there's only been 600 tests done in the entire United States but I would still like to know what your estimate is of the number of people who have been tested in King County and Given that the CDC's recommendation for testing Is not just that everyone can get tested, it's that everyone who has a referral from a healthcare provider can get tested.

What would you recommend to folks who don't have healthcare providers?

And if that is a barrier, how can we work together to make sure that it's not a barrier for people who are presenting symptoms and don't have a healthcare provider to make that recommendation?

Yeah, that's a tough question and a good question.

I mean, I think as a society, we have struggled with that for a long time, but people who don't have healthcare providers, and we've been wrestling with that, as a city and a state for a long period of time.

I would say at this point, my best advice is if you do not have a healthcare provider, we have community health service clinics that are spread throughout.

We have a great system here in Seattle and throughout the county.

And they should be working to get into those facilities in order to be seen.

There's going to be a briefing with them.

If it hasn't already happened, it's happening this week.

and getting them to stand up and be ready for that.

So we don't want to turn people away who have healthcare needs.

Just to your point on the recommendations, I want to be really clear is that there are things that we can actually screen out.

And if people have flu-like symptoms, there's actually a flu panel that we can actually do to tell you if you're positive for flu.

When moving to the coronavirus testing, it's when nothing else is showing up as positive is that we then go to that particular area.

So there's a way the medical community is responding in order to be able to screen those out through a process to really make sure that those who are symptomatic, those who have illnesses, and have reached into the healthcare community, that they are getting those tests as they need.

Thank you very much.

Council Member Morales.

So I want to follow up a little bit on this testing-related question, and then I have a different question.

So you mentioned that you're going from being able to test about 100 people a day to hopefully 1,000 if the UW has increased capacity.

Is there a similar increase in capacity for the actual testing the lab results and lab capacity?

That's one question.

We've been talking about, you know, what size groups to limit and 10 was sort of sounds like a random number.

As a mother of a child with 26 other kids in her class, I'm sure lots of families are eager to hear what the school recommendations are.

And we know that that will put burden on families if their kids aren't in school.

especially if they have to work and don't have the ability to stay home.

And if we're talking about protecting public health, we know that kids are vectors for all kinds of things.

And the teachers and other school staff also need to have their health considered.

So I'd love just whatever additional information you can provide about when the school report will be ready.

Yeah, so for those who tuned in yesterday to the briefing, Dr. Duchin addressed this question from, And it's in our press release.

If you've not got it, I want to make sure that everybody gets a chance to get that, and we can follow up with you on that particular piece.

I think the thing that we're learning about this virus is right now worldwide, it's not affecting children.

We don't know if they're carriers.

We don't know enough about that, but it's not affecting.

It's really affecting people who are 60 years and older.

and people who have underlying health conditions.

Now, if a child has an underlying health condition, that puts them into a different category.

One of the things we learned about H1N1 is it was actually disruptive to the system when we closed schools down.

And so the recommendation from public health at this point is we do not close schools.

If we have a confirmed COVID within a school system, we will work with that school district, and if proper, we will close that school district down for cleaning in those areas.

So at this point, we're not asking for people to close schools down.

One of the things that we see that happens in that environment, as you can appreciate, is when you have working parents, especially in a variety of our healthcare arenas, if they have to stay home, it pulls them out of our First responders that pulls them out of the arena of our healthcares and our systems and we need them there.

And knowing that the children have not been where we have seen critical outcomes around death or even strong hospitalization, is we're not recommending at this time that schools are closed.

We're working with them on mitigation strategies about what can you do to keep your environment cleaner, proper hand washing, gel, sanitary, all those things around helping to mitigate within those environments.

But at this time, not recommending closing schools.

And that will be consistent unless something really changes based on the disease that we know currently.

To your question about the testing, the capacity, the state reported yesterday that they've had no backlogs in their testing.

So I think that their capacity is currently there.

And I think now with the UDEP coming out with 1,000 a day, I can't speak to their capacity, but I think if they're operating and standing up 1,000 a day, they've built their teams in order to be able to respond to that level.

We'll see what is unfolding in real time, so I think we'll keep an eye on that.

But I'm feeling better that more capacity is coming online.

It helps us get it out to the community and the people who need those testing.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

I have a few questions as well.

When we talk about the mitigation strategy, has public health put out recommendations for how many hand washing facilities per population units that each city should have in our county?

We, I can go back and look.

I have not been in any of those conversations that we have put out recommendation out.

I know that there's been some conversations internally here.

It sounds like I was told coming over, but we have not put out that recommendation out at this point.

Okay, great.

Yes, I think that came from me.

We're very interested in additional portable hand-washing facilities across our city as a mitigation strategy.

Can you talk a little bit more about the incubation period?

If an individual feels that they had come in contact with somebody who may have been sick, how long do you think that it would maybe take for somebody's symptoms to start showing?

Good question.

So, again, science in real time.

What we're seeing is that We're telling people to quarantine for 14 days.

We've had onsets as early that we've seen here around, you know, four or five days, and some that are even later than that.

So we're telling people two weeks is that if they've come in close contact, it's most likely with people who are going to be in close contact with somebody who is a known case.

oftentimes with their family members in facilities where there's constant, you know, a number of hours that they spend with folks are probably most likely to be able to become infected.

So we ask them if they've been in contact with a close contact that they quarantine themselves, home quarantine themselves for 14 days.

Okay, thank you very much.

Another question about communication with some of our providers.

I appreciate Council Member Morales' question about schools.

Is there any specific protocol to any of our preschools, early learning facilities, and perhaps some of our colleagues later?

You don't have to jump in right now, but put a note that we're interested in how we're communicating with our SPP providers and CCAP providers.

Any specific directive to those who are on the younger age?

Yeah, so, yeah, thank you.

That's a good question as well.

So, I will say that the school guidance is coming out as from preschool to college.

So, it's not just K through 12.

Okay.

And what about zero to three?

Any specific guidance?

Zero to 30?

Three.

Oh, zero to three.

Yeah.

It's a big group.

Are there 30 years?

I guess there are many still in school.

So, yes, I don't have anything on the zeros yet.

Okay.

I just really focused on preschool, schools, aged kids, and adult learning.

Okay, one quick comment.

As we talk about making sure people stay home if they feel sick or if they need to care for a loved one, we want to remind people that they have paid sick and safe days in the city and in the state.

One area where we know that people can access their paid sick and safe days if they're not feeling sick is when their school is closed by a public official.

One thing that we'll potentially be bringing forward and would love Publix Health input on this is making sure that we amend our city statute as well so that it doesn't have to be closed by a public official for the parents within a school or a child care facility to get access to those paid days.

Thank you and because you know a lot of these schools we saw maybe a dozen or so both early learning facilities and schools close out of an abundance of caution which we appreciate people are taking the steps to keep their facilities very clean in light of the virus, but we want to make sure that those parents who are working parents anywhere in the city know that they can access that paid sick and safe leave.

Yeah, that's a really good point.

You know, we advise, we're giving these recommendations out, but as you know, it's the school's authority to be able to make that decision that what they want to do in abundance of caution and to protect their kids.

It's their call.

We are happy to advise and help navigate and talk about that with them.

Excellent.

Thank you.

And then I think the last question for me, if the council colleagues have any other questions, given the news that I think is spreading very fast when an individual is identified with coronavirus, for example, we're finding out from Twitter when somebody has a virus and Amazon sends out an alert.

That's great.

I'm glad that they're encouraging people to stay home and taking public health recommendations.

What is the private sector's responsibility for notifying public health in addition to what you mentioned about individuals?

How does the private sector as businesses inform public health of when there's an outbreak?

Or not an outbreak, I'm sorry.

Wrong word.

Well, if the public health system is working as it should, we should know before they do.

Okay.

So, again, if they are a confirmed case, those lab reports should be coming to us.

And the thing that sometimes they're a little ahead of us.

If we have, for example, if you have a large employer that we notify an individual that they are positive for COVID, then they may be reaching out to their employer before we're able to get to their employer to let them know.

And again, you know, this is going to be fluid and changing.

If, you know, when we talk about if we're up in the thousands, the communication becomes more difficult in sequencing.

Colleagues, any additional questions?

I will note, I appreciate the proactive response that Public Health has had along with the partners in King County to identify isolation.

I have a question, Chairwoman.

Thank you, Council Member Moraes.

Yes, I hear you.

Chairwoman?

Yes, I have a question council chairwoman, please go ahead if you're watching We can hear you councilmember whereas go ahead One second.

I if you're watching on TV councilmember whereas I can still hear you Okay, I got it.

Okay.

I know I appreciate the questions that you've asked to focus on the children and and the vulnerable populations, but I wanted to know what we're doing for outreach for our elderly community.

Thank you, Council Member Juarez.

Yeah, so I will We have a, it's called a community mitigation team that is together and working on recommendations as well as outreach.

I haven't sat in that call center to know where they've done specifically.

I'll tell you where my attention has been is really working with long-term care facilities across our county and within the city is to making sure that they are using the best precautions that they know in order around infection control within their environments.

So, our most vulnerable that we're concerned about because of the congregate setting and the ability to spread easily, is within those long-term care facilities.

So my attention has been there.

And we have some community teams that are together and really developing strategies.

Again, really looking if the 20% who are most vulnerable are 60 and older and people with underlying health conditions, as they're developing, how do we reach into that community?

How do we educate them?

How do we get the information they need?

Council Member Juarez, do you have any additional questions?

Council Member Mosqueda.

No, thank you very much.

Councilmember Juarez, if I just might add, later on in the presentation, we can provide a little additional context in terms of what the City of Seattle is doing with regard to our outreach and engagement efforts.

And obviously, the focus populations that you've referenced are ones that we have keen interest in making sure to get the information that they need.

And Jason Johnson and others at the table can speak to that a little bit more a little later in our presentation.

Okay, wonderful.

Colleagues, any additional question?

Council Member Juarez, thank you for your question.

Again, thank you so much.

Mr. Worsham, we are appreciative of the isolation facilities.

We appreciate the containment strategies.

I know that public health is always I think this council wants to be as supportive as we possibly can.

Obviously, you've been working in close contact with the executive team at the table here.

If there's anything we can do to help support you as you roll out additional sites or strategies, especially for the elderly and for those who are working in long-term care facilities, as well as any others who are working with vulnerable populations, as I know we'll talk about later, please let us know.

We really appreciate your work.

And with that, we will let you run if you need to.

Thank you.

Okay, as Director Warsham leaves the table, I will add our appreciation, the mayor's appreciation for Director Hayes and Dr. Duchin's incredible work.

They have been working around the clock and certainly public health has been doing an incredible job in terms of managing the situation.

So with that, the next element of our presentation today, we wanted to shift now to the city's operational response.

And we'll start with Acting Director Laurel Nelson for the Office of Emergency Management.

I wanted to make sure we shared a little bit of the structural contours of how from the World Health Organization on down to CDC, to the Department of Health at the state level, to our local public health agencies, just structurally how that apparatus works at a high level, and then separately, Having stood up our emergency operations functions, wanted to make sure we level set a little bit in terms of how we're organized.

And I'll take a moment to acknowledge that we've also invited back to the table former Director Barb Graf, who has not left the region yet.

And we should lean in on the fact that she is one of, with her 40 years of experience in emergency management, we have one of the nation's leading experts on emergency preparedness in our backyard.

We should certainly tap her expertise while we still have it.

So Barb is able to help us answer some questions today as well.

And with that, and also with the leadership of Barb and Laurel, we are one of the few accredited emergency management programs across the country.

So we should be very proud of the work that they have done and the work of the entire cabinet to date.

So with that, Laurel, if you can provide some context.

Great.

Thanks, Councilmembers, for allowing us to be here and share our story.

So first off, I want to acknowledge not only the work of my colleagues here at the table and the first responders, but back in the Emergency Operations Center, behind the scenes are all the staff.

They're working very hard.

on a number of these missions and ensuring that we're responding effectively to the community needs under this situation.

So, as many of you have been briefed, the Office of Emergency Management is really responsible for coordinating our citywide capability, and that involves the planning that we do on an ongoing basis.

Since 2007, the city has had a pandemic influenza incident annex.

And with that, when we faced the 2009 H1N1 virus, we took that plan along with exercises that we had conducted to help guide our response then and it's helping to guide our response now.

Since 2009, we have constantly used interdepartmental stakeholders to be able to do our ongoing planning and that continues to be what we're doing today.

The city has good muscle memory when it comes to good principles of good planning.

So it's something that we do year in and year out.

And so we've already got that great network with our colleagues to be able to do that planning.

So with that planning, it helped us jumpstart a response for what we're facing now with COVID.

As Mike mentioned, or Deputy Mayor Fong mentioned, this is an international response.

And from the World Health Organization down to the CDC, who then guides what happens at the State Department level, state department health and then down to our public health Seattle King County.

We have to be lockstep with our local public health and we have been.

We have great working relationships with them and with that we have also got an office of emergency management staff member embedded in their health and medical area command and have been doing so since the middle part of February.

So we are in concert with them when it comes to our planning and response.

In addition to just drawing on those planning efforts, many of you know and we've been here before, Barb has been here before, I'm briefing you out on after actions on previous activations that we have.

We leverage those experiences each time to build upon what we can do to be able to be nimble and adaptive and this is a scenario that we're having to do that.

All of our COVID planning and preparation, as I mentioned, is reliant not only on the Public Health Seattle-King County, but also on the Northwest Healthcare Response Network and our hospitals.

So, on an ongoing basis, we have dialogues with all of our stakeholders.

Those stakeholders are in constant meetings with us annually on a monthly basis in our committee meetings that we hold.

So, those relationships are already there.

So, as Deputy Mayor Fong mentioned, since mid-February, the Office of Emergency Management has been leading the citywide planning effort to get us prepared for COVID response.

And that's involved a number of factors.

So, I just want to share with you some of the things that we've been doing since mid-February and then transition to what it looks like and what we're currently dealing with.

So since mid-February, we've been doing every Tuesday planning meetings where we bring people down into the Emergency Operations Center.

We had, I believe, nine mission areas that we were focusing on, all elements out of that existing pandemic flu plan that I mentioned that was dated back to 2007. With that is a huge focus on what we do as a city to ensure continuity of operations for our different functions and essential functions.

So we have convened folks and working on those particular plans.

Other strings of missions that we've been working on is our workforce resiliency.

So how do we ensure that our workforce can come to work?

What does it look like when they get sick?

What does it look like when we need to take care of the hygiene practices, facilities that may be faced with having a COVID positive individual in that environment?

In addition to the COOP plans is really the backbone to that is what do we do from the IT side, the information technology side, to ensure that we can support teleworking.

So that looks at all aspects of Skype meetings, conference calls, and we do a lot of conference calls, and I will just say the Seattle squeeze was a great opportunity for us to practice that, and we really, again, create a great muscle memory with that.

We have to be prepared for a scenario of possibly upwards to 40% of our workforce being gone.

And that goes back to those continuity of operations plans.

So over the last few weeks, our departments, not only do they have a basic COOP plan, but we've asked them to go back and look at how they're going to operationalize those.

So when you look at the critical staff that need to do the functions of keeping power going, and keeping water flowing, what does that look like?

And then what can we do with the other employees who aren't necessarily in those critical roles, being able to support them for teleworking?

So, you know, we're looking at not only all the population that we need to serve in the city of Seattle, but we have to make sure that all those services, the emergency medical services, our fire response, our public safety, again, the power, the water, the solid waste, the wastewater system, all of those things, we have to make sure they are functional.

So all the city departments, especially our core operational departments, have those continuity of operations plans in addition to the legislative department also has your own continuity of operations plan.

Other key strategies that you've probably seen today were the teleworking, looking at social distancing.

So we, even though we haven't been officially required to do social distancing, we've been practicing that in the EOC.

So what does it look like if we need to be in the EOC and we need to spread people apart and be able to do that social distancing because work still needs to continue?

HR, our human resources department has been doing a huge body of work to make sure that we have our workforce ready to go and we can support them in a whole plethora of ways to make sure that they can be taken care of.

I'm going to let my colleagues in with Deputy Mayor Sixkiller and Director Jason Johnson talk about the initiatives and the focus that we've been doing on vulnerable populations.

We are lockstep when it comes to the communication strategy and thank you for continuing to echo all those positive strategies that we as individuals can take out in the community.

But again, we need to be lockstep with public health and we have done everything we can to keep amplifying those messages out into the community.

We've been working with the business sector, so you'll hear from my colleagues, Director Bobby Lee, to hear what's going on in the community as well as in businesses.

In February, I also want to share with you, we were already leaning forward on what it would look like if we had to open up the Emergency Operations Center.

So we were already strategizing, planning assumptions, and having a concept of operations of what that would look like.

Obviously, we're in that mode now, and as Deputy Mayor Fong mentioned, We are currently activated right now, Monday through Friday, 9 to 1 a.m.

to do.

And again, we're trying to practice not having a lot of people in a space and, you know, looking at what that's going to look like.

With that, I will share that we are also looking at what it may look like for a virtual EOC.

We may be at a point that we need to look at how do we do coordination calls and how do we do Skyping and doing those types of meetings beyond having people physically in one space.

So just to give you some idea of what we're focusing on currently in the Emergency Operations Center.

Clearly, and this is a thread no matter what activation we do, we have to maintain situational awareness.

So we're looking at all those data points that allow us to paint the picture of what's going on out there and try to be ahead of the curve as best as possible.

So how are we tracking absenteeism of our workforce?

What critical facilities are closed or open?

What are the impacts to the community out there?

What is the call volume at the Customer Service Bureau?

What are the call volumes at our 911 centers?

In addition to that, is this close relationship with public health?

How can we support them and coordinate with them as closely as possible?

The third objective that we're focused on is, again, just amplifying in every possible venue, avenue that we can on what those messages are for our community members.

The fourth objective we're focusing on is just maintaining city services.

Again, that goes down practically down to the departments and what they're doing with their COOP plans.

A fifth objective is focused on safety and security of our at-risk populations.

And again, you'll hear from my colleague, Director Johnson, on that.

And then our last one is we have to be nimble.

So our sixth objective is how do we address and identify any policy issues?

One of the things that we always teach in the Emergency Operations Center is we have to be able to leverage the brain trust of the people that not only are in the Emergency Operations Center but also our colleagues in other departments and agencies and organizations.

We are going, this is a novel situation and we have to be nimble and we have to be adaptive.

So anyone can bring a great idea to the table that can help do that problem solving for those particular solutions.

So I just want to touch there was a question about schools and daycares So the Department of Education and Early Learning has been in the Emergency Operations Center along with the school district so deal has contracts with well over 197 daycare centers and 84 preschools and they are in the contact with those preschools and with the schools to make sure that we understand what's going on with them and what those impacts are and I will also just share with you, we've been reaching out to all of the college systems and understanding what's going on with the college systems and maintaining that as another data point on what they're seeing for their student population and how they're having to adapt their operations depending on what they're dealing with for COVID.

With that, that's my piece.

Thank you.

Council Member Herbold.

Thank you.

Just two questions.

The first being that the mayor's communication to department directors on March 1st talked a little bit about the continuity of operations plans and identified a goal of March 13th to have those plans operationalized.

Has that date been reevaluated?

It seems a little far out, but I don't know everything that operationalizing the plan, what all that consists of.

Yeah, thanks for that question.

We are staying with that date.

A lot of work has already been done, Council Member Herbold.

They just need to look at, for instance, you may hear from the chief talk about more tactically as they look at their workforce, what does that look like on them needing to pivot their operations if they lose, just like Kirkland's lost 25% of their workforce.

So what does that look like for the fire department?

What does that look like for the police department?

What employees do not need to be field responders?

And what do we do with them for telecommuting etc?

So I think a lot of work is already in the hopper and Going successfully.

We just will keep with our March 13th date at this point I'll just add councilmember

to just add a little bit to Laurel's comments.

As we've stated multiple times too that the dynamic is, I mean the situation is dynamic and we are reacting in real time.

For instance, the new public health recommendations offered yesterday, initiated around-the-clock discussions by the executive with regard to new guidance that we were providing to our city workforce and supervisors and managers with regard to some of the provisions that you saw from our guidance earlier today.

So I think my short answer is we will be pushing aggressively for folks to conclude their continuity of operations planning.

But as with everything in this current situation, deadlines are shifting in real time.

Thank you.

And my second question relates to the snapshot report out of the Office of Emergency Management and the OEC operations from, and this is a snapshot report from the 3rd at 4 o'clock.

There are A couple issues that are related that have been identified as common concerns across all departments, one of those being, and I think they fall into OEM's bailiwick, which is why I'm directing the question to you, concern about management of resources, and specifically cleaning supplies, as well as having a common set of standards on policies for cleaning for each of the departments.

Can you talk a little bit about that?

Yeah, so as you can imagine out in the community, we're already seeing PURL and all kinds of products go off the shelves.

So in the Emergency Operations Center, we have the Finance Administrative Services representing our logistics section.

So we're looking at how we centralize ordering of supplies.

and those include those type of hygiene products and cleaning supplies.

FAS has also been working in concert with human resources to address how do we effectively retain the cleanliness of our facilities if for any reason we have a sick employee or we have a positive COVID tested employee within the city.

So they are looking at their contracts and ensuring that we've got those types of service contracts in place to be able to do and support those missions.

So just do we have, this was identified by all of the departments as a concern a little less than two days ago.

So do we have enough cleaning products now?

And do we have a common set of standards for cleaning?

across all the departments?

We have a common standard set of cleaning parameters.

I don't know about enough supplies.

They are, they've been doing inventorying as well as trying to centralize all the orders that we have from the different departments.

I can't tell you off the top of my head what we have for actual quantities at this point.

And Council Member Harbaugh, I'll just add in some ways is maybe a perfect segue into Chief Scoggins and some of the first responder aspects of this.

But I think what we'll hear throughout this conversation is that in terms of supplies, whether it be cleaning products or for our own city facilities, but also personal protective equipment and other things for our first responders are part of a global discussion that we're looking at.

And frankly, these are dynamics that every jurisdiction across the country are dealing with.

And there is going to need to be some support from the federal and state level with regard to some of these aspects that no Chief Scoggins can speak to as well.

So we can get into some of that here.

Yeah, and I just flagged this because this is something that is listed under all departmental concerns.

I totally appreciate the unique concerns of our first responders.

And Director Goings, I know, is working on this very specific question right now as we actually are exploring the conversation very actively in the OC about centralizing purchasing functions in order to get a little more coordination and a more real-time understanding of the precise question you're asking about.

Before we move on to Chief Scoggins, just a quick follow-up question to that, if I may.

When we look at the number of supplies that we either need or are currently lacking, I understand you maybe want to get back to us with that type of data.

Pursuant to Councilmember Herbold's question, can we also ask those who are using the cleaning supplies in our buildings if they have the supplies that they need?

When I was walking in and I saw folks who are cleaning our first floor yesterday, I asked, do you feel like you have everything you need?

And it was sort of this deer in the headlights look.

I think people don't know what they necessarily need.

I am concerned about those who are cleaning our buildings.

We know it's not airborne, but given the type of work they do with potentially water splashing and other things, I think it would be helpful for them to have masks.

I'm not a health care expert, but just I think asking our public health officers if they think that those that are doing the cleaning also need that type of supplies would be helpful.

And then Council Member Herbold may have asked about this, but can I ask you a little bit more directly?

Is there anything that the city can do to, in partnership with the Attorney General, to address the price gouging of cleaning supplies for our public?

Anything that we know of that we've been called on to help with?

Councilor, that's a great question, and we'll flag that as something for our team to discuss, and if there is something specific, we will engage you on it.

If it's okay, we can move on to, I do think Chief Scoggins has some important information to share with regard to the work of our first responders, and perhaps we can flag a few questions that have come up that you might be able to address as well.

Sure.

So, good afternoon, members of the council, and I'll give you an overview from the first responder perspective.

As always, I think it's important to start off with thank yous, and there's a lot of thank yous to our public health partners.

Been engaged in many phone calls and conversations to make sure that we're doing the right thing as we serve community.

Our King County EMS Director, Michelle Plourd, and our King County Medical Director, Dr. Tom Ray, as well as our own, our medical director, Dr. Michael Sayre.

They have been providing the oversight and guidance that we need to make the decisions for our responders out in the field.

And most of all, thank you to our first responders, not just Seattle, but all over King County.

Many of you heard that three agencies in King County, Kirkland, Woodinville, And Redmond have firefighters under quarantine because of an exposure.

That just goes to show that first responders do not stop responding.

They continue to go.

And sometimes you can't see what's going to get you from time to time, but you still go and try to serve community.

On the pandemic plan, we're in stage three of our SFD pandemic and infectious disease plan, and I'll be talking through what that exactly means for the Seattle Fire Department because it assists us in our planning and our coordination.

Another thing that you should know, as of this past Sunday, we've stood up daily conference calls with all of our King County fire partners, all the chiefs around the county, to make sure we're moving in one direction together under the guidance of our medical direction and our EMS director to make sure that we're serving all the members of the county.

And I got to thank all of my partners out there throughout the county, all the fire chiefs who are truly engaged in trying to make sure that if Kirkland has 25% of their workforce under quarantine, can that city still get the services they need delivered?

And we're circling up to try to make sure that happens.

You know, one of the first steps in our pandemic plan in SAGE III is to make sure we review all of our training procedures throughout the department.

And we have a real-time team that has been doing that, modifying that, changing that.

And this week, we've started rolling out our train-the-trainer and moving through the entire organization.

Even though we've had this training many times, We're doing an active touch on every firefighter in the organization to make sure they're retrained on our policies, procedures, and donning and doffing all of these, all the PPEs they need out in the field.

Earlier this week, the Seattle Police Department, they participated in that training with us, the train-the-trainer, so they can also engage in training their people.

And that's important for us.

The impact for us could be very real, and just to give you some stats on what this looks like for us, about 1,200 to 1,300 calls per week would fall kind of under this umbrella that could be this type of response.

About 100 to 130 calls per week are respiratory related, and that's per week.

and that equals about 4,800 to 5,200 calls per month that could fall under this umbrella.

So that becomes very important for us that we're paying attention to it.

Since we've been monitoring this since the middle of January, we've sent out four communications to the Seattle Fire Department on progress and changes that we have been making.

We've modified our dispatch procedures three times now under our medical direction to make sure we're asking additional questions And that becomes very important for us.

When that call comes into the 911 center, we want to try to equip the firefighters with as much information as possible so they don't walk in blind to what they could be facing.

So we've continued to expand that.

And we haven't done that alone.

We've done that in partnership with NORCOM, which dispatches for the North and the Eastern Agency, and VALICOM, which dispatches for the Southern and the Eastern Agencies in King County, along with Seattle Fire Dispatch.

Just yesterday, The team got together, had another meeting with our medical directors, and we pushed out another change as early as this morning.

That's very important for us to try to equip our people with the right information.

We've given our crews a direction on what to do when they arrive on scene and different things are taking place because we could miss one along the way.

We could not get correct information, which happens quite often.

So we needed to have a game plan for that for our crews to make adjustments on the fly, out in the field.

We need to have a plan that if our public safety partners in PD, if they're walking into something, we need to be able to pause them from walking into it, hopefully equip them with what they need so they're safe and they're protected.

And that becomes very important.

We've given guidance on transporting patients.

And thank you to the public.

I should say that.

We've been following the public health guidance, and we've been broadcasting a lot.

If you have a fever or a cold, please do not use the 911 system for that.

That's not what the 911 system is built for.

The 911 system is built for those traumatic, emergencies that we face, cardiac events, strokes, all those type of things that we deal with on a daily basis, but not for the cold and the flu type scenario.

And what we've seen is we've been tracking our calls over the last eight weeks and they have not spiked.

So thank you to community for paying attention.

But for those patients that we do respond to and they may have those symptoms of a cold or a flu, we're talking to them on scene.

to identify if they have a primary physician, have they contacted that primary physician, and to try to connect them up that way.

And if we do have to transport a patient to the hospital with these signs and symptoms, what we do is we put a call in ahead to the hospital that we're going to, so they're prepared to receive the patient, so they have as much information as possible, so they can provide that care.

We provided direction on decontamination of crews and equipment.

That's something that's very important to us since we're dealing with the public on many times a day, and there's a process.

CDC does give guidance on decontamination procedure, and we're following CDC's guidance, whether we're deconning equipment, vehicles, uniforms, or any of those things.

We're following the best practices that are out there.

and then exposure concerns.

We're having open and honest conversations with our personnel.

Today will be day four of our department-wide meetings via Skype, and we're allowing our personnel to ask questions directly to our medical director, to myself.

And to other members of my leadership team, so they're well informed on all the things that they need to do.

We have also been tracking our inventories, and that's important for us.

And I spoke to some of the numbers.

If we responded to 200 of these type of incidents per week, we have supplies for four weeks of full outfitted PPE, firefighters responding out in the field.

But we probably won't be responding 200 per week.

And then we've stretched that out to six weeks or eight weeks based on, you know, what the probabilities are.

So supplies are very important for us.

I know we, as well as the police department, we have a lot of orders out there because our goal now is to backfill all those supplies.

So we don't know how long this is going to go on.

And we just want to be prepared as we continue to move forward.

That's all I have, unless you have any questions for me.

Thank you so very much.

I know that some of our colleagues at the table do have a hard stop at 2.30, so we want to get to some of the questions around how we are serving a lot of the vulnerable folks that your members see every day, Chief.

So thank you for that summary.

Is there any questions for the Chief?

Council Member Herbold.

One of the questions I had asked in advance is whether or not testing on first responders is being prioritized.

The response we received is that yes, priority of tests is determined by the Washington State Department of Health in consultations for the Centers for Disease Control, and it refers to an earlier answer.

But I don't, that answer didn't quite get for me, give to me the answer that I was seeking about, given the testing protocols, how We make sure that first responders are going to the top of the list given the testing protocols that already exist.

And then just a question I have is whether or not it makes sense to advocate to the CDC for a change in testing protocols as it relates to first responders.

I'm a little worried that people have to be symptomatic in order to and get the referral from a public health provider in order to get testing particularly when it comes to our first responders and considering that people are asymptomatic typically for I think I've heard a week.

So, that's another, I know we don't control that, because these are protocols that are set by the CDC, but whether or not we should be advocating for different ones for our first responders.

Thank you for the question, Council Member Herbold.

That's a two-part question.

So, will we advocate heavily if any of our people are exposed?

Absolutely.

We have the resources to do that, and I think we know the right places to go.

Our goal is to take care of our people.

On the asymptomatic piece, you know, there's a caution there.

We don't want to provide a false positive.

We don't want a person to get a test too soon and it gives a false positive result and they think they're okay and a week later they start showing signs and symptoms and then they have to go take another test and then that one shows positive.

So that's very important, the order of the test.

And when we get the test, enough of the virus has to be in your system for the test to actually be accurate.

And if we test too soon, it could give a person a sense of false hope, and then they get sick a week later, and then they've been released around their family, around their friends, back working, back serving community, and then we can have a domino effect for something like that actually taking place.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Herbold.

Colleagues, any additional questions for the Chief?

Okay, great.

Deputy Mayor Fong?

Sure.

So, next up is, I'll just comment that when we initiated conversations with the Council, multiple Council members raised one of the first issues that you have made a priority was our work with regard to communicating and engaging with vulnerable populations, refugee and immigrant communities, non-English speaking communities, And the mayor shares your prioritization with that regard.

And we have had a team working in this space for some time, wanted to provide an opportunity for them to share with you some of the work in that space.

And then we would close with work that Deputy Mayor Sixkiller and Director Johnson have been working on specifically related to the homelessness population.

So with that, I'll turn it over to folks to talk a little bit about the outreach efforts.

Great, thank you, Deputy Mayor Fong.

So from the Department of Neighborhoods, DON has served as a lead on our outreach and engagement efforts with support and partnership with OED, who is engaging with small businesses and employers, as well as OIRA, who is the Center for Language Access Plan.

We are engaging with 14 specific non-English community liaisons to supplement the work, and at the guidance of King County Public Health.

to extend our outreach in focus with non-English populations, specifically with senior populations.

And the goal here is to extend already translated materials and provide interpretation of those materials and connect potentially senior groups and non-English speaking groups into services and align with King County Public Health.

We are also working on regular call schedule with our multiple organizations, community-based organizations, nonprofit partners, business organizations to provide timely information and guidance, again, in partnership with King County Public Health, as well as tracking community events of all shapes and sizes so that we're accurately communicating that to community.

So I'll turn it over quickly to Bobby Lee.

Good deal.

I'll keep my comments short, and if you have questions, then I can dive in.

So the business community is pretty diverse, and so there are different universe within the business community that we've been interacting with.

This morning with the hospitality industry certainly has been a disaster situation for them.

And then, but in general, they do feel very concerned about how this is being played out, and they are, I think, moving much faster in some ways than perhaps the public sector in trying to address this.

And we'll see this getting played out more often.

The feedback that we're getting from small businesses and medium-sized businesses is really around access to capital, to have enough reserves to get through this.

The average small business, which would be a small business defined as 50 employees or less, their monthly rent is about $9,000 a month.

And so that gives you a reference point in terms of some of the costs that they would have to incur when they close.

And so we're trying to find ways to provide more relief in terms of licensing and tax potentially.

But also, at the same time, look at federal funding because the Congress has passed the 8.3 billion package around this issue.

So we're tracking that as well.

One of the areas that we could immediately potentially move forward is the dislocated workers program for people who are laid off from this situation so the employees can access training.

The average cost for training is around $10,000 per employee on average.

We will, we have directed my staff and Workforce Development Council to start moving dollars toward dislocated workers program.

And that's some of the things that we'll be working right away to address a potential unemployment rise in the near future.

We're also conducting extensive economic impact analysis and we've done some preliminary ones that just got sent out today.

We'd be happy to share that as well.

I'll leave it at that level for now.

Any questions here?

Before we move on, I want to just make sure I understood what you said.

You believe that some of the federal relief dollars might be available to address shortfalls that small businesses are experiencing?

As I understand it, out of the $8.3 billion, $1 billion is set aside for small businesses.

Depending on how this gets played out, it could be a loan or maybe potentially even grants, but we're not really clear on that yet.

But the challenging part, and the mayor explained this morning, is the ability to get the money to the local folks quickly is the issue, is the time, the ability to move fast enough.

And so what we're going to do is reallocate our existing federal dollars around workforce development.

Meanwhile, look as much relief on the taxes and fees and licensing while we also try to convince the federal side to move quickly.

and that $1 billion for the small businesses.

Okay.

Yeah, I just received a message from a small business owner in West Seattle who has spoken with other West Seattle businesses, and they're seeing 20 to 30% negative year-over-year comparative sales, whereas most were positive 5 to 10% before the coronavirus hit.

And from their perspective, A 25 to 35% sales swing will put many businesses out of business within two to three months.

I think that's consistent with some of the numbers that you named.

So I appreciate that you are looking to see what resources we have available for those small business owners, but as well for members of the workforce who are being told to go home.

Thank you.

I do want to emphasize a point that Bobby has alluded to, if not spoken to directly, which is that we're looking at the federal resources, because federal resources can flow directly to small, to individual small businesses.

Because of the state constitution's restrictions on the gift of public funds and lending, the city is not in a position to direct, whether you thought it would be a good policy idea or not, you're not legally in a position to direct relief to individual businesses.

Thank you.

And just, council members, we transition over to the director.

Ku Vu from OIRA.

I want to just second the impact that we're seeing on businesses in the Chinatown International District and Little Saigon area.

And as we look at and think through our language access plan, really extending the message around the stigma associated with COVID.

So please go ahead.

And just before you begin, I do know that some folks may have to leave at 2.30.

If there is members of the cabinet who have to leave, we appreciate you being here in case folks have to step out.

And I know that there's a number of questions.

I appreciate the large group that you brought today, Deputy Mayor.

Council members, Seattle is fortunate to have a immigrant and refugee office.

We are just among a few dozen cities across the country to have a freestanding office.

And with that, a couple of national best practice programs that we've deployed in this effort.

One is our ethnic media program.

And over the weekend and to date, we've sent out in-language content to hundreds of contacts.

And my communications officer tells me that those contacts have reached an estimated 87,621 community members.

And that's based on the audience size of those outlets.

We've translated public health guidance into 10 languages.

And those have been posted on social media.

that has been republished or engaged with 3,655 times, emailed out to our list of more than 5,000 contacts.

That includes community leaders, our Immigrant Refugee Commission, nonprofit staff, grassroots organizers.

So a really concerted effort to get the message out there and help people understand what the situation is and what they need to do.

Another part of this is language access.

This is another best practice program that has been about two, almost three years in the making.

And here, we're very lucky that we're one of the few cities in the country that has a full-time language access specialist.

And we have deployed Peggy over to public health, have embedded her in the communications team there so that we can streamline the processes and leverage the efficiencies so that any product that comes out for public health can be utilized in Seattle and other parts of King County.

And so we've committed for Peggy to be part of that team for the next couple of months, really lay a strong foundation there.

We've been providing language access coordination for other city departments.

And so you'll begin to see across the city signs for the fire stations, for our front lobby in City Hall, for Seattle Municipal Tower, and the Parks and Recreation Community Centers in language, in six languages, telling people that if you have these symptoms, please take these steps.

And then the last thing I want to, two quick things.

We've been providing technical assistance to Seattle Public Schools on how they communicate with families if there is a confirmed case in the schools.

And then there is some advocacy happening right now with USCIS to stop the public charge rule in our region because they themselves have admitted publicly that that rule could lead to the kind of situations that would make our public health system worse.

Thank you very much.

Any questions?

Seeing none, please continue.

Just, Council Member Muscade, I appreciate your comments.

Chief Scoggins and I do need to step away.

Don't turn it over to Deputy Mayor Sixkiller and Director Johnson.

But before I leave, I just want to emphasize, I appreciate the council's engagement around this topic today.

At the same time, also appreciate your quick consideration of the Mayor's declaration, proclamation of emergency.

Some of the topics we've discussed today are very much central to the ability for the executive to remain nimble and flexible in our response.

Issues around purchasing and supplies speak directly to the emergency order your reference to Potential price gouging a set is also fits directly into potential future Orders associated with our response.

So appreciate your consideration.

We look forward to working with you and with that I'll turn it over to Deputy Mayor Sixkiller.

Thank you very much.

Deputy Mayor

Good afternoon, council members.

Thank you so much for the opportunity.

I want to sort of underscore just before I turn it to Director Johnson a few things.

One is that, you know, we began planning back in early February.

at the direction of the mayor, both preparation and beginning to think about how we would respond to this type of outbreak among our vulnerable population.

As we've learned more about COVID-19, obviously we've begun to focus more also on those over 60 and others who are vulnerable to this outbreak, but with a particular emphasis on those who are living unsheltered within the city.

But part of that response, though, has been working very closely with Seattle King County Public Health and the King County Department of Community and Human Services.

And I just want to say, you know, having overseen some of this work with Director Johnson, I'm really very pleased with the level of coordination we are doing with the county.

particularly with our homeless population.

And that is work that's been going on now for several weeks, not just over the last couple of days.

So we've tried to really take a regional approach here to our response and prep.

Director Johnson will talk through, walk you through some of that.

As I think you're beginning to hear, you know, we have, the county announced its expansion of various shelter units here within the city.

We earlier today announced our expansion efforts as well.

We also have made some other decisions regarding vulnerable populations, including beginning to curtail those programs, especially within Seattle Parks and Rec that are specifically designed to serve individuals that are 60 or older or that fall in the category of vulnerable.

So we are taking the steps necessary to make sure that we're heeding the advice of public health.

And obviously this is an evolving situation, so we'll continue to do that as well.

I also wanna mention we are also working very closely with the Seattle Public Schools.

Both the superintendent and I have been in contact with the district as recently as this morning on some of the decisions that they are making.

And we understand that they also are updating their guidance just for general operations as well.

With that, I'll turn it to Director Johnson.

Thank you very much.

And, Director Johnson, thank you so much for being here.

I know, colleagues, you may have a number of questions.

Again, I'm going to remind folks that I'm going to ask folks to hold until the end, so please keep a list of any questions that you have so that you can get through your full presentation, and then we'll go down the list if there are any questions.

Thank you, Director Johnson.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Good to be with you.

So, as you know, the Human Services Department serves Seattle and King County's most vulnerable communities, providing services specifically for people who are experiencing homelessness, for the aging community, as well as for individuals who are living with disabilities and severe illness.

These are many of the same communities or same populations that are now face higher risk from the spread of COVID-19.

And so this body of work has had my full attention over the last few weeks and especially since Friday last week.

I've been leading a team from the Human Services Department who's been working inside of the EOC.

We've been preparing to update the city's pandemic response plan.

We've also been asked to develop an action plan to manage COVID-19 impacts for people experiencing homelessness.

So those are two bodies of work that the department has been steeped in over the last few weeks.

Additionally, the Human Services Department Aging and Disability Services Division, which works with homebound individuals and people who need in-home care, is working closely with the Washington State Department of Health and Public Health of Seattle-King County to ensure coordination and communication is aligned with best home care practices and public health guidance.

Specifically, over the last few days, our department has been leading an effort to ensure that there is good and aligned, consistent communication in support of our human service providers.

And we do that in partnership with King County DCHS, as well as with public health.

Specifically, we are making sure that we're all promoting the right information and that that information is consistent and that providers are hearing from their funders in a consistent manner.

We're also ensuring that all providers, especially those that are operating shelters, day centers, hygiene centers, or any congregate meal or other congregate kind of activities are very familiar with and in the practice of using public health's hygiene and sanitation guidelines.

And so we have a number of trainings, web trainings, that we'll be doing with service providers, again, in partnership with King County, DCHS, and public health throughout the month of March to make sure that All providers are familiar with those guidelines and are using those precautionary measures inside of their programming.

We've also been busy over the last couple of days assessing what needs providers have as well as assessing what their environments are like and if there are environments that are at a higher risk of continued spread of COVID-19.

So we have, between the city and the county, quite literally been surveying every one of our contracted providers who offer shelter and day center hygiene, transitional housing services, permanent supportive housing services, to try and assess the risk that individuals using those programs are at.

And then finally, the Human Services Department is acting as a central hub for information from providers.

We want to know and have asked providers to be in contact with us immediately if they are going to change any of their services.

So if they're going to reduce hours, if they're going to limit the number of people who can maybe access their facilities, if they have any reductions in staffing.

Those kind of items we're asking for folks to be in communication with us immediately so that we can help support them.

We've also been busy specifically on the homeless response.

So you received information earlier today on our efforts to expand the number of shelters that are available.

But we've also been really pushing the hygiene and sanitation guidelines from public health and ensuring that people have the materials they need to follow those guidelines.

We've been partnering again, with King County DCHS and Public Health through our EOCs, both through the Seattle EOC as well as King County EOC, to purchase the materials that we need in order to make those supplies available to providers so that they can adhere to the hygiene and sanitation guidelines.

We also want to make sure that outreach is still occurring for a population of people living unsheltered.

And we want to make sure We're not only pointing people in the direction of services that they need, but that we are distributing hygiene kits for individuals who are living unsheltered.

We have those kits now, but we know that we are going to be there in high demand and will soon be short on those hygiene kits.

So again, we're sort of expediting the purchase of those kits through our EOC so that we can ensure that our outreach teams have what they need as they engage with people.

The third piece that really has had our full focus and attention has to do with aging and disabled population.

So our Aging and Disability Services Division serves over 12,000 households across King County, providing in-home care and services to those individuals.

These are individuals who are vulnerable.

And that we want to make sure that any of our case managers, any of their in-home care providers, anyone accessing their home maybe to deliver meals or medication is adhering to standards that keep those individuals safe.

So that has been a big body of work over the last few days.

We want to ensure that continuity of services occurs.

Many of these individuals that we're serving are homebound and cannot access what they need.

without relying on individuals to visit their home.

And so it's really important for us, both as the provider of this service, but also as the contracted partner funding these services.

We want to make sure that people are adhering to public health standards as they engage with individuals in their home.

And then finally, I just wanted to flag that we are very aware of the risks for an aging population as they congregate in senior centers and at congregate meal sites.

So, we have also yesterday finalized some assessing of all of the senior centers and senior congregate meal sites that exist across the city and county so that we can, begin communication with them, pushing out the same level of information that we have been for shelter providers to them so that they are practicing the safety measures that we want in place.

But also we want to understand what kind of shifts to programming they are making given yesterday's new guidance from public health.

So we really want to understand if there's any changes, if they are encouraging individuals to not use senior centers and congregate meals.

And we are doing some background planning.

to ensure that if congregate meal sites should close or reduce hours or reduce, have any reduction in the number of people that they can serve, that we are ready to lean in and offer meal delivery services instead.

So with that, maybe I'll pause given time.

I know that council has received several answers to many of your specific questions.

But maybe I can pause there and see if there are any questions.

Excellent.

Well first, thank you very much for providing answers to some of the questions that have already been presented and especially to the folks that we have contracted with on behalf of the city to carry out the city's function as human service providers and those who work with our aging population.

Thanks to them directly for their ongoing work.

I know there's a number of questions colleagues.

I might just throw one out real quick.

Director Johnson, we heard about a 40% reduction in some of the Kirkland workforce population that was mentioned earlier in the presentation.

Do we have a sense from our direct service providers working in the human services, sorry, the contracted entities with our human services department if they've experienced any significant reductions in their workforce from folks staying home yet?

Yeah, so that's the kind of information we are asking to be provided to the department.

At this point, we're not getting information about their workforce as far as reductions or having a spike in people calling in sick or not wanting to be.

in service to the community in their normal capacity.

In fact, yesterday I spoke with Daniel Malone, Executive Director of DESC, and he affirmed that people are showing up to work, people are, you know, want to be engaged and understand the vulnerabilities that this specific population have, but he has not seen any kind of workforce reductions at this point.

Okay.

Council Colleagues, Council Member Herbold.

Thank you.

Three quick questions.

First, I would love just to know how many hygiene kits the navigation team has been able to distribute thus far.

I understand that there's a need for more.

It would be helpful to know how many have already been distributed and over what period of time.

Also, in the questions that you, the answers you provided to our earlier questions, you make note and you said so in your presentation today that you're contacting our contracted service providers to help them make assessments around public health for their operations.

One of the items that's mentioned is that You're recommending that they deploy Hygiene and sanitation recommendations as well.

I would love to know Beyond Urging them to deploy these recommendations for hygiene and sanitation I would like to know what role the city's playing if we're providing any any actual physical monetary assistance and then lastly I've talked already about my concern that the ability to be tested is bounded by a professional healthcare recommendation.

And I'm just, and so to me that what that means is Largely, it's going to be people who have providers contacting their providers and being able to get testing.

I'm wondering whether or not public health nurses who are going out into the field where people who live unsheltered are, organizations like Healthcare for the Homeless, do those individuals have the authority If they find people who are symptomatic, are they considered a healthcare professional as it relates to the CDC criteria for testing?

And that's it.

Thanks, so I'll have to get back to you on the actual number of hygiene kits distributed.

And, you know, related to the hygiene and sanitation guidelines, I mentioned two ways that the city is involved.

One, in partnership with King County DCHS and Public Health, we're going to be providing trainings to providers so that they have a deep level of understanding of the guidelines and why they're in place.

Those trainings also include a time of Q&A so that people can really understand and try to start asking questions about how those guidelines can be operationalized.

So that's a level of technical assistance that the city will be providing, again, in partnership with King County and Public Health.

We are also, I believe I mentioned, making a large order in coordination with King County through our EOCs.

And that's specifically so that providers have the materials they need in order to adhere to the sanitation and hygiene guidelines.

So we are not making a cash or fund available for them to do the purchase.

We figured that it would be a lot faster and potentially done even more cheaply for us to do a bulk purchase of materials through our EFCs.

And both the city and the county have made the same request through our EOCs for those materials.

On testing, I'll admit that I don't have the specifics of exactly who can sort of mandate or initiate that someone be tested, but I will offer that Healthcare for the Homeless has been a great partner to us, is deeply engaged, and we know that Many of the unsheltered population use the medical services that exist inside of shelters, that exist as part of outreach teams, that exist as part of the public health clinics.

And so all of those providers are really leaning in.

and making sure that they are aware both of guidance, but also aware of the conditions that people are presenting when they go into those facilities.

Perfect.

I just want to know whether or not those providers, and I understand you don't know the answer now, but whether or not those providers are authorized to get testing for the people that they come in contact with.

Thank you.

Any additional questions for Interim Director Johnson?

Director Johnson, thank you so much for that summary.

Deputy Mayor, any additional context to add?

Okay, I do appreciate the message that came from the mayor's office a few moments before we started this hearing this afternoon talking about how we were expanding access to shelter for folks.

Obviously, we'll want to continue working with you to continue to do so.

That's no surprise from this council.

But I appreciate the way that this was phrased.

We want to dispel any myths that are out there about people in inappropriately assigning this virus with those who are living unsheltered.

That is absolutely not the case.

As Council Member Herbold mentioned before, this virus knows no race and gender and race or ethnicity or class.

And we want to make sure that those who are in the position of not having a home because we haven't provided enough housing in this city or region, and those who don't have access to healthcare because we don't have universal healthcare, that we do what we need to do, especially in this crisis, to provide them with access to care and to housing.

So thank you for stepping up those efforts and helping to dispel that myth as well.

Is there anybody else on the panel that has not had a chance to speak that would like to still?

No, Council Member, I think we've concluded.

Council colleagues, any additional comments or questions?

Okay, thank you so much for all of you for being here.

Please extend our appreciation to your frontline staff and that includes the folks at the parks.

I didn't get a chance to hear from you, so thanks for being here.

And with that, we are going to go ahead and move into public comment.

Before I do that, I need to adopt the proposed agenda for today.

I'd like to move to adopt the proposed agenda for today's meeting.

It's been moved and seconded.

If there's no objection, the agenda will be amended to revise the order of business to both have public comment now and then our executive session.

Hearing no objection, the agenda is amended.

All those in favor of approving the agenda as amended, please vote aye and raise your hand.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposition?

Nobody voted no.

The motion carries.

The agenda is amended, and we do have one person signed up for public comment.

David, thank you for waiting.

David Haynes is here.

You have two minutes.

Thank you so much, David.

A hotline is on.

One second, David.

Try again, please.

A hotline, 8 a.m.

to 7 p.m.

doesn't seem so 24-7 urgent.

Spraying chemical only adds to the cancer-causing concerns, especially if not wiped down properly.

One second, David.

Just let me.

Folks, so sorry.

We have one person doing public comment.

If we could keep the volume down.

David, you can start your comment over.

It's appalling and a stalling of progress when a public safety committee who exempts drug pushers from jail, who destroy lives and imploded society are in charge of public response to the virus.

And so far their public health expertise has come up with hand washing stations and delays while promising more money to political supporters for testing.

Yet you can't get out of the library bathroom or the computers or the bus without touching something nasty, while hiring practices fail to hire those to clean proper.

And what about the homeless who can't even get proper shower services to shelters?

This justifies an investigation of social service providers.

All this while council policies offer treasonous and unconstitutional open border sanctuary for customs violators, foreign and domestic.

who need more than multilingual education in coughing and sneezing etiquette.

Because some people sit right behind you on the bus while leaning as close to bus rider in front of them as possible and coughs or sneezes as if they're trying to get you sick.

Maybe we need laws to stop the stall in progress while evil disease predators at the bus stop on 105th and Aurora are walking around the bus stop spitting into the wind and on people while the cops and rapid ride security refuse to show up because the guy didn't have any weapons.

Perhaps we need to do more than teach people how to cough and wash hands and emphasize never touch the sink handle, the door handle, or the toilet seat.

Because evil junkies splattering blood shooting up heroin is more of a public safety threat than things council responds to that get on international news.

Seattle seems to get excited when they have first deaths in the US to get Seattle in the national news.

But it doesn't distract from the fact council has already imploded society and endangers the first world innocence.

Proving we don't have well adjusted, trustworthy council leadership at the helm of public safety.

Perhaps councils, anyway, drinking and thinking derails progress.

The last council president proved that.

Thank you, David.

Is there anybody else who would like to provide public comment today?

Okay, seeing none, council colleagues, the council will be at ease until our presenters for the executive session arrive.

The council's at ease.

Thank you.

you .

Hello again, everyone.

It is 3.02 on March 5th.

As presiding officer, I'm announcing the Seattle City Council will now convene an executive session.

The purpose of this executive session is to discuss pending or potential litigation.

The council's executive sessions are an opportunity for the council to discuss confidential legal matters with the city attorneys as authorized by law.

A legal monitor from the city attorney's office is always present to ensure the council reserves questions of policy for open session.

I expect the executive session to end by 345. If the executive session is extended beyond that time, I will announce the extension and the expected duration.

Thank you very much.

Everyone who is not on the list of approved folks to be in the room, please clear the room.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Good afternoon.

Again, this is March 5th, 2020, and it's a special meeting of the Seattle City Council.

It's 4.24 PM and the Seattle City Council has been in recess.

We are now bringing the council meeting back to open session.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Peterson.

Here.

Sawant.

Strauss.

Present.

Herbold.

Here.

Juarez.

Lewis.

Here.

Present.

Morales.

Here.

Council President Pro Tem Mosqueda.

Here.

Seven present.

Thank you Madam Clerk.

Thank you Council Member Juarez for being with us in this meeting as well via phone and thank you Council Member Sawant for joining us as well.

The City Council will now proceed with agenda item number one.

Before we do that, Madam Clerk, before you read it into the record, I do want to just take a few moments.

Council Member Herbold, I appreciate your organization of the panel this morning.

You did a tremendous job of pulling together Deputy Mayors and Directors.

so that we could have a real-time update on the public health implementation efforts.

Did you have any comments or reflections in retrospect?

No, I want to thank everybody's participation, not just today in the meeting itself, but also in providing your questions in advance.

I think it allowed us as a council to drill deeper after receiving answers to questions, because as we know, answers to questions usually provoke more questions.

So it really allowed us to do that, and that couldn't have been possible without the assistance and collaboration of everybody up here and your staff.

Thank you.

Any other colleagues have any comments or questions about what we heard earlier today?

Okay, there's a few takeaway items that I wanted to note in terms of data that had been requested.

The total number of individuals who have been tested in King County from Councilmember Herbold, the number or amount of cleaning supplies that we need to order to meet our city's, city employees needs, including those who are doing janitorial work.

You had a question about hygiene kits and how many of those had been distributed across our city, especially with the navigation teams effort to hopefully do less sweeping and more assisting as they're getting word out to individuals who are unhoused.

And then you had an important question about who can initiate the testing, such as HSD providers, if the organizational teams see individuals who they believe may meet the criteria.

And let's also note the adapted criteria, as it has been offered additional flexibility from the CDC.

So as new cases potentially come into our community, we want our organizations who have that trusted partnership with them, with the community they see to be able to recommend testing.

I want to take a minute to also thank our incredible team who's the clerk's office and the central staff.

We have over the last 24 to 48 hours been trying to quickly respond to the need to both address the proclamation in front of us, the order that has been submitted by the mayor, and to also respond with various questions and concerns.

from this council so we appreciate the work that you all have done in the last 24 and 48 hours as we got prepared for this conversation.

We're going to have a chance to hear from central staff here in a moment who is bringing materials for our afternoon's conversation or the final item on our afternoon's agenda.

And as we do that, I also want to acknowledge that we have the mayor's office here with us.

So thank you very much for being here, Anthony.

And please extend our appreciation to the mayor for having her executive team here this afternoon to provide us with a briefing and to public health as well.

We appreciate you being here.

Madam Clerk, I think what we will do is we are going to read item number one into the record.

And as we do, we would ask our central staff team to join us at the table, hoping that we have had an opportunity for folks to have all their questions answered by the department directors and to really bring forward those questions that we heard from frontline staff and community members.

I know that the community has sent in a number of questions and comments that we had a desire to get in front of the executive team and throughout your presentation today and the questions that we've asked at the table and both sent to the mayor's office.

We've been able to get some answers in real time and there will continue to be questions that I know our community members would like to bring forward.

As a reminder, we're asking folks if they have questions from the media to please call the Information Center at 206-233-5072.

And for members of the public, if you have not yet signed up for Alert Seattle, for real-time and customized notifications, you can get those via text, email, and voice message and social media at alert.seattle.gov.

Alert.seattle.gov.

So with that, I wanna turn it back over to our clerks to read agenda item number one into the record.

Agenda item one, resolution 31937, a resolution modifying the March 3rd, 2020, Merrill Proclamation of Civil Emergency related to the spread of COVID-19, novel coronavirus.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

So, council members, before we consider possible revisions to the resolution, I'm going to move the resolution so that it is before us and then suspend the rules to allow for central staff, Cato Freeman, to provide us with an overview of the resolution and the proposed substitute.

So I move to adopt resolution 31937. Second.

The resolution has been moved and seconded.

If there's no objection, the council rules will be suspended to allow Cato Freeman to address the council.

Hearing no objection, the council rules are suspended.

Ketel, thank you very much for being here.

I hope you heard our notes of appreciation for you as you've been working around the clock to get the amendments in front of us.

Could you please introduce yourself for the record and then begin with an overview of the resolution and then we'll talk about the proposed substitute.

Sure.

Ketel Freeman, council central staff.

So, as the Council knows, on March 3rd, Mayor Durkan proclaimed a civil emergency related to the spread of COVID-19, which is otherwise known as novel coronavirus.

That proclamation includes orders that allow the mayor to assume authority to bypass existing laws, regulations, and policies in the interest of protecting the public health, safety, and welfare.

The laws and regulations that the mayor could bypass are primarily related to budget, contracting, purchasing, and regulation of land use and construction, including the city's application of the State Environmental Policy Act.

Pursuant to Chapter 1002 of the Seattle Municipal Code, when the mayor proclaims a civil emergency and issues orders pursuant to that emergency, within 48 hours, the council may, by resolution, ratify and confirm the mayor's action, modify the mayor's action, or reject the mayor's action.

Council Member Mosqueda proposes to modify the mayor's proposed action.

I'll walk through how Resolution 31739 would do that.

So, turning to that resolution and the modified proclamation, a civil emergency, when there is a civil emergency, the council cedes power.

So, it is necessarily a trust but verify exercise for the council, and that's reflected in the proposed substitute resolution and proclamation.

I'll talk through a little bit of the mechanics of the legislation here.

The proclamation and orders in that proclamation establish the civil emergency and enumerate those powers the mayor is assuming.

The assumption of power allows her to bypass, as I mentioned, otherwise applicable laws and regulations.

The council can limit her assumption of power by modifying the proclamation in order, but the council can't prescribe that she take actions that would otherwise be in her discretion.

For that, the council can establish expectations so that the mayor understands what sort of information the council needs to act on future orders and also to continue the civil emergency.

So I'll turn here to proposed modifications to the proclamation.

So the modifications to the proclamation are in many ways clarifications, but also some restrictions on some powers the mayor proposes to invoke.

Turning here to page two of the mayor's proclamation, the council clarifies that the authority that she is assuming is limited to state budget laws.

a striking reference to RCW and the adopted city budget.

The substitute proposed by Council Member Scata affirms that the mayor will comply with code required state of emergency reporting requirements on spending and contracting.

It affirms that future orders will comply with formal requirements that are prescribed by the Seattle Municipal Code that are largely intended to protect civil rights and help the council understand how future orders might infringe civil rights.

Clarifies that the delegation of authority to the police and fire chiefs is pursuant to current law unless authorized by a future order.

And it also strikes reference in the delegation section of the order to other departments and personnel will assist as requested.

So the order delegates to the fire chief and police chief authority to implement certain laws, which they already have the authority to do, but it strikes a surplusage of the language about other departments and personnel.

And finally, it eliminates what's largely a boilerplate reference to a charter provision that recites that the mayor has sole authority over the police department in times of emergency, which is true in all circumstances.

So questions, council members?

Thank you very much for walking us through the edits to the proclamation.

Would it be helpful if we took questions on that if there are any at this point before moving on to the resolution?

Council colleagues, any questions on the amended proclamation that we have in front of us for consideration?

comments?

We can do comments if you like or if you want to him to go through the both of them and then as a package we can consider comments if that'd be appropriate.

Thank you Councilmember Peterson.

Questions, yes.

I just want for folks who may be following along, I was hoping that Kato Freeman could offer just a little bit more clarity on the difference between the language that was proposed, as it relates to the powers being granted the mayor related to the budget, and what the council is offering as new language.

I think it's fair to say that this is, more a clarification, but I think if people were to just read it without more understanding, it might seem like we are putting some limits that I don't think we intend to put.

Sure.

Yeah, so the section three of the proclamation lists limitations that the mayor is assuming authority to bypass.

And those limitations include limitations that are present in our contracting requirements and other state and local requirements.

From what I understand, there is ambiguity in state law about what authority the mayor or mayors may have depending on what type of jurisdiction it is and the states of emergency.

So this resolves that ambiguity in part by pointing to general budget law.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Any additional questions on the mayoral proclamation and the suggested edits?

Seeing none, Ketel, do you mind walking us through the resolution that would accompany this?

Sure.

So as I mentioned, a council decision on a mayoral proclamation of a civil emergency is a trust but verify exercise.

So the limitations on the mayor's exercise of emergency authority on the proclamation The expectations that the council has for how she will use her authority and how the city will act as this emergency evolves are contained in the body of the resolution.

So I'll walk through each section of the resolution of the proposed substitute resolution.

The first section modifies the proclamation as I just described.

The second section requests that the mayor make expenditures pursuant to her emergency authority that are consistent with council priorities, and those priorities include investments in hand-washing stations, investment in hygiene services, and as you all recall, the council made some appropriations for mobile pit stops as part of the 2020 adopted budget, investments that increase the access of lower-income households to COVID-19 testing, and investments in culturally and linguistically appropriate outreach materials for limited English proficiency speakers.

Excuse me, continue please.

So moving on to section three of the proposed substitute resolution.

This section establishes the council's expectations for additional actions that the mayor may take to address the spread of COVID-19.

Those actions include amendments to city personnel policies and collective bargaining agreements to clarify working conditions for city employees, reviewing options for city staff and contractors to take paid days off if their leave runs out, an analysis of the racial and social justice implications of the mayor's exercise of emergency authority, consideration and a recommendation to council on how the state of emergency is impacting homeless communities.

And finally, potentially issuance of an order, not finally, the two remaining things.

One is issuance of an order related to economic controls and price stabilization.

This is something that Deputy Mayor Fong alluded to in his presentation to the council.

And finally, identification that the city can take to encourage better working conditions and discourage for non-city employees.

Sorry, Ketel, it just trailed off a little bit there at the end.

Can you say that last sentence again?

Sure, yeah, so subsection F of section three addresses steps the city can take to encourage non-city employees to provide safe working conditions for their employees during the civil emergency and also discourages actions the city can take to discourage private sector employees from taking punitive actions against employees who don't come to work for public health reasons.

two items under Section 3, the first being the language related to telecommuting.

I recognize that we are giving direction to employees here in the city and the county is also giving direction to employees in the county.

about telecommuting and that there's been concern from labor representing our employees that we really need to have our policies around telecommuting be aligned.

And so this is an effort to get at that need.

I think the directive that came out of the mayor's office around telecommuting might have inadvertently created some confusion when compared to the directive coming out of King County related to telecommuting, and this is intended to address that issue.

As it relates specifically to items, the items listed under section F, I would like to signal my interest in working with the chair of the Labor Committee in potentially having a future action, a resolution in the hopefully very near future, because this is all related to this potential pandemic.

as it relates specifically to what we would really like to see private employers do as it relates to the service sector workers, particularly service sector workers that are in the gig economy.

Thank you, Council Member Herbold.

I look forward to that future conversation.

Thank you, Ketel.

And would you like to continue?

Sure.

So Section 4 of the proposed substitute telegraphs the council's intent when it comes to future orders that may infringe on civil liberties.

It is the case in any civil emergency that there's the potential for the government to enact orders that infringe on civil liberties.

A classic example is something like a curfew.

This section telegraphs to the mayor that any order infringing civil liberties will be viewed through a lens that incorporates evidence-based public health practices.

and an analysis of whether or not the infringement is the least restriction necessary to accomplish the public health, safety, and welfare objective.

Any questions?

All right.

Moving on to section five.

This is a reporting section.

So the mayor has a duty to report to the council through FAS about contracts and obligations that are incurred pursuant to her exercise of emergency authority.

That reporting is required after the state of emergency.

So these are reporting requirements that would apply during the state of emergency with the first report submitted to the council by March 20th.

Reports would include information on emergency expenditures by department, new contracts entered into, or amendments to existing contracts.

new permanent or term limited positions added or empty positions filled to address the civil emergency.

Information that will help the council understand to what extent enforcement of existing criminal and civil laws are being enforced differently to address the civil emergency.

And also, each action taken, identification for each action taken by the mayor of the limitation from city code, adopted city policy, state code or regulation that the mayor bypassed to accomplish that action.

And then finally, section six establishes the council's intent to consider whether to continue the civil emergency and modify any current orders by a date certain, and that date certain is April 5th.

Thank you, Ketel.

Any comments or questions, or any questions at this point?

Seeing none, Ketel, is there anything else that you'd like to say about the resolution in front of us?

No.

Okay.

So council colleagues, I would like to first move that we get the amended resolution in front of us, and then potentially consider additional comments, and then a vote if that pleases the body.

Ketel, again, I want to say thank you to you and your other colleagues who've been working on the resolution and the mayor's proclamation edits.

Really appreciate your quick work on that.

I'd like to move to amend resolution 31937 by substituting version 2B for version 1B, which also includes the new exhibit B.

Colleagues, exhibit B is the mayor's proclamation as amended as described by Ketel.

Just a quick clarification here, it's version 2C, not 2B, so let me do that again for the record.

I move to amend resolution 31937 by substituting version 2C for version 1B, which includes new exhibit B, which is the mayor's proclamation.

It's been moved and seconded to amend the resolution.

We now have a proposed substitute to the resolution in front of us, and that it also includes Exhibit B as described, which modifies the Mayor's Civil Emergency Proclamation.

I'd like to see if there's any comments from the body, because I don't believe that we have any proposed amendments to consider.

Seeing no amendments, I'd love to entertain any comments from the body before we move to consider votes.

Council colleagues?

the proclamation or the resolution?

Do you want to do them both together?

I'm asking for which, for which are you asking for comments on?

So Council Member Herbold, I think it's a great question.

Since resolution goes with Exhibit B, which is the proclamation, I'd love for folks if they have comments to address them at this time together.

You can say if you're speaking to the resolution, which has a lot of the council's directive in it, or you can talk about the amendments or the underlying proclamation that the mayor has issued and the amendments we made to that which for the record is again as the exhibit be.

So Council Member Herbold, would you like to start us off?

Sure.

I just want to say, first of all, generally, I really appreciate my colleagues, the time and effort and care they've put into this work product.

I think it reflects the priorities that we have, but that also it reflects the concerns that the public has.

I really appreciate the efforts of the executive as well to work through some of these amendments.

with us, and I want to speak specifically to the items in the resolution in sections 2 through D.

We are, with the proclamation, agreeing with the use of the mayor's power to expedite the purchase of items that are critical to addressing the spread of the virus and limiting the spread of the virus, which is really an important mission-critical objective that we all have right now.

And I just, as it relates to the fact that we are eliminating the requirement of the mayor to have to go through some of the contracting and procurement practices, advertising practices that normally they would have to.

I would also encourage when it comes to purchases that there might be some policy work that has to be done in order to implement the use of those purchases, I want to make sure that we're doing those things together moving forward.

I'm concerned that as it relates specifically to the mobile pit stops, that there is a, there appears to be a belief on the part of the executive that we have to work out all the policy decision making around the siting and location and staffing of the mobile pit stops before we begin procurement.

And I think we can do those things together and we must do those things together.

We, there's lots of good policy that are public health best practices that are being used in places like Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco.

As it relates to the deployment of the mobile pit stops, we do not have to reinvent the wheel.

And I really want to emphasize how important I think it is to move forward with procurement of mobile pit stops as soon as possible while we are simultaneously developing the policy associated with their use.

Thank you, Council Member Holden.

Thank you for the amendments that you've made to help make sure that that information was clarified, both in the resolution and the language that you've also suggested for the proclamation.

Council Member Sawant.

Thank you, President Mosqueda.

I intend to support this declaration of emergency because, of course, the coronavirus is an emergency, especially with the Seattle region being, as they've said, ground zero.

The resolution, as has been discussed, contains language that that we want to make sure as a legislative body protects all the interests of the constituents of this city.

And it says that the public health goals of the mayor's proclamation should be carried out with the least restrictions on civil liberties and consistent with public health evidence.

I think it's important to state that.

And I just want to make a special mention of the fact that The city council expects that, as a specific example of the treatment of homeless neighbors, that the public health goals and public health assistance is is the goal and not policing of or in any other way violating the rights of homeless individuals.

And I think that is very important to point out because our homeless neighbors are also the most vulnerable health-wise and they have weakened immune system.

And we have to make sure, as the council has done throughout the day, that we do that with every sense of social responsibility and with zero stigma.

I think that's very important.

As many of you are aware, of course, the problems we face are obviously the most emergent problem is related to the pandemic, but the control of this pandemic is very much related to the healthcare system that we have in the country.

a large proportion of our population is not just in Seattle, but nationwide is uninsured or underinsured.

And as many of you have seen, I'd sent a letter to the mayor and the King County executive that that is the main restriction that has to be addressed, which is the problem that many people cannot get tested or get the related medical care because they are either uninsured or underinsured.

I'm happy to see that Governor Inslee under the emergency throughout the state has declared today that the uninsured in our state will have free testing.

And we've also had an emergency order sent to Washington health insurance providers to make sure that individuals who are insured, but clearly many of them are underinsured, that they will be covered for testing without co-pays or deductibles, or they should be covered by co-pays or deductibles.

And in addition to that, individuals will be able to have a one-time refill on their prescriptions as part of that emergency order.

I think these are all important developments that have happened, but they also point towards the fact that we don't have the benefit of a nationwide Medicare-for-all single-payer health care system.

And we can get the idea of what is possible through how different countries are dealing with the aftermath of this pandemic.

South Korea, for example, has a Medicare-for-all-like system and has used it to provide free drive-through coronavirus testing for anyone who wants it, even for people who do not have symptoms.

And in fact, they do it in a very a very effective manner where they protect the health of the medical professionals as well the way they do it in shifts with safety suits and it makes sure that the health professionals themselves are not impacted because that also impacts public health overall.

With over 500 drive-through testing sites, South Korea has tested over a hundred thousand people.

So far, it's really glaring, the contrast with the United States, where as of yesterday, maybe it's more now, but as of yesterday, 500 total people in the US have been tested.

It's really...

Important to hear that the virology department at the University of Washington has now developed a new diagnostic test under FDA controls that will allow them to test 1,000 samples a day.

So this is important.

But I just wanted to give a sense of the numbers.

If you look at, if you compare South Korea's numbers to the number 500, which we had yesterday in the United States, It means that you are over 1,200 times more likely to have access to a coronavirus test in South Korea than in the United States, and keeping in mind especially that South Korea and the United States got the coronavirus, at least as far as we know, on the same day.

As Yale healthcare expert Howard Foreman has said, it is well within the realm of possibility that there are 100,000 people infected with this right now in the United States.

And so, on the one hand, we don't want our constituents to panic.

On the other hand, we also want to deal with the seriousness that it deserves.

And we know that the outcomes of a system that prioritizes the profits of a few in the insurance, pharmaceutical, and health management industries are often tragic in normal circumstances, but in the context of a global pandemic, The anarchy of this for-profit system could be lethal to many in our society So I really just wanted to end by saying that this is such an important case for medicare-for-all Thank you very much for bringing that point up.

Thank you councilmember peterson.

Yes.

Thank you chair I agree with the mayor that The public health situation is an emergency and I want to thank the mayor for taking the initiative to issue this proclamation of civil emergency.

I'm also pleased to support these helpful clarifications that the council is about to make to the proclamation.

The companion resolution, in my interpretation, it makes very productive requests rather than reducing the mayor's flexibility in addressing the emergency.

And the requests include increasing the frequency of official reports that we will all receive during this evolving emergency.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Council Member Peterson.

Any other council colleagues would like to say anything?

Councilmember Juarez, I don't want to skip over you if there's anything you'd like to say, please chime in at any point I'll just say another quick note of appreciation We are working as fast as possible to try to get this information in front of us.

Oh, I will chime in but I'm good.

I

Thank you, Councilmember Juarez.

And as I turn it over to Councilmember Morales here in a second, I do also want to just say thanks to Sejal Parikh, Chief of Staff in our office, who've been working around the clock on these proclamations and revisions as well.

Appreciate your work on this.

Councilmember Morales.

I want to make sure folks understand that this proclamation is issued by the mayor, but the council will be reviewing, receiving weekly reports, and the proclamation is rescinded by the council.

So it has to be by two-thirds vote, but we will be reviewing on a weekly basis the status of the epidemic and our ability to respond.

And when folks in the city agree that it's time, that's how the proclamation will be rescinded, is by the city council making a two-thirds vote.

Excellent point.

Thank you, Council Member Morales.

Seeing no other comments, the last comment I want to say is, again, our appreciation for the quick work for the folks on the ground.

We talked to some of the department directors today, but we know it's the frontline workers, the firefighters, the human service department workers, the long-term care providers, those who are contract workers and those who are janitorial workers who are really putting themselves out there and putting themselves at risk for both helping to make sure that our most vulnerable in our community have what they need and that they're also protected in a time like this.

So we always want to honor their work, but especially in times like this.

My hope is that the process for expediting contracts and purchasing that is clearly articulated in this resolution and executive order will help to make sure that people have the equipment they need, the masks, the gloves, anything like that for our workers.

We know we don't want people to inadvertently go out there and purchase masks because those should be actually saved for those who are ill and our medical frontline providers.

We want to make sure that our workers have what they need and I think this This contracting procurement process outlined in here gives me hope that we can get hand washing facilities across the city in a very quick way.

I also think that we've done a lot in this proclamation to protect workers across the city.

We want there to be flexibility and also ensuring there's flexibility.

We don't want to waive any of our protections for the safety and health of our city employees.

So thanks to all of you for your incredible work on these amendments and looking forward to continuing to work with the executive, the departments that were here, public health and King County.

With that, seeing no additional comments, all of those in favor of Substitute Resolution 31937, which is Version 2C and Exhibit B, please vote aye and raise your hand.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Seeing none, the motion carries.

The resolution is amended.

Are there any other comments on the amended resolution?

Okay.

Thank you, Council Member Juarez.

All those in favor of adopting the resolution as amended, please vote aye and raise your hand.

Aye.

Aye.

Council Member Juarez.

I believe she's on mute.

Aye.

Thank you, Council Member Juarez.

Any opposed?

None.

The motion carries.

The resolution is amended.

Aye.

Thank you, Council Member Juarez.

The chair will sign it.

The resolution will be filed with the mayor for distribution to the governor, King County executive, and other required recipients.

If there's no other comments, again, thanks to central staff and the incredible work of our folks on the floor in addition to the folks who were at the table today.

I appreciate all your work.

The meeting is adjourned.

Thank you.

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