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HomeMy WebLinkAbout05262020 City Council Special Meeting Minutes City of Seward,Alaska City Council Special Meeting Minutes May 26, 2020 Volume 41, Page 170 LCALL TO ORDER The May 26, 2020 special meeting of the Seward City Council was called to order at 5:30 p.m. by Mayor Christy Terry. OPENING CEREMONY Council Member Crites led the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag. ROLL CALL There were present: Christy Terry presiding and Sue McClure Sharyl Seese John Osenga Tony Baclaan Dale-Butts Julie Crites comprising a quorum of the Council; and Scott Meszaros, City Manager Brenda Ballou, City Clerk Holly Wells, City Attorney Excused—Butts Absent—None CITIZEN COMMENTS ON ANY SUBJECT EXCEPT THOSE ITEMS SCHEDULED FOR PUBLIC HEARING—None APPROVAL OF AGENDA AND CONSENT AGENDA Motion (McClure/Osenga) Approval of Agenda and Consent Agenda Motion Passed Unanimous There were no consent agenda items. NEW BUSINESS Other New Business Review and discuss the City's draft COVID-19 Recovery Plan. City of Seward,Alaska City Council Special Meeting Minutes May 26,2020 Volume 41,Page 171 City Attorney Holly Wells said the Seward COVID-19 Recovery Plan came about because the city was trying to think ahead and prepare for future potential events. This recovery plan was modeled after the state's plan, and several communities had developed and adopted similar plans, including Whittier and Cordova. The state used a color coding system (red, yellow, and green). Seward's plan would add an additional"orange"level that would be activated should the city need to react and respond to a localized issue. In the event that there was a local event, this plan would respond; on a larger scale,the state's plan would respond. In response to Terry,Wells confirmed that if the city enacted its own rules,the city would be responsible for enforcing them; the state would not be responsible for assisting the city. The state defined the metrics by which the state's re-open plan functioned, and expected that municipalities would adhere to those guidelines. In response to Baclaan, Wells said the state's rules took precedence over municipal rules regarding travel and healthcare;otherwise,the state allowed municipalities to make their own rules. Part of the city's process would include providing the state with the city's recovery plan, and notifying the state if an orange alert was declared. In response to Osenga, Wells said if there was a local outbreak in Seward, this plan was designed to require that the city go back to the state's original Mandate#11 from March 27,2020, which was essentially a hunker down order. Wells outlined that the procedure would be that the city's medical team, as defined by the Emergency Operations Plan, along with the Incident Command Team, would be watching the epidemiology,testing,and public health and healthcare capacities against the four metrics outlined in the plan. Based on their analysis, the team would determine whether or not to activate an orange alert. If an orange alert was necessary, public notice would immediately be delivered to the community, along with the Community Outbreak Rules. Terry noted that in the draft plan, under the Testing metric, it indicated the threshold for positive cases would be set at no more than five positive cases in a 14-day period;she was concerned this threshold may not be appropriate under all circumstances.Terry's concern was noted by Wells and would be addressed going forward;one idea was to consider the number ofpositive cases versus the city's healthcare or bed capacity. Terry asked council to voice any objections with moving forward with developing this recovery plan for the city. There were no objections from council. In response to Terry, Wells suggested reducing the time allowed to send the notice of declaration for an orange alert to council from 24 hours down to ten hours, and reducing the time allowed to hold an emergency meeting for council to consider the declaration from no more than five days down to within 48 hours. Wells wondered how council would want the medical team to be involved in the process to explain the metrics and why an orange alert was declared. In response, Baclaan said he would look for input from Public Health officials. Wells added that the Incident City of Seward,Alaska City Council Special Meeting Minutes May 26,2020 Volume 41,Page 172 Command Team would meet with the city's medical team to draft a report for the council meeting, which would include an explanation of the metrics and why an orange alert was declared. In response to Wells,Terry said the public had previously been very outspoken about being required to wear face coverings;the public was not in favor of having a face covering mandate.Terry suggested the language be changed to recommend wearing face coverings rather than require them. In response to McClure's inquiry about how an orange alert would actually be communicated to residents,particularly if it happened during tourist season,Wells suggested having an orange alert notification on a reader board and sending out a press release.Terry thought it would be important to declare an orange alert that would not go into effect until at least one full day later in order to allow the community time to prepare. In response to Baclaan,Wells said she could reword the declaration process to allow council the authority to declare the alert, rather than the city manager, and have it go into effect after midnight the following day. Wells said she could also include a provision,in the event there was a lack of quorum for council to meet.Osenga was concerned that there could be a potential delay in the process if council was required to meet to declare an orange alert.In response,Terry said she trusted that the Incident Command Team would be prepared to bring the declaration to council in a timely manner. In response to Terry, Wells said this recovery plan project was initiated by a different community, and that adapting the other community's plan to fit Seward's needs was very cost effective for Seward. CITIZEN COMMENTS—None COUNCIL AND ADMINISTRATION COMMENTS & RESPONSE TO CITIZEN COMMENTS—None ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at 6:44 p.m. iir/ / Nrii Brenda J. Ballo , MMC Christy T City Clerk ,,,.....,,,, Mayor -, t�.•y OV SEI�y'•.. (City S,ti'�G,��,*rIP0Rq%-'Pe% 0 •. I 0\ S la• SEAL = • : � b ♦ ~. � • s ti- E OF AN-v' .,.