City Council Work Session Transcript – 4/7/2020 Title: City of Austin Channel: 6 - COAUS Recorded On: 4/7/2020 6:00:00 AM Original Air Date: 4/7/2020 Transcript Generated by SnapStream ================================== Please note that the following transcript is for reference purposes and does not constitute the official record of actions taken during the meeting. For the official record of actions of the meeting, please refer to the Approved Minutes. [9:00:37 AM] >> Mayor Adler: All right. It is 9:00 oak 9:00. It is April 7th, 2020. We are meeting here virtually. Everybody needs to turn on their cameras. We need to be able to see everybody's faces. >> Pool: Can you guys hear me? This is Leslie? >> Mayor Adler: Yes. >> Pool: So I had a video, but it dropped. Oh, okay. [Inaudible]. >> Kitchen: I'm seeing somebody's mouse pad. >> Pool: There I am. >> Mayor Adler: Got it? >> Kitchen: I'm seeing somebody's mouse pad and [9:01:37 AM] their hand. >> Flannigan: Just a reminder if you are connected to the vpn it will really mess you will with your video stream. >> Mayor Adler: All right. Let's go through roll call. As we go through roll call you can weigh in if you're having technical activities. Councilmember harper-madison. >> Harper-madison: Present. I am, can you hear me? >> Mayor Adler: I can hear you. I can't see you. There you are. Gotcha. >> Harper-madison: Video is on. >> Mayor Adler: Yep, I can see you. All right. How do I make the full council screen? >> Flannigan: There's an icon in the corner. >> Mayor Adler: In the upper [indiscernible] Corner? >> Flannigan: If you click [9:02:38 AM] on it you will see options. One should be a little grid. >> Mayor Adler: Got it, thank you. All right. Your camera okay? You can hear okay, Natasha? >> Harper-madison: Yes. >> Mayor Adler: What about the mayor pro tem? I can see you. Are you able to hear okay? >> Garza: I can hear. Can you hear me? >> Mayor Adler: I can hear you. >> Garza: If you can hear me and I can hear you, I don't need to use the headphones, right? >> Mayor Adler: I think that was okay. You might have been going in and out a second ago. Say something again? >> Flannigan: She's muted now. It's always better to use the headphones so the speakers and microphone aren't fighting each other. >> Garza: Okay. Can you hear me now? [9:03:39 AM] >> Mayor Adler: I can hear you now, yes. All right. Councilmember Renteria. Is Pio with us? >> Mayor, he's not on yet. This is corrie Ellis. >> Mayor Adler: He's not on. Councilmember Casar. >> Casar: I'm here, good morning. >> Mayor Adler: You can see and hear okay? >> Casar: Yep. >> Mayor Adler: All right. Councilmember kitchen? >> Kitchen: I'm here. >> Mayor Adler: Good. Councilmember Flannigan. >> Flannigan: Present. >> Mayor Adler: Nice background. Councilmember pool? Leslie, can you hear? I can't hear Leslie. [9:04:50 AM] Now you're muted. Now you're off. >> Pool: [Inaudible]. So it shows that I'm not -- >> Mayor Adler: Now I can hear you. >> Pool: All right. Maybe I just [indiscernible]. >> Mayor Adler: But your connection is probably the weakest of the group so far. >> Flannigan: It's acting like you're connected to the vpn while you're streaming. >> Pool: Yeah, I checked for that when you mentioned it, and I'm not. >> Councilmember pool, Jeanette is going to get in contact with you right now with a suggestion. >> Pool: Great. >> Mayor Adler: Councilmember Ellis? >> Ellis: I am here. Can everybody hear me? >> Mayor Adler: Councilmember tovo? [9:05:54 AM] I can't hear you. Are you muted right now? I can't hear councilmember tovo. We had this problem before with councilmember tovo. You're muted now. Unmute it. People, any suggestions on councilmember tovo? >> You have your green button on your side thing pushed on that looks like the computer? Your headphones need to be hooked in in two places. [9:06:58 AM] >> Councilmember tovo, you may want to switch to call-in just for the moment. [9:07:59 AM] So are we waiting now for councilmember tovo to call in? >> [Indiscernible]. >> Mayor Adler: So Kathie, are you calling in? >> Tovo: Yes. Can you hear me now? >> Mayor Adler: We can hear you now. Good. >> Pool: And this is Leslie. Can you hear me? This is Leslie, can you hear me? >> Mayor Adler: Yes, I can hear you, Leslie. And councilmember alter? >> Alter: Can you hear me? >> Mayor Adler: I can. Good. All right. We're going to go ahead and begin the meeting. If the I don't hear you, don't see you, wave. Anybody else see somebody else waving, let me know. >> Flannigan: Councilmember Renteria signed in, but we don't see him. >> Mayor Adler: Councilmember Renteria has signed in? [9:09:02 AM] >> Alter: Mayor, could you move your head phone slightly closer to your mouth? >> Mayor Adler: Me, better. >> Alter: No, down closetory your -- >> Mayor Adler: Is that better? >> Alter: Slightly up would be great. >> Flannigan: I'm hearing the mayor fine so I'm not sure that it's his microphone. >> Mayor Adler: Is that better? >> Alter: Yeah, much better, thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Good. So I think we have councilmember Renteria designed in I can't hear [9:10:05 AM] Casar. Is councilmember Renteria trying to get in. >> Mayor, he's having trouble. We'll work with him. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. While you work with him let's go ahead and start. We'll do the briefing first and after the briefing we'll do pulled items and then we'll go into executive session. The pulled items today, they were nine and 30. Councilmember Flannigan is no longer pulling 31. So 33, 77, 81 and 83 are the pulled items. Manager, do you want to go ahead and introduce the briefing? >> Cronk: That would be great. Mayor, council, thanks for your patience as we get used to this new environment that we're working in, but I have just been so thankful for your leadership and allowing us to work through this very [9:11:08 AM] challenging environment for our community. Today's briefing will consist of two parts. The first part will be really focused on health and operations at our emergency center. And then the second part will focus on economic resiliency and our own financial footing from the city. And so the first part will consist of Dr. Escott, director Hayden, deputy city manager vannerwine and Mr. Ortiz from the emergency operations center. After those events we'll pause for questions and have a robust conversation with those four individuals and then we'll pivot to the financial and economic resilience discussion with John hockenyos, Ed van eenoo and Veronica Briseno. So with your permission we'll have those two buckets, but really allows those presentations to take place before pausing for questions. [9:12:09 AM] So with that, you will not see any of our presenters, but there are some powerpoints that they will have specifically for the second part with our financial situation. So we're going to be patient as we adjust to this, but really appreciate the opportunity have this briefing today. So with that I'm going to -- >> Mayor Adler: I think I just heard Pio. >> Renteria: I just can't get the picture. I'm here on -- I'm going to have my staff trying to work me through there. >> Mayor Adler: All right. As long as you can hear when you pop up, that will be good. Manager, you want to start off with Dr. Escott? >> Cronk: And all of our presenters will be calling in so you won't be able to see them, but you will see the presentation when it comes up. Is Dr. Escott on the phone? >> Yes, Spencer. >> Why don't you start with your briefing. >> Great. [9:13:09 AM] Good morning mayor and council. Dr. Mark Escott, interim direct of Austin public health. I want to talk about our numbers as of yesterday evening. We have a total of 542 cases reported. Of those 502 are Travis county cases. Thirty have been referred to other jurisdictions. Our earliest onset of illness was back on the fourth of March. We currently have hospitalized 76 individuals, which is about 15% of our confirmed cases. Unfortunately six deaths. With an age range of cases of zero to 97, with a median age of 38. Fifty-four% of those are male. Forty-six% female. We do have eight clusters that are being investigated and followed by our epidemiology team. When it comes to break down of ages we're still seeing about 50% of those cases in [9:14:11 AM] that 20 to 29 age group and 30 to 39 age group. Each representing about a quarter of the total cases. In our discussions daily with our hospital systems, our hospitals are in good shape. The hospital systems are all at about 50% capacity, which is much lower than usual, which is allowing us space to flex should we have additional increases. Having said that, there is concern from the hospitals and physician groups regarding their ability to sustain that low census. And we are reaching out with our federal legislators to encourage support for hospitals and physician groups as they continue to do what we're asking and not providing elective procedures so that we can have that additional capacity for potential covid [9:15:12 AM] patients. We are working hard on contact tracing. We have executed a baa with the university of Texas who is working in close partnership with Austin public health to help that contact tracing piece so that we can identify those cases, those individuals that those cases interacted with, so that we can provide advice and control orders for those to really try to limit the spread and lock those individuals down in their homes or in our isolation facility on a voluntary basis so that we can continue to not only decrease spread in the community, but decrease the potential for spread within households. We're also utilizing the university of Texas in partnership with our folks to start clearing people. We have a number of individuals, actually more than half of our cases, [9:16:13 AM] which had an onset of illness more than two weeks ago, so we hope that this week we will start to graphically share that data on those who are cleared. And that has two benefits. Number one, it gives us a better indication of how many people are in the community who are currently diagnosed, and have the potential for spread versus those that have recovered. Additionally there is an investigational treatment involving the plasma from what we call convalescent donors, those who have had the disease and have recovered, can be signed up for donation so that their serum can be administered to those who are critically ill in hopes that it may be successful as it has been in other circumstances at helping those individuals fight off this disease. In relation to testing we continue our drive-through testing. [9:17:13 AM] This is a partnership, but with Austin public health. Those drive-through testing sites are manned by Baylor Scott & white, ascension Seton and St. David's, so we're grateful for their partnership and the success of that drive-through program. We also have dedicated sites for our first responders, health care workers and sites through community care to offer tests and ensure that we are providing tests for those who may not be able to access the other drive-through sites. We are hopeful this week to transition to a physician driven sign-up for testing to a public driven sign-up for testing. So we're working with our information technology team to create an hourly facing process where individuals who have concern that they might have covid-19 can go through an online triage [9:18:13 AM] process and then we can sign them up without having that potential barrier for going through a physician or telehealth. So we're hopeful to be able to complete that this week so that starting this weekend or early next week the public will be able to sign up directly. We also hope this week to provide additional information regarding the total testing being done. As I've shared before this has been a challenge due to the various methods of reporting of the tests from the different labs. We are definitely getting the positive results. The challenge has been getting the negative results as well so that we can determine how good we're doing at testing community-wide. We have improved those conversations. The state is also working on this with the labs and again we hope to have that better idea soon so that we can [9:19:14 AM] also report the percent positive on those tests. It appears that that percent positive is ranging around eight to 10 percent at this stage. So in other words, more than 90 percent of individuals who are being tested do not have covid-19, even though they may have symptoms which are consistent with covid-19. Additionally we're working with a number of other sites who are doing an antibody test, a serum test looking for antibodies, and we've got a group at UT and with our expert panel reviewing how best to integrate this serum testing with the traditional testing, the nasal swab testing. Just for your further information, that serum testing is not really designed to be a screening test if people are infectious or not. It takes time for those antibodies to develop, but it may be helpful in circumstances where we want [9:20:14 AM] to determine if people have immunity from about the virus through a prior exposure. Additionally we continue our isolation facility, what we call the iso-fac. We continue to offer individuals who would like a room who are positive or who have been exposed and don't have the ability to isolate safely at home, that opportunity to stay in that isolation facility. Every single person that is positive is offered a flume that facility so that -- a room in that facility so that they can decrease the risk of exposing those in the household and we will continue to advocate for that. I do also want to talk about one other thing and that's our nursing home task force led by Dr. Liam fry. That has been extremely successful in setting up relationships with our nursing homes, assistive care facilities and other [9:21:14 AM] facilities. We have worked with Williamson county to sign a combined control order for a facility in Williamson county which we can utilize to house individuals who are discharged from the hospital or who are seen in the er that came from a nursing home type setting, but don't need to be hospitalized. This allows us to cohort those covid positive individuals in a single facility and will help us to further protect the other facilities by moving those folks there rather than back to the nursing home or assisted living facility that they came from. That concludes my report. I'll be happy to take questions at the end there. >> Thank you, Dr. He is cot. I think we're going to go to -- I know there are questions, but let's get through these first four. They will be relatively short. So I'll turn it over to director Hayden next. >> Good morning. Thank you for the opportunity to provide an update. [9:22:15 AM] I would first like to say that April 6th through 12th is national public health week. And I want to express my gratitude to Austin public health staff for all they do everyday for health and safety of this community, especially today during this covid-19 response. So if you happen to see an Austin public health person or have a virtual meeting with them, just tell them happy national public health week. Our department's operations are continuing. Austin public health is at the eoc to ensure continuity of public health services. Our department operations center remains open seven a to seven P daily. Our staff are coordinating and staffing the medical hotline. Our epidemiology and surveillance staff are conducting contact tracing for all positive cases within Travis county and we [9:23:16 AM] are partnering with Dell medical school to conduct testing and contact tracing. Our case management staff are also in the doc and are responding to quarantined individuals that present with basic needs. The social services branch has restructured to three areas. Two, which are resources and engagement, vulnerable populations, seniors, homeless, group homes, faith based and victims of domestic violence. Services, community services, childcare, behavioral health, food access and sustainability. The food access, you received a joint memo from the chief sustainability officer and myself yesterday. It provided a summary of some of the efforts moving forward with the various city departments. Item number 70 is on the agenda and would allow the department to enter into a contract with revolution foods, and this will provide [9:24:19 AM] 1,000 meals seven days a week. Our homeless efforts, the Austin convention center will partner with the capital area food bank to provide 1,000 bags of shelf stable food for six weeks. Our staff are partnering with integral air to provide health services for individuals at the isolation facility. The current census at the pro large is 63. We are continuing to use hotels for isolation facilities. Our staff has continued to work with our consultant K and they were here in Austin for a site visit on March the second and they visited key homeless and housing programs and observed outreach and activities and held extensive meetings. During this time they have continued with their work and their work is on schedule. It's focused on assessing [9:25:21 AM] current grants, inventory and context of projected demand for crisis response services and housing needs and strategic responses to best address that demand. Matthew Dougherty has continued to work with key city staff and partner organizations to determine roles and structure, effective partnerships and to build towards recommendations for shorter and long-term goals. All of our consultants have really been proactively supporting the community's response for covid-19. And they have been very helpful for us. Other essential public health services, our communicable disease unit continues to provide sexual health, public health investigations for high risk contacts to tb, HIV and sts patients. Our environmental services, we are starting to set up our mosquito surveillance this week, our inspectors are continuing working with [9:26:22 AM] food establishments and we are in the process of setting up a hotline for food establishments to call if they have questions regarding covid-19. Outreach services are being provided by mail. Staff mailed 1300 benefit cards in the month of March. And our neighborhood centers are providing emergency food, help line and continue to provide shelf-stable food. We started financial assistance on yesterday for families, so when they call they are able to work with the families virtually to be able to provide that assistance. Our childcare group on March 25th, the childcare task force members hosted a webinar and over 350 Travis county childcare providers were on that webinar. Dr. Escott and mayor Adler participated and spoke [9:27:22 AM] directly to the childcare providers. Our staff are continuing to work with them and provide technical assistance as well as any supplies that they might need. At this time that concludes my report. >> Thank you, director Hayden. And again, I know that there are questions, but let's just wait until the next two we're going to have. Juan Ortiz and our deputy city manager to round things off for this first section. Juan Ortiz, are you on the phone? >> Yes, I am. Once again, my name is Juan Ortiz -- thank you, sir. Once again, my name is Austin wore advertise, the director for homeless security and emergency management. The emergency operations center has been activated for a month with people from numerous disciplines around the city to provide a response to the covid-19. [9:28:22 AM] We have three unique shifts of people working in the emergency operations center to create resiliency. We have divided had that group into ab and C shifts that are working together for multiple days. The same people each times as to minimize the exposure from the threat of covid-19. In the event that we have an outbreak of the illness in our staff. The shifts include personnel from Austin public health, public safety agencies, other hospital systems, community partners and Travis county. We have shifted many of our functions of our eoc to a virtual environment or off site to decrease the contact that our responders have while working on response to covid-19. The full operations has around a thousand city and county employees working 12 hours a day or more to provide services, health care and information around covid-19. [9:29:23 AM] Each day an independent action plan and situation report are produced to guide the operations and provide an update on the work being done each day to our staff, city, county departments and partner agencies. We've also established an advanced planning unit that will be looking at how we too -- what we need to do to prepare as we see this event taking a much longer time and we need to be making sure that we're planning to what's coming around the corner to ensure that we're prepared for when that wave hits us. We have a logistics support unit that is supporting both city and county departments to provide them for their needs. There are currently six task forces working on specific issues for covid- 19. This includes things like alternate care sites, isolation facilities, testing locations. We are hosting daily conference calls for the [9:30:24 AM] hospital CEOs, leaders from cap metro, university of Texas, Austin community college, Austin independent school district, city of Austin and Travis county. We have a specific task force looking at sourcing personnel -- personal protective equipment both for health care workers and first responders and for critical infrastructure employees. We also have people working on supply chain innovations and new ideas for face coverings and other personal protective equipment or equipment that we may need that is hard to get due to the crisis facing the country and the world. We also have people working on our communications -- our communications staff continues to provide messaging and information around three key themes. One, stay at home, stay safe. Two, how to get help. And three, how to give help. We continue to refine the [9:31:24 AM] operations and bring on additional staff and task forces as needed. We continue to be in contact with our local and regional partners to share information and ideas as we go through this unprecedented time. And together, we feel that we will be able to accomplish what we need to accomplish, and that is to make sure that the city of Austin, Travis county, and all of Texas and the country country, will survive this event. That's the end of my report. >> Cronk: Thank you, director Ortiz. And finally to round this section I'm going to ask our deputy city manager to talk about some of the work that she's been doing with each of you on cap pets. >> I am the deputy city manager, I wanted to sneak in a happy public health [9:32:24 AM] week, national public health week to Stephanie in there. I wanted to say that a, I appreciate the work that everyone has been doing. You've just heard about all the efforts that our eoc and public health have been doing, but as we all know this is an all hands on deck situation. And we have been working with many people around community and across staff to see how we best can support our community at this time of need. And many of you councilmembers have also been doing that and have asked us what are different ways that you can also get involved with what we're doing. So to that end we have created what we have been calling covid cabinets. And there are seven panels that are very distinct areas to support our community. Some of those are really intended to support some of the efforts that are currently ongoing at the eoc and others are really to augment and to be thinking [9:33:24 AM] ahead about some of the additional efforts we're going to be needing as we address some of the impact of the covid pandemic in our community. Those seven cabinets as I mentioned, they vary and I am really excited to see that every councilmember has raised their hands and have wanted to be a part of this. We have a fiscal health outlook cabinet. The leads for that are Ed van eenoo and Greg canally on the staff side. It is really focused on our overall fiscal health and looking at some of the fiscal impact of the covid pandemic internally as a city structure. We have a community education and communications cabinet with the staff leads of Sarah muscaden. Brian and Maria Sanchez working with community leaders to ensure those critical messages that Juan was mentioning are getting out deep into community and [9:34:25 AM] actually working with trusted community members to E how we can continue to create social cohesion in this time when many in our community are feeling a bit isolated. We have acute community resource coordination cabinets with esse Longmore and Jason Alexander as our staff leads. It is about empowering that generous community giving and philanthropic apparatus to see what we need. The focus now is on P pe and testing needs and whatever the eoc kind of lets us know they have an immediate need, but this could be also a place where people can donate or think about food or contact us in a central location about other services, masks and cloth masks have been something that people have been considering and bringing to this cabinet. We have a social services cabinet and we have Adrian stirrup as lead with several [9:35:28 AM] of the focus in the social services branch, vela Carmen, tab that Taylor, Donna and Edwin. It is really focused on support for anything that the social services branch is doing, but we have a particular emphasis right now on the homelessness community, on childcare, on seniors, on food access issues. We have a legislative affairs cabinet with bri Franco and Ida Musgrove who are leading that initiative and it is coordinating our efforts between city, county, state, leveraging our delegation as we think of what those needs are either at the state or national level as we continue to address the pandemic. And then finally we have two cabinets that are focused on economic recovery and Veronica Briseno and she is joined in some of those -- on one of those panels with [9:36:28 AM] Ed van eenoo and Brian oaks, focused on two separate, really distinct areas. One looking at how do we focus primarily on businesses and industries, looking both mid and longer term E and then there is an immediate economic relief for individuals, and that really is looking at what can we do now to support individuals that we know are currently hurting in this moment of not just a health crisis, but it has caused an economic crisis. So excited about these as they move forward. Many of them have already been activated. I am hoping to activate the last one, the economic recovery panel soon. We're still sorting out some issues there, but really the -- I appreciate the interest and the enthusiasm with which council has wanted to contribute and to participate in these panels. And we will be sharing updates as the work progresses. Thank you. >> Cronk: Thank you, nurya. [9:37:33 AM] And now we'll open it up for questions from council for that section of presentation either from public health, from eoc or from this discussion around covid cabinets. With that I'll turn it back to you, mayor. >> Mayor Adler: [Inaudible]. >> Flannigan: You're muted, mayor. >> Mayor Adler: Sorry, I was telling mayor pro tem she was muted. Which you are, and I was too. You're muted, you have to press the button. >> Garza: Can y'all hear me? >> Mayor Adler: Yes. >> Garza: I had two questions. I got a -- many of you may have gotten. I didn't notice it was to everybody. It was a very specific email about an effort by a [9:38:35 AM] community group for ppe and even vent laters. So I just wants to know who the best person to put in contact with this organization? Would that be public health? I heard the homeland security person mention things about, and who would I get in touch with? >> If you would forward that to myself, and we have people working at those innovation solutions. >> Garza: Okay. Perfect. Can somebody send me Mr. Ortiz's email? I'm sorry, I didn't get it. >> It's Juan -- >> Mayor Adler: We'll send that around. >> Garza: Thank you. And then the second question was about Stephanie mentioned the work being done around for homeless, our homeless community. And we will get into the discussion when we talk [9:39:36 AM] about item 81, but -- and I'm happy to have that discussion for the amendment that councilmember kitchen has offered, but I was curious if what the work being done around hygiene? Many of us have heard about concerns for public health aspect of our homeless community. You know, you used to be able to go into different facilities to wash their hands and now obviously with so many places closed. And I know there's been work done to open libraries and rec centers, but councilmember kitchen had a very specific -- I don't mean to speak for you, councilmember kitchen. Had a very specific ask as a part of my resolution, and I'm wondering if there's a way to do that already, director Hayden. And happy public health week. I think we have a big present for you coming up. But yeah. >> Okay. So are you -- I think you're [9:40:38 AM] more so talng about how we have been able to put out some portable -- portable toilets. And even though the libraries are open, some of the libraries are open, some of the rec centers are open, in addition to that we put out some portable toilets as well as some hand washing stations. And vela and I have had a couple of conversations with councilmember kitchen. I understand she has a concern about - - and we're working on a solution closer to the slaughter lane and I-35. And so we are working on a potential solution for that. To be able to add more capacity there. But our -- where we have our violet bag pickup, we have placed some hand washing [9:41:38 AM] stations because we want to make sure folks are able to wash their hands. And then the recreation centers have been open so folks will be able to come and take showers as well. And so we've been able to provide those services. We are kind of constantly looking. That group has been having a daily meeting and acm shorter has been a part of all of those calls. And so we are constantly looking. The other thing is -- and I need to double-check with communications, but my understanding is that they were going to put a map, and it may already be there. They were going to put a map on the website, and so with the map you would be able to see where all of locations are. So I can just double-check with them to make sure that either it's up there or when it will be done. >> Garza: Okay. I just have one more [9:42:40 AM] question, councilmember kitchen, if you wanted to wait until after me. >> Kitchen: I just had a question on this issue? >> Mayor Adler: Were you going to go on a different issue, mayor pro tem? >> Garza: Yes. >> Mayor Adler: Councilmember kitchen, do you want to follow up on that. >> Kitchen: Stephanie and mayor pro tem and the rest of the councilmembers, yes, there's a map so y'all can go online. [Inaudible] But also Stephanie as you know, the amendment that I have proposed is specific to the mobile hygiene milk. [Indiscernible]. >> Garza: It's hard to hear you, councilmember kitchen. >> Kitchen: I'm sorry, can y'all hear me now? >> Garza: It's real low. >> Kitchen: Does it need to be louder? >> Garza: Up. >> Kitchen: All right. >> Kitchen: How's that? [9:43:40 AM] Is that better? >> Garza: Yes. >> It's better. >> Kitchen: Okay. All right. So I have posted as part of backup the amendment and the supporting documentation. The other one's foundation currently has only one mobile hygiene -- >> Renteria: Excuse me, but you're fading in and out on your speaker. That's the problem. >> Kitchen: Oh, is that the problem? I'm connected with this -- I don't know what to do. I'm connected with the headset. Is that better? >> Speak up when you're talking. >> Okay. >> Kitchen: I have put into backup the. >> There are five people who aren't on mute. Everybody needs to be on mute if you're not talking. [9:44:42 AM] >> Kitchen: I'll try now. -- They currently only have one mobile hygiene clinic and they have six or seven locations. They have to move it every day. It's very inefficient the way it is working right now. They've only been able to provide 300 something showers in a whole week. So this is a very cost-effective -- not very expensive approach to taking those services to scale. So that's specifically what my amendment relates to. And so that's what it's about. I'll be happy to answer more questions, but I don't think there's any suggestion that it's not [inaudible], and, --Stephanie, I have talked to [9:45:44 AM] the other ones foundation. I've looked at what's been posted. My understanding is that these additional services are needed. Not that they are currently being taken care of now. So that's why I brought this forward at this point. You know, if city manager and Stephanie, if this is something you all want to go ahead and just move forward with purchasing, that's fine. But I brought it forward as -- >> Mayor Adler: We'll get -- >> Kitchen: I'm almost done. I brought it forward as an amendment thinking that you all needed council direction. >> Mayor Adler: We'll discuss that when we get to the pulled items. Any -- let's keep going with questions for the staff. Mayor pro tem, you were finishing? >> Garza: I had one more. Can y'all hear me? I don't know if it's a question for Dr. He is cot Scott or maybe more of a [9:46:46 AM] statement. Mu, you know, I guess we all knew -- everyone knows there's inequities in our community and we've just seen that magnified under this current crisis and one of those is access to health care. So while the map may show more positive cases on different parts of town, I firmly believe it is a matter of access to health care. And so I was on a conference call with some of the commissioners earlier this week talking about the central health clinics -- community care, excuse me, that were closed in east Austin, and I just hope we -- I think it was Dr. Escot mentioned the additional testing facilitates and additional ways for people to get tested, and I don't know if I heard a change in the -- are the CDC guidelines still that you -- are they still, you know, you have to you show you've been in contact with someone or -- have the [9:47:50 AM] CDC guidelines been more flexible? Because there are communities who will not, you know, I guess demand things with regards to getting access to testing and stuff, so I'm curious to know -- or I want to make sure we are working with central health and community care to getting folks who don't normally have access to health care access to health care as well as access to testing sites. >> Councilmember, great question. This is Dr. Escot. We are working hard with community care, as well as other partners to ensure that we're continuing to try to improve the outreach to those who may have challenges accessing health care. And that was one of the reasons why we wanted to move that enrollment process to publicly facing, to remove that barrier of going through a telehealth provider or a private physician. We will also continue to look at opportunities to [9:48:53 AM] provide testing in areas where folks may have a challenge in making it through drive through testing. I agree. I'm very concerned about our east side crescent, which we know suffers from diseases that are more common there compared to the west side of I-35. So that exact same community that suffers from diabetes and heart disease and asthma and other things are the same ones that are gonna be at higher risk from complications from covid-19 and certainly may face delays in accessing care due to that perceived barrier. It's important we remind folks also that if they feel sick, if they feel like they are having shortness of breath or chest pain they need to utilize emergency services. 911 stands ready to respond to those. Our ers stand ready to [9:49:53 AM] care for those individuals, and we don't want people delay ago their care if they are getting worse at home because of a concern about the ability to pay for those services. So it is critical that the entire community understand that the emergency services are waiting for you to ask for help. We are looking for opportunities to reach out and offer additional help, and we do want to remove those barriers as much as possible. Regarding the question about the criteria for screening, I can tell you that for the past week everybody that has been added to our queue for testing has been tested. You know, we don't have enough capacity to offer testing for astaplic people across the board right now. We are doing some asymptomatic tests related to clusters. [9:50:54 AM] If people have systems consistent with covid-19, such as fever, cough, shortness of breath, things like diarrhea or clay -- change in smell or taste, we want to get them tested and make sure we have that capability to do that testing for them. >> Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. All right. Councilmember pool. >> Pool: Yeah. Okay. Can you hear me? >> Mayor Adler: Yes. >> Pool: Good. So I have a couple of questions. First for Stephanie Hayden. When we met on the 26th you mentioned there were three clusters of the covid virus in our community, and I had requested that council be advised what parts of the city those are in. I did see that the map that had originally been designate the by districts is now changed to reflect [9:51:56 AM] cases, confirmed cases by zip code, which I think is a better approach than the first one. So thank you for that. But it doesn't answer the question of where the clusters were. So I think we would all benefit from knowing the approximate general location of those three clusters and also are there any more? And then I had a second question. >> This is Dr. Escot. Instead of initiation I'm -- Stephanie, I'mhappy to take that one. There are eight clusters which are being investigated. Some of those are -- one of those, obviously, is related to the spring break trip, and other ones are related to nursing homes or other [9:52:58 AM] clinical settings, outpatient clinical settings. When we talk about clusters, it's clusters of cases that we know are related. That represents a minority of the total cases that we're seeing. In most circumstances the relationship to another case is not known. So that makes it challenging. Additionally, the -- you know, if a cluster for instance occurs at office setting, the data is going to reflect where that person lives, not where that interaction happened where they were exposed. So we don't have the ability to display that easily in association with where those people live. So we can try to get you some more details about the clusters. Some of that is confidential so we could talk vaguely about them and provide [9:53:59 AM] council with information on that, but some of the details are gonna be confidential. >> Pool: Of course. I think we acknowledge that. We understand about hipaa limitations and of course none of us is asking for something that can't otherwise be communicated. I would like to request a one-on-one conversation with you then, Dr. Escot, so that I can ask some of my questions specifically. Can we get something like that set up? >> Yes, ma'am. I'm happy to have our folks reach out to your office to schedule something soon. >> Pool: Okay. That's great. Then my second question goes to what I noticed was it looked like the densest location in Travis county was in zip code zero five, [9:55:00 AM] which is generally around UT. I know the Cabo party was part of that and maybe all of that. At any rate, that is where most of the cases are, according to the map up on the covid-19 website. So it got me to thinking with most of the campus classes having moved online and most of the students have been sent home -- not autism -- all are able to go home. Our higher education campus is mostly vacate. The facilitates on the campus like St. Ed's or concordia or the university of Texas, are they -- are the officials with those institutions of higher education part of the collaboration? And what facilitates on the campus are being made available for the covid effort? For example, we could use a parking lot at a stadium or [9:56:00 AM] at ACC highland malor anywhere really for some of the pop-up triage kind of stations. So what role is the higher education community playing with our collaborative effort? >> Let me start answering that. Regarding the west campus area, yes, most of those cases are related to the Cabo trip. I will say that I have personally contacted many of those young people, and they are acting very, very responsibly since their exposure. They have all quarantined themselves. Where they're quarantining themselves is appropriate, and I've been very, very impressed with their response. All of them are interested in being plasma donors to [9:57:01 AM] help those who are sick and, you know, I think it's a great reflection of these young people and their willingness to support this effort at caring for those who are most in need right now as well as doing their part to make sure they don't spread to other people. In relation to the higher education, we have a daily conference call with -- that involves the university of Texas, ACC, aid. It's not all of the higher education institutions, but higher education is certainly represented, and they have been stakeholders the entire time for this and of course for other types of disasters. The eoc has worked through a number of scenarios, looked at a number of sites associated with alternate care sites or acs sites. And they have identified some sites -- they're not related to college campuses, [9:58:03 AM] but they do have several sites identified that would abappropriate for caring for people. They have also identified additional sites around our jurisdiction for additional testing sites should we need to expand those operations. >> Pool: Okay. I would just point out that the dormitories, which I think when the students went home and classes were not going to be continued for this semester that my understanding is most of the students have removed their personal belongings and headed on home. There may be a small contingent that have to stay, but generally the dormitories also have food preparation facilitates, either adjacent or within those structures. So the dorms would be -- I would think that they would be up for discussion. So I'd like to have some additional information on the availability of the dorms. Particularly at UT. If you could just fill me in on that. It doesn't have to be here today, but I'd be interested [9:59:06 AM] in knowing how the colleges are participating. It just do you recognize me that the cost of the hotels that we're -- I would say it occurs to me that the cost of the hotels that the city is taking on might be mitigated in some large ways if we were able to use dormitories. >> So I will tell you, councilmember pool, we -- as we have been looking for, you know, alternatives to care, as well as housing, we were approached by St. Edward's for the use of their dormitories. It was gonna be a cost associated with it. When we have -- right now, in my conversations with UT, what they have informed me is, is that they do have a few people that are left, but a significant amount of the students just left their [10:00:07 AM] things there. Some of them came back and moved, but a significant amount of them have left their things, and so they really -- you know, at some point need them to come back and get them but they're just not really trying to -- from a safety perspective they're really trying to not to press the issue with that. And they have really scaled back their food and basically they're just providing just more, like, individual prepared meals to the people that are left in the dorms. So they have -- you know, we've talked to them about it, but I think right now it's just not a good time because there's so many dorms that are full of individuals' belongings. >> Pool: Interesting. Okay. I've been hearing a lot about other universities that have sent the students home and I have neighbors [10:01:07 AM] who have gone and moved their kids back home with all their belongings, so I'm a bit surprised, but thank you for that update. I'll mute now. >> Mayor Adler: Councilmember harper-madison and councilmember Flannigan. >> Harper-madison: Yes. Thank you. Good morning, everybody. Can you hear me okay? >> Mayor Adler: Yes. >> Harper-madison: Okay. Excellent. So I was just -- I was looking at "The New York Times" article that came out about disparities and the amount of coronavirus cases that are happening in the African-American community. So during the presentation we got some statistics on gender and age, but nothing on race. So I am curious about whether or not we're collecting that data. I know cities like Chicago and some others are collecting the data so they [10:02:09 AM] have substantive information, but we can't really get anything in the line of the national average if more cities aren't collecting that data so I just wonder if we are. >> Yes, we are collecting the data. I've asked my staff to compile that data. They're going to provide just a high-level set of data to me on -- tomorrow. And the goal is to go ahead and publish that as well as the other data that we have on the website. So it is in the works. >> Harper-madison: Excellent. Thank you. I'm happy to hear that. I think it's important information for us to have. Much like my colleagues have pointed out and we probably will continue to get to point them out which I think is awesome we get to share from the issue of our constituents what specific concerns are being addressed and brought up. For me over the weekend it was brought to my attention that a mortgage wary in d1 [10:03:12 AM] received the remains of an individual who had passed away who tested covid-19 positive but was not notified. I just want to make concern we are putting as many emphasis on the folks taking care of members of our community in life are being taken care of as they take care of them in their death. And so that just was really alarming for me. And then it brought about -- I just lost every single one of y'all's faces. Hopefully you can see me. The other thing that that brought about was the recognition that I know that some of our elder care facility clusters don't necessarily -- specifically, anecdotally, I know about one of the clusters where many -- over a dozen people passed away and many of them, the cause of death was pneumonia. And so I just want to make certain that, you know, that we have some rules around [10:04:12 AM] how you identify remains before they go to the funeral director. That to say, I think it would be prudent for us during this time to consider one of those tags indicating that the person had pneumonia because it's entirely possible that this pneumonia was covid and they just didn't get a test. I guess that's the second half my question. Are we in situations like the elder care facility, where over a dozen people passed away and many weren't identified as covid positive so much as the cause of death was pneumonia, are we -- that's a point of consideration there as well. >> Councilmember, this is Dr. Escot again. I can get with you off-line about our conversation about that particular facility. There's some inaccuracies on that initial report that you received that I could help clarify. I will say that we have had [10:05:14 AM] discussions with the county in relation to notification of funeral homes, of suspected or confirmed covid-19 cases. And they just have a process now to ensure that those individuals are notified of that concern. There are some legal issues associated with the notification process, but I believe that we've clarified that along with the county attorney's office. >> The other thing that I will add is, is that the Texas administrative code, rule 97.13, is what you were talking about as far as the tag is concerned. And so the language does pick up novel coronavirus, novel influenza, et cetera. So I can send that to you as well so you will have it. But if they are picking up a person from the hospital, it [10:06:17 AM] will -- they will put that tag on that says communicable disease, blood, body, substance precautions required. >> Harper-madison: Thank you. I appreciate that clarification. So it doesn't necessarily indicate what the cause of death was, just that potentially that there's some consideration around infectious disease? >> Absolutely. >> Harper-madison: Okay. Thank you. I appreciate that. And then the last question I had was about the part of the presentation where we had the discussion around our neighbors experiencing homelessness. I appreciate that some of our colleagues have already brought some of the concerns. An additional concern they've is there are a lot of folks who want to donate, who want to bring factored who want to bring clothing. I just -- I have had a harder time than I imagined finding, like, who is the [10:07:19 AM] person to contact about accepting donations and/or is there a system in place to protect both parties? The neighbor experiencing homelessness and the person who is wanting to make a donation to them. >> So is your question about donating -- I'm -- just repeat your question, if you don't mind. >> Harper- madison: Not at all. What I'm trying to ascertain is if there's a person who is attempt to go make a donation to another person, a donation of clothing, of food, household items, electronics, I'm concerned about person to person spread and whether or not we should discourage the general population from making a direct donation or should we just establish a set of protocols? Like, if you are going to donate make sure you -- I just wonder if there's a system there that I can [10:08:21 AM] refer people to, or do we prefer to just direct their donations to a singular facility so that we know that there was a process that all this -- all the donations went through? >> I will have a discussion with the social services branch about this question specifically. I will tell you that I would not recommend one single facility. We did that years ago, and it was -- it just -- no. I would not recommend that. So I can -- I'll have a discussion with that group, and then I will circle back around to you. >> Harper-madison: Okay. Thank you. >> Director, if you could circle around to the whole council with that answer, that would be great. >> I will. >> Councilmember Flannigan? >> Flannigan: Thank you. [10:09:21 AM] I think, staff, you're doing a great job. And I can't remember exactly what the city manager said, but happy public health week or day, I can't remember what it was. But I want to just repeat my concern about the maps that show how many cases there are per zip code. I've had constituents reach out asking about their zip codes which have very few or no cases in them. At least that was true two or three days ago and it was very clear to me they were thinking that meant they didn't have to practice as much social distancing in their neighborhoods. So I'm really concerned that we're sending the message that it's only in some parts of our community, when this data is not showing all infections. It is just showing confirmed tests. So I don't know that we can unring the bell on that map but I just want to reiterate that concern. >> Councilmember Flannigan, that was exactly the concern [10:10:21 AM] that we had with listing those by zip code. Again, that's where the people live, not where they may have been exposed. So, again, I think it's important to remind folks that we have sustained community spread across our jurisdiction, across the state of Texas. Social distancing should be practiced everywhere by everybody, regarding of what the numbers look like where they happen to live. >> Flannigan: I would add to that just as an example, in some of our districts on the farther edges of the city people are definitely driving between zip codes to go to the grocery store. Even people staying at home aren't staying in their zip code. >> Mayor Adler: All right. Councilmember Ellis. >> Ellis: Thank you. Can everybody hear me okay? I have two questions, and maybe they're more requests. Can we talk a little bit about communication with hospitals and physicians? [10:11:23 AM] I know that there is a kind of chain of command in emergency operations planning in each facility. But I'm wondering if it's a matter of are we sending memos out to some of the more individualized offices or regional clinics are are they checking into a certain website? Can you tell me more about that communication with our health care workers? >> Certainly. This is Dr. Escot again. We have representatives from the Travis county medical society as parts of many of our groups, and that includes the emergency operations center. We do have a dedicated spot on our covid-19 website for health-care professionals, which is being beefed up further this week. We have created podcasts through my deputy Dr. Picket to further educate our health-care community on what we're doing on the [10:12:23 AM] emergency operations side as far as the isolation facilities are concerned, alternate care sites, as well as the task forces that have been organized to help address this. We have active engagement in a number of social media covid-19 groups within Travis county. And we also have been working with the Travis county medical society to develop further content for their members and further outreach to those who may not be members. So this has been ramping up over hot past week or two. Again, we have all along brought in experts from around the jurisdiction to be directly involved in this process. And we continue our efforts to try to provide that outreach to our health-care community so they feel like they're informed and part of [10:13:27 AM] the response. >> Ellis: I really appreciate that. I know things are moving quickly and there's a lot of moving parts so I wanted to have a little more clarity so I could help explain to my constituents who are asking how that communication is happening. And my second point is, I noticed as I was looking around at some of our fellow big cities in Texas how their dashboard readings and I noticed San Antonio has the information about number of hospitalizations and number of recovered and it also breaks down the information about what percentage is community transformation versus travel-related or things currently under investigation. So I really appreciate having those numbers in this briefing earlier and if there's any way we could continue to revamp our dashboard as we're able to present that information I think that would be helpful because I know we have a running tally of how many have tested positive and confirmed to have covid but understanding how many have recovered, I think that kind [10:14:28 AM] of helps us gauge our hospital capacity just so that as we're watching, as people who aren't medical professionals, that we can kind of see those numbers moving and I think that transparency is really helpful to the public so I'd like to make that request if at all possible to include that information. >> Councilmember, I completely agree. We actually have an intelligence task force that is working on exactly that. We do want to collate that data and provide it in a meaningful way for you all, for the leadership of the county, as well as to the public. So we anticipate that we will continue to roll out additional information and data streams on our website so that we can improve that transparency and situational awareness across the community. >> Ellis: That's great. I really look forward to seeing those updates. Thank you so much. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. Councilmember Renteria and then councilmember alter. [10:15:28 AM] >> Renteria: Yes. Mayor, you know we're coming into -- this is a holy week, and with Easter coming on Sunday, and I'm really concerned because the people in my neighborhood normally would have a big family gathering at the park, barbecuing and everything, and I'm having my staff to work on having a message put out to all the people that, you know, you do really want to see your grandfather, your uncle, or your father, mom get sick with this virus out here and pass away? So we also are trying to -- I'm having my staff work on a Spanish outreach, but if there's anyone there in the health department or anyone manager that's working on -- in the communication department to do an [10:16:28 AM] outreach, putting out that message, I would really like to get ahold of that. We are working on our own to provide that kind of message. So if there is a message out there explaining to people how serious this virus is and not to come out and have these big family picnics that we normally have on Easter Sunday. >> Thank you for bringing up that, councilmember. We are going to be amplifying those messages specifically this week. During our work session already this morning we did make an announcement we were closing parks across the city for Easter weekend, and so that will be another opportunity for us to get out into the community to make sure that they are aware of that, that they should continue to do what our health professionals are asking them to do with social distancing, but we'll make sure to communicate all those additional messages to council so we can amplify them with your constituents as well. >> Renteria: Thank you. And another request is that if -- these cabinets are [10:17:30 AM] being developed, and if we could get a list of all the cabinets with all the people that are in charge of these cabinets, I would really appreciate it so that we can have all the contact names available. >> We'll get that out to you today. >> Renteria: Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Councilmember alter. >> Alter: Thank you. Good morning. I have some questions I think that are likely for Dr. Escot or director Hayden. I'm concerned about what's happening with the testing and the notification of people who are positive and how quickly that's happening and the manner in which it's happening. So can you speak a little bit to that and how that's happening? I've heard, you know, stories of people get a phone call, they don't ever get a letter, which then causes problems down the line. Physicians, referring physicians, are not made aware of the diagnosis and it just seems that there are [10:18:30 AM] some protocol challenges there, especially if what we want to do is provide direction to quarantine and isolation. So the first part of my question is about how we are working to improve that testing notice protocol, and the second part is how are we communicating the option of the quarantine or isolation facility at and at what point in the protocol and how are we communicating this to local physicians so we can refer people since authenticator ones who are -- since they're the ones closest to that? There seem to be some missteps. The information I have is from people who were tested several weeks ago so it may have evolved, but they were, you know, getting a letter in the mail that they had to sign for and then they had to go to the post office to pick it up to tell them that they were positive and there are just some elements that [10:19:31 AM] have that don't seem right if we're trying to keep people who are contagious away from other people. >> Councilmember, those are great questions. So right now when there's a confirmed case or any results, those individuals are called by one of our staff. If they speak a language other than English, we have the appropriate staff contact them to notify the results and also to initiate that contact tracing. Regarding the notification process of physicians, that really depends upon how the testing was coordinated. If a physician themselves ordered the test, the results will go directly to them. And we are working on the process. If they didn't order it to see if we can connect back to them. But primarily right now that call goes directly to the [10:20:32 AM] patient to -- because that's information that we have for the call back. In relation to the other piece, as far as, you know, providing further information or written information to the patients, we don't have a process for that now, and we are working to do that. Particularly for the negative test results, so that if they need that by their employer we can have a process for that. >> Alter: I think that -- go ahead. >> I do want to touch on the control orders that you mentioned before, which are the ones that are sent by mail. So right now the law says that individuals who are issued control orders have to be sent those via registered or certified mail. We're working with the law [10:21:33 AM] department to -- city and county to see if we can just send that electronically to avoid the exact circumstance you just mention where had somebody has to sign for something or pick it up at a mailbox. That is less than an ideal situation. We are primarily trying to send that information electronically via secure email or via a texting platform to avoid that circumstance. >> Alter: I think there's also a timing issue that maybe the email would, you know -- I think the person that I'm thinking of got their letter a week after they finished their two-week quarantine. So it doesn't really help much if people are not totally on top of what they need to be doing. So how are we, though, helping folks get into that isolation, and who is responsible, and how are we engaging the physicians to help with that process? [10:22:35 AM] >> So regarding the isolation facility and the control orders, on the initial phone call with the individuals to share that information of their confirmed case, they are I should control orders verbally and those control orders are legally binding. In addition to that they are getting an email version of that, and the written version comes later. That's exactly why we do it in that order so that people are aware immediately of the need to quarantine rather than waiting on the U.S. Mail to provide that notification. The isolation facility is offered to everybody who is a confirmed case. They are encouraged to do that. Particularly in the circumstances that they don't have their own room and bathroom at home. If there is a large number of people living at home, if there's somebody at high risk for complications at loam, if there's a member of [10:23:35 AM] critical infrastructure, first responder or an essential employee that are at home, they are particularly encouraged to take us up on the offer that have isolation facility. So we are continuing to work hard. All the individuals who are calling back those individuals to tell them of their confirmation are making that offer and will continue to do so, again, to try to decrease that risk of household transmission. >> Alter: What direction is being given to people who go to testing before they get their positive because it takes so long to get it? I mean, are they being told to quarantine as if they have it or. . . >> Yes. So everybody who -- sorry. Everybody who goes through the drive-through testing gets a printed sheet to provide instructions regarding their quarantine. Also when they go through the registration process they're provided information as well. [10:24:35 AM] The results for the testing have been, you know, 24 to 48 hours so we're still getting them very quickly in most circumstances. When we had HHS involved in the past couple of weeks, some of their testing was sent off to national labs which took substantially longer. We're not using that process anymore, so we are hopeful we'll continue to that one to 2-day time frame between testing and calling back with the results. >> Alter: I'm glad to hear that that testing is speeding up. My last question is, I believe I understood that you said that we were not yet able to test folks who are asymptomatic but were exposed like living with someone who is covid positive. Will that be changing any time soon? >> That's a great question. We are still working on securing additional testing [10:25:36 AM] collection kits so that we can continue to increase our efforts at testing those with symptoms and those who may be asymptomatic and associated with another case. We are still somewhat limited in that test collection kits. We do have a task force working on identifying additional test collection kits so that we can continue to increase that offering. I will say that we're also hopeful that we will both have increased testing available locally in the near future, as well as the availability of the Abbott rapid test, which pay give results in as little as 15 minutes. Once we have that available in this community, it will really change the face of our ability to control this by providing rapid results. For instance, if we are able to get that rolled out at some stage to our drive-through testing people [10:26:37 AM] may feasibly have an answer before they leave or within a short period of time after they leave so that would be a game layer for us and we continue to communicate with state and federal partners to advocate for the availability of that. >> Alter: How [indiscernible] >> I don't have a great answer to that. The limiting step there is the machine that runs that test. Right now that machine is not available -- or no additional machines are available. So right now that's gonna be available primarily at clinical sites that already have that machine that runs other similar tests. But we are continuing to try to identify other of those machines to run the tests that maybe available for us to help implement. If not we will have to work closely with our hospital systems to try to get access to those rapid tests through [10:27:38 AM] them. >> Alter: Okay. Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. Councilmember Casar and councilmember kitchen. >> Casar: Hi, all. Thank you. I want to first of all thank everybody for all of the hard work that you're doing. I want to raise some issues of what I'm seeing on the ground that I think are really elevated issues in the cities and place like Texas. Because while we are obviously looking at other cities more advanced in their crisis and have seen many more cases as we learn, I want us to highlight the issues that are pretty different here. Really big gaps in access to health insurance and health care, the large numbers of people who aren't getting quickly onto unemployment or who aren't eligible for unemployment insurance, the lack of paid sick time guarantees even under the new federal law and then general sense of distrust in government institutions I [10:28:38 AM] think are really, really heightened issues in Texas cities that some other cities may not experience quite as much of those, and I see that happening on the ground in my district right now, where I'm not confident that there aren't people who are -- I think there are people who are continuing to work sick, whether or not they have this specific virus or not, but people are more likely to work when sick because they're not guaranteed another option. People are mirror likely when they're unemployed from one job to seek work other places so there are a lot more people going to cut lawns or to do maintenance on people's homes if they've lost a job to go do other work, and aren't staying at home and a large number of people who aren't -- don't have a doctor that they can contact easily or who don't trust being able to go to community institutions to get health care access. So I think that those things, while they impact people all over the country, are especially serious issues here, and that might require us taking stronger [10:29:39 AM] and different steps than other places given that part of it, like councilmember Renteria mentioned, is strong communication about people being safe and where to triage and if you don't have a doctor what to do. But I think we really should be thinking about how to really make sure employers are sending people home, try to guarantee people sick time but even if they don't we have to find some way to get people home. Of course we're talking about things like the rise fund so people can choose not to work if they've lost their job. People need to work to survive many people think but if we can provide other ways for people to survive then maybe we can have folks stay at home more. I just want to elevate the fact that in New York or in Washington, while they're experiencing real tragedy and bigger spikes, they have some of those stronger social safety nets that we don't have here, and I'm seeing right now and hearing all the time from constituents who say I don't want to work, I know I [10:30:41 AM] shouldn't, but I'm going to send my husband to work and we're going to pray for him and hope that he does okay and that because everybody's to go. And we need to prevent that from -- and they're choosing between survival and survival, and we need to find a way that people don't have that impossible choice for them, and I think more and more people here have -- are facing those sorts of cloyses than in other places. So communication around how to get access to health care and how safe people can be and thinking about -- I'm just seeing right now a lot of people who have lost jobs in nonessential industries going to work jobs that we are allowing and going out into the community or potentially continuing to work when sick which we absolutely need to stop. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Councilmember kitchen. You're muted. >> Kitchen: I know. I'm trying to take the mute [10:31:41 AM] off. >> Mayor Adler: You're good now. >> Kitchen: Can you hear me now? >> Mayor Adler: Yes. >> Kitchen: Okay. So I have question, I think it's for Dr. Escot. This relates to the nursing home situation. Two questions related to that. The first one is, what is the route for someone if they are seeing a nursing home that their parent might be in who doesn't appear to be following the protocols? I would also like to understand where I can see what the protocols are. And so this is with regard to use of ppes and other kinds of protocols. So first question is where can I see what the protocols are? And how can I advise constituents who have talked with me about their concerns about what's happening in the nursing home where their parent is? >> Great questions, councilmember. Our orders are on the [10:32:46 AM] covid-19 website on austintexas.gov. There's going to be some variations in how each of the nursing homes implement those strategies, both our orders, as well as the governor's orders regarding those facilities. The -- if there's a concern about a nursing home, I will -- I'll send you and the rest of council a method for forwarding those to our nursing home task force so they can investigate and make suggestions. They are working with the nursing home and assisted care facilities on some frequently asked questions, on some best practices, but certainly if a family member feels that a facility is not doing enough, the best thing to do is to contact initially that administrator and voice those concerns. [10:33:47 AM] And if they're not appropriately addressed, then connecting with us so that we can get the task force to review those issues. >> Kitchen: Thank you. Yes. I'm aware of -- we've had a constituent call us who is aware that the particular nursing home is not falling -- to their mind is not following protocols. And my question about the protocols are the orders are relatively high level, and so that's why I was asking if there were more detailed protocols? For example, and this maybe something we haven't done, but, for example, are there protocols for what to do when meals are delivered to an individual's loom? Or are we not -- do we not get to that level of specificity? >> Our order does not get to that level of specificity. Those nursing homes are regulated by hhsc. I know that they have issued [10:34:50 AM] some specific guidance regarding some of these elements. But, you know, there's -- we are working on that faq sheet as well as best practices so we can share that information with those facilities that may not be as advanced in their operational thinking. So we're happy to continue to work on that. In fact I had a call yesterday with our task force regarding that, and they're expecting that to be available this week. >> Kitchen: Okay. That would be great. I also think it's important to make sure that families know what these protocols are. I know that's a little bit more difficult to reach so that may just be something that needs to be put out there more widely. So that the families know what these facilities are supposed to be doing and know what [indiscernible], you know, of course they're all shut down in terms of family visits, but at least families that have some [10:35:50 AM] awareness of what's going on and they need to have an understanding of what's expected from the facilities. So, yes, if you can share with me what those -- what the state guidance is and the extent to which we're providing protocols. And then I'll work with our staff to help get that out widely so the public understands. And then it seems to me, from what I'm hearing, that in this community we're doing pretty well with regard to nursing homes. I've only seen a few instances where people have tested positive. Can you confirm that? >> Councilmember, I don't have the exact numbers for nursing home positives. I believe it's around a dozen or so, but I will try to get that information for you and the others. You know, we do have methods to isolate those individuals [10:36:53 AM] initially within the facility and, again, to move them to a different facility so that we can decrease exposures as much as possible. Even in the nursing home setting we're seeing some individuals who have tested positive who are asymptomatic. So we continue to follow those and, you know, part of the challenge is this disease is very puzzling. We are seeing some patients who get critically ill and others who, you know, in a group of 19 students that I spoke to recently, only one of the 19 ever developed a fever. You know, it's puzzling us right now why there's so much difference in clinical presentations and severity, but we and our colleagues across the country and across the world are trying to answer some of these questions. >> Kitchen: Okay. So then last question with regard to the nursing homes. Are we testing? [10:37:54 AM] So, for example, if a resident is found to be positive or sick in a facility, are we testing everyone else in that facility? Or if a worker has been found to test positive are we testing everyone? The reason I'm asking that is because, as you know and others know and facilities like this, any kind of disease spreads very, very quickly. And even when they're on lockdown. And so I'm wondering what we're doing to help prevent that, and I'm wondering if testing is part of that? Or are we waiting for people to get sick before they're tested? >> That's a great question, councilmember. And our nursing home task force is working on solidifying a protocol. I can tell you that in circumstances so far when we have an individual who is [10:38:54 AM] symptomatic and are tested we have tested the individuals that are living in that same hallway for instance, as well as the staff to try to get an idea about the surveillance and magnitude of the outbreak. We do not have enough toasts test everybody in every nursing home that has a case, but as the testing increases and our ability to do widespread testing such as that maybe enhanced. >> Kitchen: Thank you very much. I would like to follow up with the nursing home task force so if you could just provide information to me for how I can do that, that would be great. Because I have some more detailed questions, but I don't want to continue taking up too much time on this. So can you share the contact person with me? >> Yes, ma'am, I will send that to you here shortly. >> Kitchen: Okay. Then the last question I have is for Stephanie. [10:39:56 AM] Actually, this is just a request. If you could provide to us -- thank you. I appreciate you going over the committees that have been formed that were the -- part of the eoc, the social service committees. But I couldn't get it all written down. It was a little too fast for me. So if you could email that to all of us so we can see what that list of committees is and who the lead is on it? Can you do that, Stephanie? >> Yes, I can send it. >> Kitchen: Okay. And at some point I would like to see -- and I know y'all are working on this, and I apologize if I've missed the most recent, but I'd like to see a memo related to where we're at on the homeless services that are being added. So, again, I'm sure you -- I know you sent one a while [10:40:57 AM] back so just let me know when that one will be updated. Thank you very much. That's all my questions. >> Mayor, you're muted. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Real quickly, a couple questions, clear, I get asked a lot and I'm sure you're probably getting asked a lot too. The word out of Washington is this week is going to be kind of the pearl harbor moment on this and certainly that's true for flushing probably. They're hoping to get their peak the end of this week. That peak is gonna be kind of a rolling thing across cities, across the country, as the city that's dealing with the greatest calamity is going to rotate. The best information that we have right now for Austin is that we don't reach our peak [10:41:58 AM] until late April maybe into may. And when that peak hits or how it hits is really very dependent on how well the community does with the social distancing. Better we do, we push that peak period of time back and that's one of the advantages of doing it, because we then get some additional time to be able to prepare and the intensity is less. I have two concerns from where I sit that I think are worth noting. First is I'm concerned about the construction activity that's going on in the city. You all know that the county judge and I participated in orders -- issued orders that limited the amount of construction. The governor came in and allowed construction. There was a model posted yesterday by the university of Texas that dealt with looking at the construction [10:43:00 AM] industry, and the impact that opening construction might have on the community. I think the modeler reported that it's really dependent on three different variables. First is what kind of assumption do you make about what is the transformation rate that could happen on a construction site? The belief is that it could be higher because you have people that are working in close proximity with one another, that in ordinary times it's just the way construction works, you would expect it to transfer more. Another variable is how well we do in the community with social distancing. If we do really well, can lower the physical distancing by 90% than any hole in the dike becomes magnified so there's that question, how well are we doing in the city to get to 90%? The last variable is what kind of mitigation happens on-site? Are you sharing tools, disinspecting tools, is everybody wearing face [10:44:01 AM] covering, taking temperatures, those kinds of things? With all that said, if we have now moved to 100% of the construction working, if we don't do the mitigation and if this illness transfers at a liar level among construction sites, again, if we don't do mitigation, then the a hospitalizations we have in this community generally by mid-august could be three times higher than it would be without any construction activity. And the incidents of illness among the population of 50,000 or so workers in construction could be eight times as high. But you can mitigate that with on-site mitigation, but just to kind of make it that much more important for the construction industry, as well as everyone in the orders that we have to really do a good job. That's one of the biggest [10:45:01 AM] concerns that I have on the horizon, that with that potential risk [inaudible] Have to make sure we manage that piece well. Anybody want to talk before we go on to the economic department? >> Yes, mayor. >> Mayor Adler: Anybody else raise their hand? >> Yes. >> Mayor Adler: I've lost my overall screen. >> Tovo: Mayor, this is councilmember tovo? >> Mayor Adler: Councilmember tovo, go ahead. >> Tovo: [Inaudible] >> Tovo: Back on the phone. Thank you. I have a couple questions. Sorry. One of the problems is that my computer can hear me so I have to -- >> Mayor Adler: We can hear you. >> Tovo: There we go. This is a question for Dr. Escot and follows on some of the questions that were asked earlier. [10:46:02 AM] Are you tracking and can you provide or is there a graph somewhere, a map somewhere of where people are being tested? I know we have maps of where people have tested positively, but are there any maps that exist that would schist -- slow us where people are being tested? >> Councilmember, we don't have a map of where people are tested. We could certainly look at doing that once we are more successful about getting the total number of tests which have been run from the labs in a electronic format. So we could certainly do that to get an idea of where we're penetrating testing, where we're not. That's a great idea. >> Tovo: Yeah I think that would be an interesting data point. Thank you. I think both you and director Hayden talked about [10:47:02 AM] the outreach that's been done and the work that's being done with west campus, and I just wanted you to address, if you would, with a lit more -- little more specifics how are Austin austinpublic health is interacting with students and residents of the west campus area given that there are many cases in that particular geographic location? >> We've -- in relation to the ut-related cluster, the outreach has been to those involved, as well as to apartment management in the circumstances where they live in apartments, touch base with them to ensure that they are mitigating how [10:48:03 AM] they can. We have large apartment complexes that tend to house students. They've been very, very proactive, even before we order it they closed social gathering spaces such as the pool and the hot tub and the gym and so forth. So they've been very proactive when it comes to that. Again, there's -- in my discussions, in our discussions with the cases in that area, the individuals have been very responsible for the need to quarantine, and in some circumstances they are maybe going overboard, you know, and including things more than they actually need to. I think they're being very, very responsible, and I think it's really helping to mitigate the risk outside of those who already have it in west campus. >> Tovo: Yeah. I was very glad to hear the [10:49:04 AM] additional details you provided earlier in the presentation. My question is really not so much about the individuals who have tested positive or been exposed to those who have, but really more generally what the outreach has been like to some of the other complexes and some of the private dorms that are continuing to house residents? And I had, too, heard that some of the larger apartment complexes had taken very proactive steps and had posted signage and made other changes in their operations but in some of the smaller complexes there maybe less of that going on. So maybe this is a conversation for outside of this format since we need to move on, but I am interested in just getting a little more information about what the outreach has been like in west campus more generally to some of the complexes there. They may not -- they may not have yet been touched by our public health department or our other city staff. >> That's a great question, [10:50:05 AM] and we can get together off-line. I know that university of Texas has been involved in some outreach, as well as some of the apartment associations regarding how they can work together to mitigate the threat in their industry, including locally. But I'd be happy to touch base with you and see if I can provide some further details. >> Tovo: That would be super. Thank you. And I have one last question four and then a quick question for -- more generally. You had spoken earlier about eight clusters. The one obviously in west campus. And I think that I heard you say the other clusters that you're getting all took place in clinical settings. Is that correct? >> They're not all clinical settings. Some involve health-care workers. Some of those clusters for instance -- we have one cluster that was related to a conference in the state of New York that was attended by multiple clinicians here [10:51:07 AM] in Austin. We don't have any evidence of transfer outside of that initial contact, but that would be a cluster related to New York, for example. >> I see. Thank you for that clarification. And you said that the clusters that you're investigating, eight clusters that you're investigating, are -- represent a minority of the cases that you're seeing across the area? Is that -- did I hear that correctly? >> That's correct. The majority of the cases that we're seeing have no direct link to the exposure. So, again, that describes community spread. Hopefully, again, this week we can provide additional data regarding cluster-related versus community spread to provide some more transparency on that issue. >> Tovo: Great. Thank you. I appreciate the additional steps that have been taken this week to close parks and trails. I understand how challenging that is for people who [10:52:08 AM] really rely on those to get out and to get exercise, but I think in light of what councilmember Renteria and others have said, those are popular places on a weekend such as this one, and so I think making sure that we're doing everything we can structurally to prevent those gatherings is really critical. My last question gets back to something councilmember harper-madison raised and maybe others as well, and that is we continue, I think probably all of us continue to receive questions from austinites who want to help. They want to donate. They want to volunteer. They want to be, you know, especially -- I am hearing those kinds of expressions of want to go help with regard to food, food access or serving our neighbors experiencing homelessness. So I would just really urge -- I think we had a similar conversation last time, and there were going to be staff contacts [10:53:08 AM] provided, but I would really suggest to the extent that we can continue to support that piece of the covid-19 website, that would be really helpful. I would guess that what we don't want people to do is what sometimes happens in the downtown area, where individuals are bringing food down individually and trying to give it away to individuals who are experiencing homelessness who maybe hungry. It seems that always poses a risk, and I think especially during a period of time like this we want that food to be provided through organizations that have access to procedural guidelines that are going to help that be a safe transaction. So if we could get some more information on our website about how people can get involved and continue to help in those -- especially in those two areas, that would be really helpful. >> We'll work with the eoc, [10:54:09 AM] as well as our department to ensure that we have appropriate links publicly so folks know where to go to. >> Tovo: That would be super. Thank you. Are we getting more information later in the -- presentation about the food access memo? This 43 be -- playback a question for Veronica. I'll ask it now. I'm interested about getting mirror information about some of the proposals mentioned in yesterday's memo with regard to a couple different things. The emergency food distribution and the proposal being evaluated, as well as the proposal to involve local restaurants in providing some food. The keep Austin together initiative in particular. Is that an appropriate question for now or is that an appropriate question for [10:55:09 AM] the economic development piece? >> Actually, we are working with Edwin Marty on that initiative. We have started the kind of overall process. We have not worked out all of the specifics for that. So we are finalizing that, but it's pretty close. So what specifically would you like to ask about that? >> Tovo: You know, again, I think -- I'm happy to have this conversation off-line too. I would just suggest, this is one of the areas where the cabinet might be of use. I know several of us received queries very early on from different restaurants who suggested this kind of an approach, so I'm really excited to see it moving forward. I would want to be sure that some of the restaurants who suggested the approach are actually -- have the opportunity to participate or that we understand how to [10:56:10 AM] direct restaurants that are interested in participating, and so let me just, manager, say, you know, I like the idea of the cabinets. If they can actually be structured in a way that provides some usefulness to the overall effort. And so getting that link working would really be important. .I think several have asked where the list is or can we get a list of which staff are providing services through each of those and I think that got mailed to us last week. They had emailed a list of all the draft committees are and all the staff contact for that so we got that last week. But the other question I had, Stephanie, is about the -- one of the specific protocols. The protocol from the emergency -- from the sustainable food center and food shed investors to do [10:57:11 AM] emergency food box distribution. I wondered if you had a sense of what the time line is on evaluating that model, that proposal. >> I'm gonna have to -- I'm gonna have to ask Edwin Marty. Maybe we can get this posted on the q&a and get him to answer that specifically. Because I think he can -- >> Tovo: Yeah, I'd be -- >> -- Way more detailed. >> Tovo: I'd be glad to follow up with those specific questions. Thank you so very much to you and to the other staff on the call for this tremendous work. And happy public health week and certainly I think you and your team have really illustrated to our community at large the value of the work that you do each and every day, and especially at times like this. We're so fortunate to have really expert staff leading this effort, so thank you. [10:58:12 AM] >> Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. Councilmember kitchen. >> Kitchen: I'm not certain -- we don't have to get into the detail here, but I also want to understand what we're doing with personal care workers. I had raised the issue a while back about access to ppes for places like family elder care, who have personal care workers and certified nurse assistants and folks like that who go into people's homes both for people with disabilities and for elderly. So I'm not certain who to follow up with. I'd like to understand the extent to which ppes are available for those workers. And any -- there's a lot of other issues related to that kind of work. And folks who are not able to work any longer and related to sufficient services. [10:59:13 AM] This might be a question for Stephanie. I'm not sure who is the lead that I should talk to about those questions. >> Yes. We are -- our social service branch has been working on ppe for -- outside of first responders. So that's your, you know, folks that are working for family elder care, nonprofits, et cetera. So what is so what is your specific question? >> The contact person. I have a long list of questions. Rather than spend people's time right now, I'm happy to just make sure I'm directing them to the right person. >> Stephanie, I'll jump in here. We created these covid cabinets and some of them have already been having meetings. The social services cabinet that you're on, that will be a great [11:00:13 AM] item to discuss at that. You'll have a staff available to make sure all those questions are answered. But I just want you to know we're pivoting a little bit to utilize the cabinets in a little bit more efficient way but I want to make sure that you're able to get those questions answered in the appropriate time. So either through the q&a portal, the last question from council member tovo, or through the cabinets, we want to make sure these are venues for you to get these questions answered. >> Thank you, city manager. That cabinet hasn't started yet. I'm sure it will be starting soon. I'd also just like to state that, you know, there are many things happening right now through the eoc setup. And it would be very efficient and certainly less timely for our staff if they didn't have to do multiple meetings. We've talked about this many times. I'll just express again my concern about the fact that our [11:01:14 AM] council staff are excluded from those meetings and are not allowed to participate, and I just don't think that's efficient, nor do I think it's appropriate. >> Okay. Anything else before we move on to the economic -- >> Yes. >> Alter: I just want to let our resource cabinet met for the first time yesterday, and we are going to immediately focus on streamlines first of all the incoming offers that we're getting from folks, and less on the individual and more on the folks who are saying they have a hotel, or they have a space, or able to provide meals for hundreds of folks. But right now what's happening is we have these offers being made to the 11 of us and to the city staff, and there's a lot of time being wasted with that. So we're working on streamlining that process so that we have [11:02:14 AM] forms where our offices will be able to pass that on, and be able to rationalize that process, so the right people are able to evaluate those things more quickly. And then clarify what the highest needs of the city are with respect to that. I know there were some questions about things that folks can do that are safe. I'm hearing from a lot of nonprofits that have needs for masks, so if people are able to make masks, that's a good thing. Blood donations, they have a set upthat is safe. And just generally donating money so that we don't have too many folks in there, I think is a good thing. I will bring up at our meeting also to see how we can support some of the communications on the individual donations, and what works as well. >> Thank you. Council member Flannigan? >> Flannigan: You know, I don't think there's agreement on the [11:03:17 AM] appropriate role of council staff. I think we should be really careful about crossing the line between staff work, which needs to be rapid and it needs to be done by experts, and when it's appropriate for council staff or council members to be safe. I want to make sure there's not necessarily agreement with all of us across those points. >> Anything else before we go to the economic part? Yes, council member Renteria? >> Renteria: A question I forgot to ask earlier, I've been contacted by some of the employees at the airport, and they're really concerned because they don't have the masks to wear. And they were going to -- one person that I talked to said that they were given one, it was supposed to last for the whole month. And I'm really concerned that, you know, that our employees that are at the airport, that actually are at the front line, [11:04:18 AM] don't have the safety equipment that they feel like they need. So if we really -- you know, now we have the police department wearing masks. So if we could give our front line employees the necessary safety that they need to feel safe, I would really appreciate that. >> Okay. Thank you. Council member, thank you. >> Mayor? >> Council member harper-madison, we'll lose Dr. Es cot, he needs to run off to another meeting. Does anybody have any quick questions before he goes? Council member harper-madison, did you have one? >> Harper-madison: Very quick. You mentioned the rapid test, the 15-minute test. I think in the last briefing, the point of case test and rapid [11:05:20 AM] test. (Indiscernible). >> The rapid test that was referring to is a pcr test similar to the ones we've been doing. The serology test, the antibody test is a different kind of test. It tests the immune reaction rather than the presence of the virus. That's why that test is less useful at detecting people who are infectious, and is more useful at detecting people who are in the process of fighting the infection, or have recovered. >> Harper-madison: Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. Anything else? All right. >> Mayor, I do have another comment, but not for Dr. Ascot. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you for being with us today, Dr. As cot. >> Thanks to both of you for all your service. >> I'm sorry about losing [11:06:23 AM] (indiscernible). I was hoping she would be available, or somebody for item 81. Is there not going to be a public health staff person available? >> I'm going to be here. >> Mayor Adler: Sorry, Dr. Hayden. >> Thank you. >> Okay. >> Mayor Adler: Council member tovo? >> Tovo: About the ability for staff to participate in forums where information is being provided, I don't want to speak for council member kitchen, but I'll speak for myself in saying it certainly is not an interest in doing the work of staff, so there may be a misunderstanding about that. It's not a good to be able to do the work for which our staff are not experts. But it is a request that I think is efficient in the long run, because it allows our staff to [11:07:24 AM] get the information that we need to be able to do our jobs and to make good policy. And so that -- you know, there are forums taking place where community members, volunteers and people from various organizations are participating in phone calls and getting information about areas that we need to be informed about, and allowing council to participate in the conversations would be in the best interests of the city, and also help inform some of the policies that we are crafting. >> Thank you, council member tovo. That's what I meant. I agree with council member Flannigan that it's not our staff's job to do the work of the staff. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm simply talking about listening. As council member tovo said, those meetings involve the community. So for example, one that was mentioned earlier by Stephanie that the mayor participated in, which was with community members as well as our staff, not [11:08:26 AM] allowing council member and staff to listen doesn't make any sense I think from an efficiency perspective. And that would be helpful for all of us. So that's all I meant to convey. >> I'm trying to think (indiscernible) Those meetings would be. The public meetings like that are public. And I agree that you all should know about those meetings. Other than the phone call that I was asked to get on, I'm not sure I can think of another one like that. But I'll certainly watch for those kinds of things, absolutely. Anything else before we go on to [11:09:27 AM] the economic development? >> I also am really concerned about the construction industry and construction workers. (Indiscernible) To be published or not to be published, showing thousands of people that are hospitalized, if we allow all construction work to continue. But that's where we are right now. So I've been working -- lots of people have been working on much stronger safety rules. I think there are some contractors that are stepping up and implementing those, but in other places we don't see the social distancing and hygiene being fully practiced. So I think the council (indiscernible) And communicate it, we absolutely need a place for workers to feel safe, sending in complaints if they aren't safe, if those rules aren't being followed, and adequate needs of enforcement. [11:10:28 AM] I think that's ultimately a place where it's going to be the city staff that need to support that kind of work. So is there someone assigned now on your team that can help on that end of really, you know, coordinating to make sure that we're enforcing that if construction is going to proceed? Or is there someone you plan on assigning it to, given how dire things are from the university of Texas? >> We continue to focus on this work, particularly this week. Yesterday there was a lot of communication that the joint information center pushed out to the construction industry, (indiscernible) Also pushed that information out. But as we hear enforcement issues, we'll focus on that. As we focus on education and communication, but those are the two areas as we said we're making sure that this week in particular we're paying more attention to. [11:11:28 AM] So I can get back to you on just how we're focused on that and maybe have a memo that would go to council. But know that we are putting a lot of effort around the communication and enforcement effort right now. >> It would be great to know if there is a point person or two for us to communicate with. I know the mayor has been working on this. I know council member kitchen has stepped up to help. We don't want to get in the middle of it, but right now, we're hearing intermittent enforcement issues. It's not just dealing with a few cases, I think this is more widespread, that needs a more systematic approach rather than just education out there. Because there are oftentimes dozens of construction companies on any given construction site. And so I think that having a point of contact, think of how we can either fund or support a much more robust complaint [11:12:28 AM] enforcement regime is more important. And if there's a point of contact to help us understand what you're planning on doing and then to support and bolster, I think there are a lot of people who see that study on the industry and the worker side, are in for a shock about how serious it all is. And I think we need to step up there. >> Okay. Thank you. Council member harper-madison. >> I didn't ask a question. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. Anybody else have anything before we go on to economic? All right. Let's move over there. >> Yeah, as we pivot to this discussion, looking at the different forecast scenes, we'll have Jon hockenyos, and Veronica Briseno and (indiscernible) All provide some feedback. [11:13:28 AM] I think the order will be Jon, and then director Briseno. So with that, I hope he's on right now. Dr. Hockenyos -- Mr. Hockenyos, are you on? >> I am. Good morning. >> Could I ask a quick question? City manager? >> Yes. >> Is there -- has this been sent out to us? Will it be, if it hasn't? This presentation? >> I don't believe it has. We'll make sure it gets uploaded to the website after this discussion. >> (Indiscernible). >> That would be great. >> Jeanette sent these earlier today. It's in your inbox. >> (Indiscernible). >> Should I proceed? >> Yes, please go ahead, Jon. >> Good morning. First slide is just a cover [11:14:30 AM] slide talking about specifications for city finance during this extraordinary time we find ourselves in. So if we go on to the next slide, it's sort of an overview what we're beginning to see. That's where we're beginning to see the impacts come forward in some of the numbers. When I wrote this, that was a national number about claims for unemployment, jumping up 3,000%. That was literally just the first tip of the iceberg. In fact, I saw an e-mail from work force solutions saying that, I believe at the end of last week, the work force commission received 1.7 million phone calls about unemployment. The systems, of course, are overwhelmed. There are lots of people who either have not been able to apply, but unable to get through. So we're N beginning to see, you know, frankly, the limitations of the system as the economic reality facing lots and lots of people is translating into people trying to do something about it, trying to file for unemployment insurance, [11:15:31 AM] trying to figure out when their stimulus check is going to come, all that. You'll see the impact of all this rolling through the realtime numbers over the next, probably, several months. But one of the things that is kind of interesting about that, the stock market, the equity markets typically try to price in the impact of a future event, something close to realtime. A long time ago I remember I was quoted in "The Wall Street journal" talking about oil prices about to rise because of some global event. And of course, when that global event occurred, oil prices fell because the markets already priced in the impact of that. So I just grabbed the four major indexes there, the Dow 30, the S&P 500 and selected kind of a six-week period where they were in the middle of February as they were near their all-time highs. And where they were at the end of last month. And you can see substantial declines there. The broadest index is Russell is down the most, all of them over [11:16:33 AM] 20%. NASDAQ is a little more technology intensive, and technology sectors have been a little less hit, at least initially, that we'll talk about. That's a sense of what the market thinks the impact of this is. At least based on the information that folks had in the recent past. So what are some of the issues on the horizon? Well, the C.A.R.E.S act, unprecedented effort to provide financial support to businesses and individuals, and has had a rocky rollout which is not surprising. So we just don't know when that support is going to reach a lot of people. And even when it does, there are plenty of people who still have incomes, and there are plenty of people who will have the capacity to spend money. But uncertainty about the future, of course, affects willingness, as does literally access. I can't go spend money drinking in a bar if I can't get to a [11:17:34 AM] bar. Those are things we see coming on down the road. This is kind of a context that we're just at the beginning, beginning to see the economic implications of this entire situation. Next slide, please. So one of the things in thinking about how this then all translates to what, of course, you guys have direct purview over, which is city budget and a major revenue stream within the city budget which is a sales tax revenue, we've seen for a very, very long time, there's an exceptionally strong correlation between job growth in our region that's measured by the metropolitan area and sales tax for the city. Almost 92%. And there's a logic to that. I've talked about this in the past. Obviously there's growth in jobs that occurs, and growth in income, and that yields capacity obviously in the aggregate in increased spending. But interesting to see the federal reserve bank picked up on that by some degree by looking at classifying different [11:18:35 AM] occupations who are likely to be especially vulnerable to job losses associated with covid-19. One of those, you know, they categorize them, occupational (indiscernible), those that can be completed off- site, you know, typically a lot of technology workers, in soft tech, those can be relatively immune from the initial effects. And then those who are salaried. One of the things we've observed for some time is salaried employees tend to be those who are laid off. And hourly employees. They put all that together and said nationally there's a little less than 67 million people employed in occupations at high risk of being laid off. In broad categories those are folks in sales, and really obviously in hospitality, especially food preparation and services. Next slide, please. So that's just a chart showing you the relationship between the city of Austin sales tax growth [11:19:37 AM] and the Austin msa job growth. You can see there's quite a correlation. Two different scales, job growth is on the right, sales tax is on the left. It runs approximately -- the correlation over time is in a percentage point change -- percentage point change in employment growth, you get about a 2% move, a little bit more than 2% move actually in sales taxes. Next slide, please. So another approach to this, a different group has taken a look at how many people work in occupations that require workers to perform tasks really in close physical proximity to other people. So they have what they call a high contact intensity and there are people like hairstylists, hospitality workers, flight attendants, among others. These are two different data sets. What the St. Louis fed basically did is match two of them [11:20:39 AM] together and take the average, so they think there was almost 67 million people on the one sort of set of occupations at risk, another one 27.3, they just averaged it out and came up with about 47 million people who were at risk of losing their job. Again, this is across the country. You add in folks who are already unemployed, and what you get is a number that has now been reported in the media, an unemployment rate nationally of a little less than a third. That is an extraordinary number. That is a number comparable with the great depression. Right almost exactly. So I did it the hard way, and I've been doing this for a while (indiscernible) Because this is a whole lot of me looking at each occupation, 400 occupations using some of those [lapse in audio] If you are a cook in a restaurant, you've lost your job. If you are a short-order cook [11:21:43 AM] [lapse in audio]. If you're a cook with a fast-food restaurant -- >> I hate to interrupt. Council member pool, can you please mute your microphone? >> Pool: It was muted. >> Mr. Manager, should I go ahead? >> Yeah, go ahead. >> Okay. So anyway, so I went through occupations and looked at it in some detail. And rolled it up to this. So what you see over on the right-hand side is my estimate of what share of those overall occupations will actually be lost. So the first column is as of a year or so ago, when this survey was done, people who were employed in the Austin area, by each one of these different occupations, the far right is a share, and potential job losses [11:22:45 AM] are simply the loss of the share multiplied times the volume of employed. And what you get is around 25%, which I think is actually quite consistent with the national number. Again, there are some people who are already unemployed and that translates to a little over a quarter of a million workers who are likely to lose their job in the Austin area for at least some period of time. Next slide, please. So then we go and we say, okay, how long is it actually going to be, how long are some of these job losses going to occur? And we have a couple of different scenarios there. One is a fairly rapid resolution to this crisis. And what we mean by that is, the economy is essentially restarting locally by mid-april or so -- I'm sorry, not mid-april, mid-may. I think that's fairly unlikely at this point. I think the slower resolution is the more likely scenario. And that says we continue to experience the patterns we're [11:23:46 AM] seeing right now with sort of full-on social distancing through obviously through April, and I think well into may. And then beginning in June, some of the people who were the most recently let go, in other words, people who perhaps were on salary, people who were not engaged in the hospitality or accommodation industry, begin to come back. But it's really not until July and August that the broader local economy really begins to start back up. And it's really not until the end of the fiscal year where most of the people who have lost their positions -- in fact, all the people who lost their positions are back on payrolls. And so I think -- I'm hoping that is a slightly pessimistic scenario, but I think it is a realistic scenario. And under that scenario on city sales tax, fiscal year, will be down about $40 million. Now, we do think, obviously next year, there's the opportunity [11:24:47 AM] for much of that to come back. But if you look at that bottom line number there, 245 million compared to 249 million in fiscal year 2019, what we're essentially saying is, we'll get almost back to where we were last year. Not quite. This is kind of the best estimate we can come up with as of, you know, today, April 7th or so. As more information comes forward, it will be easier to continue to refine these estimates. For example, we will get some information in the next couple days on patterns of sales, but they will be patterns of sales that really occurred in February, which won't help a whole lot. It's really in may that we will get information on what happened in March. And at that point we'll begin to see quite a bit more information coming out of that. I have been in touch with friends in the comptroller's [11:25:48 AM] office and they're going to kind of keep tabs -- I'll be able to keep tabs with them to some degree. But we're just in that period, as you know, from the time the actual transaction occurred, when the money is remitted to the state and when it's ultimately sent back to folks here at the municipal level. Next slide, please. So then we're also taking a look at the lodging tech side of the equation. We're not quite yet ready to come forward with full-on lodging tax estimates. But we're getting close. Obviously it's been severely hit. The folks in the industry say there's a -- >> You might be one slide behind. >> Is it on taxes preliminary? >> It is now. >> Okay. So again, I'm talking about, we're not quite there yet in terms of, you know, in terms of having full-on forecast yet. But we're getting close. And really, you know, we've been in touch quite a bit with people [11:26:49 AM] in the industry, and those occupancy rates are just, you know, mind-boggling. Literally, 5% occupancy rate in April, you know, that's just extraordinary. That's down from occupancy rate this time of year, it would be pushing 75%, 80%. We also think that average daily rates will drop some as well. So you're talking about, you know, really a substantial downturn obviously in lodging tax revenues, which of course, for us, has lots of implications, not least of which are for cultural contracts. So this will be coming forward, as I understand it, in the not distant future. We're not quite ready yet. But again, this is the tip of the spear. You know, this is where tourism really (indiscernible) Hospitality otherwise. This is where the most severe impacts are being felt. Next slide, please. So one of the things, just to talk a little bit about, is [11:27:49 AM] stimulus. It's really interesting. Cash payments obviously to the individuals. Expanded unemployment are going to help most of us. At least for a period of time. There's already talk, and I'm sure you have been reading this, that phase four of the stimulus is being pivoted away from infrastructure spending, towards shoring up some of the safety net provisions around unemployment and support for small business. There's a real fear that when the systems work, the paycheck protection program is going to run out of money. People are now talking about expanding unemployment for four months, to six months. And so if those -- those are really important. To a lesser extent to the disaster loans, consumer facing small businesses are going to die in Austin, Texas. One of the things we started talking some about is, in any kind of situation like this, [11:28:50 AM] lots of people have no idea how to go about getting this help, and it could be extremely high value added, for the city to step in and facilitate that, and really help people expedite it. And I don't know how to do that. I wouldn't pretend to be an expert onthat. But there are lots of people out there who just have no idea what to do, or pick up the phone and try to call somebody. I'll give you an example. Many of the banks locally, and elsewhere, too, have said, look, this program is so overwhelming, we can only serve existing customers. Well, if your bank doesn't participate, what are you going to do? Again, I think that matching up resources with those in need is a really high value added thing to do. Then as you think about direct assistance above and beyond that, and I've had this conversation with several people, there are inevitably going to be people who fall through the cracks. There is no doubt about that. And that's who needs the help [11:29:51 AM] more than anybody else. But it's going to be, I think, pretty challenging to come up with an overall characterization of who those people are. There will be lots of individual situations and that's going to require, I think, some individual interactions. People are going to have to be able to talk to someone and say, here's my situation, here's my story, here's what I need to get on through. And that, I think, would be important, as I know you all are contemplating some forms of direct assistance. And finally, if we ever do get to the point where we have federal funding and perhaps state funding associated with infrastructure spending, that is a classic, dare I say the word in 2020, (indiscernible) Response to an economic crisis which is, that's the time to really work on your infrastructure, and that would certainly have a positive economic effect, if and when we get to that point, which I think is probably going to be somewhere on down the road. So next slide, please. Conclusions are really obviously [11:30:52 AM] consumer activity, and hospitality, where the sector is hit hardest by the virus. There are other sectors also being heavily influenced. You know, not essential medical. If you're an orthodontist right now, you're shut down. All elective surgeries have been shut down. Most sales activity at this point hats basically come to a halt. For lack of a better work, any unique transaction business, selling a piece of real estate, that's also come to a halt at this point for most people, unless it was already in the pipeline and Teed up, there's not a lot of that going on right now. The city feels that strongly in sales taxes obviously, certainly in lodging taxes, mixed beverage taxes, mixed beverage taxes short of the margaritas to go, phenomenon, we've seen that's a pretty small number, they're really driven by people going out. I think there are going to be [11:31:54 AM] other impacts in other revenue streams. I think we'll see a variety of factors, just economic overall downturn. People are likely going to be using less electricity. That could put pressure on the fund transfer, obviously from Austin energy. On the fee side of the equation, it's hard to know. As activity has paused for a while, that likely also is probably had some impact on fees. So the final thing I would say in this whole equation is, on any forecast, especially right now, it's a process. I think we're doing as good a job as we can do to try to get our arms around this entire situation. But we'll know more next week probably than we know today. We'll know more a month from now than we know today, and provide better information for you as a [11:32:54 AM] policy making body to grapple with this, frankly, unprecedented situation. And so next slide means I'm done. That's it. >> We'll hold questions for you. Until we get through the rest of the presentations. The manager is next. >> We've just got to switch to the next presentation. Take it away, Ed. >> Thank you, council, deputy chief financial officer for our (indiscernible). We're moving on to the presentation titled covid-19 budget update. I'm going to start off on slide 2. Can I get some confirmation from something that the slides are (indiscernible)? >> Slide 2 is up now. >> Great. Thank you, mayor. [11:33:55 AM] I wanted to start off, obviously as Jon said, this is a real unprecedented situation. We've never seen -- >> Mayor Adler: Hang on a second. Hang on. Hang on. Hang on a second. >> All right, I see the right presentation is up now. If we could move it to slide 2 there. I did want to speak to the strong financial position that the city of Austin enters this crisis in, which is going to go a real long ways to helping us get through it as a community. First off, we have various fund reserves. Our fund reserves are currently $25.7 million above what our policy level is. And that's policy level is 12%. Our enterprise departments are going to be impacted by the [11:34:57 AM] downturn. They all have dedicated reserves that will help mitigate temporary (indiscernible) Reduction. Austin convention center currently has 336 days of operating expenses. Our airport which is being severely impacted by the travel restrictions entering the crisis had unrestricted cash balance of 608 days of operating expenses. Austin energy and Austin water likewise have reserves that can help get through this downturn to the extent that it impacts their revenue. So very strong reserves are going to be a big part of how we can get through this crisis. We always take a conservative approach to budgeting. And that's great that we do that, particularly during times of crisis. It's sometimes hard to do that during times of plenty, but the fact that we took a conservative position in our budget is going to help us. Our sales taxes, given that we estimate them conservatively, we were more than $10 million ahead [11:35:58 AM] of our budgeted levels on sales tax through our first four collections. That's through January 31st of 2020. We were $10 million ahead. So the fact that we were conservative in our budgeting and are now ahead on our collections, that will help to soften some of the reductions that we would have otherwise seen. Also, we put our budget together this year with very few of what I would call in quotes there balloon payments on deferred budget increases. One of the easiest things to do, if you want to fit more things in your budget, is to simply delay the implementation of things. Delay the hiring of new positions you're adding. We did not do that in crafting the fiscal year 2020 budget. And so we're not going to see when we get into fiscal year 2021, we're not going to see a bunch of balloon payments on delayed expenditures from fiscal year 2020. So that will help us out a lot. Also going into this budget process for fiscal year 2021, [11:36:58 AM] we're anticipating we would be capped at 3.5% on our property taxes by the state. That was new legislation that went into place. We knew that would have impact on us, so we're already well under way with work to improve the city's operational efficiencies and to broaden general fund revenues. So that worked well under way. That will help us as well. Our revenue mix is very diverse. And that's another strong position for us. Sales taxes, which Jon just got done telling you, will be impacted significantly by the gathering restrictions in place. They represent only 23% of our total general fund revenue. In fact roughly 70% of our general fund revenue come from sources we don't anticipate will be impacted by the economic consequences of covid-19. >> And the strengths -- (indiscernible)? >> I'm sorry, yes, we're on slide 3 now. [11:37:58 AM] >> It's on. >> Okay. So another -- you know, another strong aspect of our finances, we have great liquidity. Our treasury department keeps us invested in assets that can easily be liquidated, and so that helps us when we see reductions in other revenue streams, with sales taxes, things like that, not coming in at levels projected, we still have the cash available to us to meet our financial commitments as a city. And of course, as you know, our general obligation is aaa rated by all three credit agencies. We have a dedicated property tax for our general obligations, that is not impacted in any way by the covid-19 crisis. We also have a strong practice in the city of not only having good policies, but adhering to those financial policies, both of which go into our aaa rating. [11:39:00 AM] I'll move on to slide 4, please. This may look familiar to you. This is the slide that was presented to council as part of the fiscal year 2020 budget. We had been projecting a balanced budget for fiscal year '20 and '21, but as a result of the lower revenue caps, we were predicting deficits in the future, and we had already started work on how we might address those budgets. We had projected balanced budget for fiscal year '20-'21. As I'll show you on the next slide, things have changed substantially as a result the impact covid-19 is having on the revenue streams. I'll move on to slide 5, please. So on the slide here, we took (indiscernible) Projections for sales tax and translated them into comparisons to our fy 2020 budget amounts and what we forecast for 2021. This gives us a reflection how far those estimates we are now [11:40:01 AM] thinking we're going to (indiscernible) How that's going to impact our budget this year, and our efforts to balance the budget next year. It's not just sales taxes, though. We also are seeing a steep decline in mixed drink taxes, with the bars and restaurants being closed. User fees and fines would be representative of departmental programs, particularly recreation and cultural programs, public health licenses and permits, all impacted significantly by the changes in life we've seen. And then with the drop in the federal interest rate, we are projecting a shortfall in our interest earning. In total, depending upon the duration of the event, we are projecting in the range of 38 to just over $57 million of lower revenue this year compared to what we had budgeted. Looking ahead to fiscal year '21 [11:41:03 AM] as we come out of this crisis, our projections, and again, these are now relative to what we had been forecasting and are representative of the shortfall we might now be anticipating for fiscal year '21, in the neighborhood of 18 to $22 million for fiscal year '21 that we'll have to figure out a way to make up. Let's move on to the next slide. Which is looking at enterprise bonds. The analysis there is still under way. But there are many revenue sources for our enterprise department that we know will see severe impacts. Hotel occupancy taxes, lodging industry, obviously right now, is seeing extremely low ok papsy rates, and lower room rates. That's going to affect hotel occupancy tax. Not only in the convention center, but the cultural arts and music funds. Airport revenues have seen steep [11:42:04 AM] declines in parking fees, landing fees. Our general parking fees primarily in the downtown area with so many people now not commuting in to work, we're seeing those parking fees down significantly. Austin energy and Austin water, they both receive a lot of revenues from commercial usage which is going to be impacted by businesses being closed. That usage will be somewhat offset by higher residential usage. But there are taxes on the agenda, on the council's agenda to change the tiers for residential usage which will help bring down residential rates. In sum total we anticipate the impact Austin energy and Austin water to be in the moderate range. For development fees, we really at this point, it's an unknown. The governor's executive order allowed construction activities continue, and our inspectors are continuing to do their inspection work. [11:43:05 AM] But (indiscernible) Is expecting a drop in developmental services department, expecting a drop in land fees as they've seen a slowdown in those activities. They're currently working with an outside consultant to look into the changing development trend coming out of covid-19. We expect a report to be back by the end of April or early may. So that will provide us more information about how our development department is faring. Go on to the next slide. At the same time our revenues Aring impacted, we're also seeing increases in unbudgeted expenditures in response to covid-19. To date, we've been tracking our expenditures. This is through the end of March. We had expended $1.3 million for management staff, personnel, public outreach, personal protective equipment and medical waste disposal contracts. We anticipate an additional 8 to [11:44:07 AM] $10 million will be expended through the end of may. These are items that will ultimately have to come back to council for a budget amendment and ratification of the expenses. But we're going to, instead of bringing these items back every two weeks to your meetings, these are things we will bring back when we have more clarity on what the total amount will be. There are other items we're bringing forward to council as they come up, like the Austin economic injury bridge loan program. That was a $4.5 million budgeted amendment approved in the section 108 funds. There are items on the April 9th agenda, $3.6 million in budget amendments related to various hotel leases, for sheltering and quarantine facilities. Move on to slide 8, please. Also on the agenda, if passed by council, there is a $50 million budget amendment for direct [11:45:09 AM] relief related to covid-19 -- people impacted by covid-19. And also Austin energy and Austin water have amendments on April 9th agenda, totaling $10 million for enhancements to their customer assistance program. So these are all the expenses we know of to date. We certainly expect there will be more. I do highlight in the notes here that we anticipate some of these items will be reimbursable in part from the coronavirus aid relief and economic security act, but we're still waiting confirmation from the federal reserve for rules pertaining to the types of items that will be reimbursable. I lay that out a little bit on the next slide. We are estimating at this time that the portion of the coronavirus relief fund, which is just a portion of the overall C.A.R.E.S act, we estimate the Austin allocation of that funding will be in excess of [11:46:09 AM] $115 million from the federal government. Now you can see the text on your screen, and I'm on slide 9, just to make sure we're on the same slide. You can see this is really the information we have and what's going to be in use under the coronavirus relief fund. Necessary expenditures incurred due to the public health emergency, there have to be things not accounted for and approved (indiscernible) And they need to be expenses incurred between March 1st 2020, and December 30th 2020. We do not have specific rules yet, do not have funding through this program at this time. We are expecting the treasury department for rules further defining what necessary expenditures are, and then we're directed to have funds -- available within 30 days, which would be April 28th. Move on to slide 10, to talk [11:47:11 AM] about some efforts and concepts related to (indiscernible) Shortfall that I talked about coming from lower revenues. One of the things we need to do is we need to revisit the major forecast assumptions. That forecast we put out as part of the fiscal year '20-'21 budget, was built upon these major forecast assumptions. One being a sales tax growth rate of 3.5%. Clearly that's not going to happen and we need to rethink that. The property tax assumption for that projection was 3.5% rollback rate. We included in the forecast funding for employee wage adjustment full funding of the housing trust fund, full funding of council's replenishment fund, we had anticipated 30 additional officers per year in the forecast, and the opening of three new fire stations. [11:48:11 AM] Not all in fiscal year '21, but over the five years of the forecast. We had been and still are projecting (indiscernible) Increases for the year. We checked in with our human resources department and health actuary and even with covid-19 happening, we continue to forecast the increases next year at this time. The items in red on this slide are things that we are in the process of reexamining our ability to fund. As we get more information, and we start to understand the impact and options available to us for closing our budget shortfalls, we will report back to the council. But these are some items we need to look at our ability to fund in the future. I'm going to move on to slide 11. As I mentioned earlier, in the presentation, we had already been anticipating a 3.5% revenue [11:49:12 AM] cap that was going to impact the city budget in a significant way in future years, and the city manager had a number of initiatives to bring our design budget back in line with the revenue forecast. A lot of the initiatives had to do with the efficiency of the city operations, looking at our social service contracts relating to homelessness, making sure we're getting the maximum benefit from those contracts. There's a lot of work going on in the organization right now to ensure that our programs are aligned to council's strategic direction 2023. The budget office is working with the department to identify new or potentially expanded sources of general fund revenues outside of property taxes and sales taxes. And then the bottom two, subsequent to covid-19 happening on March 27th, there was a hiring freeze for nonessential [11:50:14 AM] positions. Currently we have 590 position also in the city that have been subject to the hiring freeze and we do have a process in place to review requests to exceptions for hiring and to make sure we're not freezing an essential position that's needed. The department has also been asked for reductions to the discretionary budget line item. We're still collecting data. The department's on that. In total, between that targeted hiring freeze and scaling back of discretionary budget line items, we're currently estimating a little bit more than $14 million in the current fiscal year. Move on to slide 12, and I'll talk about a couple of other options that are available for closing our budget shortfall. One is the property tax cap, will now stay at 8%. Or up to 8% is allowable for the next two fiscal years. We also -- another option would [11:51:15 AM] be to limit the number of waivers, something that we're looking into and coming up with estimates of how much revenue could be generated if we were to limit the fee waiver. Finally, as I talked about earlier, general fund has very strong reserves. So that's certainly an option for addressing our financial challenges. I wanted to talk a little bit about those reserves on slide 13, please. The city has (indiscernible) And emergency reserve fund, equal to 6% of general fund requirements. It provides temporary financing for unassisted need of emergency nature. But it does come with the restrictions that any funds used are supposed to be replenished in the next budget year. This is really viewed as being a disaster relief fund where you will -- where the city will be reimbursed from the federal government in the next fiscal year. That was kind of the idea behind the emergency reserve fund. The budget stabilization reserve [11:52:17 AM] fund provides financial stability during economic downturns. And during the annual budget process up to a third of this reserve can be appropriated to fund one-time expenditures. Combined, our goal is to have the two reserves total 12% of general fund requirements, as we mentioned earlier we're (indiscernible) That reserve level. In regards to past practices, on the use of our reserves, the budget stabilization reserve fund is a one-time budget priority. We usually draw it down through the 12% level to fund those priorities. The emergency reserve fund has not previously been used. And again, there are a number of items on the agenda this Thursday that would tap into our emergency reserves, and we do anticipate at least some of those items will be partially reimbursable from the coronavirus relief fund. I'm going to move on to slide 14. I just wanted to talk a little [11:53:18 AM] bit more about our reserves from the perspective of our rating agency. The rating agencies typically view reserves as a best practice. Certainly an important consideration in the city's overall credit rating. They recommend that reserve levels -- (indiscernible) There's no standard percentage level that we would expect, but they do expect us to look at our multiyear forecast to project revenue fluctuations and things such as natural disasters. If you think about cities that are maybe in the tornado belt, or subject to hurricanes or earthquakes, those cities may need larger reserve funds as part of natural disaster recovery areas, than portions of the country that aren't subject to those natural disasters. Also the economic fluctuations, there are counties that are heavily property tax dependent or have revenue sources that have less volatility. [11:54:19 AM] Typically can get by with fewer reserves than those who have higher or volatile revenue sources. We take all that into account when we made a recommendation to council to revise our financial policies and set that 12% reserve level. And we think that remains a good level for the city of Austin, all factors considered. The utilization of reserves should typically fall within the parameters of the city's financial policies. And of course, be limited to nonrecurring one-time expenditures. Just like your bank savings account, you may need to tap into your bank savings account from time to time for things like car repairs or other needs, but it's not a prudent use of your savings account, for rent ar home mortgage, you would obviously deplete those funds very quickly. So one-time nonrecurring expenditures is an important [11:55:19 AM] consideration in using reserves. As far as the limitations how much you draw down your reserves, it's an important consideration particularly in light of the current situation, where we just don't know yet what the duration and ultimate severity of the covid-19 outbreak will be. We do have policies as part of our financial policies, I mentioned that one-third drawdown of the reserve fund. Those limitations are built into the policy to ensure that we're not drawing down our reserves too quickly when there's a lot of uncertainty about the duration of this event. And then finally, most state and local governments, Austin is one of these, are well positioned to absorb credit implications. Reserves increased substantially across the country in Austin. Just in our own current situation, in 2008, our city had $81 million in reserves, and [11:56:21 AM] over the last 12 years, we've increased that by $67 million. We're currently at just under $148 million in our combined general fund reserves. Again, that's (indiscernible) Ahead of the 12% policy level. Moving on to the next slide, slide 15, just to show one of two scenarios. This is what Jon talked about as the rapid recovery scenario, and what our reserves might look like at the end of the fiscal year. So right now we're at 13.8%. There are items on the agenda, and items expected to be coming up that will draw on those reserves. One of those is the covid-19 relief ordinance. Another would be the projected covid expenditures I talked about coming out of the emergency management department for personal protective equipment and other necessary equipment. Also, the hotel leases would be [11:57:22 AM] part of this portion of the pie chart. We would estimate that 2.2% of our reserves will need to be drawn down just to meet our budget shortfall. That is taking into consideration not only the revenue shortfalls, but the efforts in place and that have been launched to mitigate that revenue shortfall. If all that played out and we were not reimbursed for any of our expenses from the coronavirus relief fund, it would leave us with 8.9% in the fund. We don't know the timing of when those reimbursements will come. And we don't expect that the full amount would be reimbursed. I believe right now it's 75%, which is pretty standard for disaster relief, 75% of the expenses would be reimbursable, if the expenses are eligible. Go to the next slide. [11:58:22 AM] It's the same thing, but with a slower recovery scenario. The 1.4% to covid-19 relief ordinance, and 1.2% to the expenditures, those don't change at all. What changes here is with a slower recovery, you would have a greater revenue shortfall and a greater projected budget gap. So up to 4.1% of our reserves could be drawn down just by the fact that our revenues have dropped steeply. In that scenario we would project 7.1% of our reserves left at the end of the fiscal year. Let me go to my last slide, the the final slide on this. We are continuing to engage with our boards and commissions, that's been an increased challenge a a result of not being able to have in-person meetings, but those commissions are continuing to do their work to make recommendations on the fiscal year 21 budget. We are still available to do council town hall meetings. [11:59:23 AM] As you get into the budget process with your stakeholders, whether it be virtual or in person, we can participate in those town lake meetings. I do want to highlight down in the key dates that we remain on target to make -- present the budget, the proposed budget for fiscal year 2021 to city council and adopt the budget by August 12th. So we've not changed our budget timeline at all. And that was the last slide I had. I would be happy to respond to any questions that you have. >> And Ed, let's get Veronica's presentation and like the last segment we'll have all questions for the financial and economic outlook at the same time. So we'll pivot to Veronica first and I think it looks like your presentation has been cued up. >> Good morning, council. [12:00:25 PM] I'll give a second to queue up the presentation. I want to jump right in. I appreciate the opportunity to give you an update on the economic recovery framework as well as some dewpoint updates on what's going on in our departments. I delay there's a delay on the TV screen so I'm not sure if we're there yet. Agenda your agenda is on the slide. You can go ahead. >> On slide three this is a look at what we're proposing for the recovery framework. As you can see it's working through the guidance of experts, through yourselves, our elected officials, through industry leaders and also through a team of directors within the city of Austin. We're going to be looking at existing resources that we have to see what can be repurposeed for short and long-term assistance. And make sure we're [12:01:26 PM] connecting individuals and businesses with resources available, not only locally, but at the state and local level as well. All of these will be moving forward in a way that's based on data. We want to make sure we're using data to drive our decision making. So going a little bit deeper into our recovery panels, there's four particular areas. The first one is our group of experts that will be giving us some guiding thoughts on how we respond to this situation. Next we will have a group -- I'm on slide four. We'll have a group of elected officials and key administrative officials and those are the conversations we've been having with you about the two cabinets. They're going to focus on this area. They were covered early, but as a recap we will have one cabinet that's focused on industry and businesses and another cabinet that's focused on initiatives that will help the individual for immediate relief. Next we have a series of industry sectors and organizations. These are groups like [12:02:27 PM] workforce solutions, our minority chambers, folks that are in the field that can help give us some information on what are good proposals and ideas to move forward. This would also include our arts organizations as we're getting them part of that outreach and that input session, those input sessions. And finally we have the directors. This is across city. A group of core directors that will be focused on this endeavor. So I'm now going to move to slide five. The slide is showing you the individuals that we've invited to be a part of our expert panel. You can see we chose folks in the economic field that are that can give us good perspective and policy making as we move on in response. I'm going to move to slide six. Slide six is a look at how we're structuring ourselves [12:03:29 PM] internally. So you can see we have the core group of directors to the left. This is including myself as the lead, but working closely with house, the economic development department budget, intergovernmental relations and the equity department. That doesn't mean we don't have a slew of departments involved in the economic recovery of our city and we're considering those I havery leads and you will see those to the right. I will be meeting with both teams regularly to make sure we're all plugged in to Mike sure that we're working across the city to make sure we're deploying resources as needed and also to prioritize what our needs are as a city as we're responding to the economic impact. I've talked about convening our panel. The next steps as we're moving forward, in addition to convening those panels is to finalize the membership of the remaining panels. [12:04:30 PM] I believe we're there on the cabinets that we've been discussing with you. So for those of you on the two cabinets we'll be following up with you shortly. We will also continue to provide immediate economic resources to both businesses and individuals. We're working closely with our intergovernmental relations office to ensure that our citizens are maximizing the opportunities from federal sources such as the cares act that both John and Ed have discussed. And finally, we're looking across the country at municipal programs that can -- we're looking internally at municipal programs that can be repurpose for short and long-term assistance. To recap some of the things that we have done in the economic development department, as you're aware you approved the Austin business and non-profit recovery loan at your last meeting. We are still awaiting approval from hud. We are hoping to get that any day. But in the meantime we've [12:05:30 PM] created a website and we hopefully will give it an easy name of coa loans.com so that folks can have access to what resources are here at this website. We'll be live as soon as we are able to roll out this program. And we've trained our staff to make sure that we're ready to go as long as 311 to answer any questions once hud gives us that approval. I think I mentioned at our last meeting we have usually a staff of one that's overseeing our loan program. We have reassigned ten individuals to serve as what we're calling case managers to really help folks as they're looking to apply for these loans. Applicants who meet the eligibility criteria can apply for a loan of up to $35,000, which is a low interest rate loan. And finally we're looking to the applicants to apply for the sba loans which are as you're aware up to $2 million. [12:06:32 PM] So slide nine I reference the case managers that economic development is training up. In addition to talking about the hud program we're making sure they're aware of resources available so we can really talk through with individuals with business owners what resources are available and help them identify the best way forward. Additionally we're working closely with our service providers, service fund, Austin, ecl, because they're also working with the folks that they serve as providing this information and providing technical assistance. We get that it's very important as we're moving forward. Moving on to slide 10, some of the administrative mod in a indications that we've made, we've created an online database for small businesses and non-profits. I have the websites on the screen so folks can reference them. We've modified a creative space assistance program to release up to a million dollars in funds earlier. [12:07:34 PM] This was already budgeted for us. But we want to make STAAR we get those out sooner. We are providing free online business coaching through our small business program. So as a result we've provided more than 200 coaching sessions since March. It's a huge volume that we've handled in our department. And we are working with the county to create a covid-19 economic impact dashboard. This will include metrics on workforce, business and economic impacts. And this will be important for our community to have a place to go to where they're seeing all of this in one location. So that hasn't been rolled out yet, but as it is, I will be providing more information to you on that. Moving on to slide 11 I want to talk a little bit about our housing department and some of the activities that they've had. They've also created an online database, again, trying to highlight all the resources that are available to individuals that are [12:08:34 PM] impacted by covid-19. Covid-19 in regards to housing. They're developing informational support for renters, especially with those that are having difficulty paying their rent and understanding the eviction protections. And then partnering with community agencies to deploy funding and assist individuals impacted by covid-19. You can go on to the next slide, slide 12. This is just highlighting that we are looking closely at what other cities are doing. This is an example of some of the program inventory that we've collected so far. As we're collecting it we're evaluating each one to see if there are some best practices that we can roll out here at the city of Austin. So councilmembers, as you are hearing of projects and what other cities are doing, please feel free to send them our way so we can include that in our overall category. And that completes my presentation. >> Mayor Adler: Great, thank you. [12:09:35 PM] Colleagues, it is a little after noon right now. We've been going straight since 9:00. Do we want to take a break? Do we want to hear questions on this. Section and then take a break? I think we do have staff that we could let go if we could do the questions now. I just don't know how long we want to ask questions. Do we want to go through and let everybody have a couple of minutes for ask a question and then let these folks go? What's people's preference? Jimmy? >> Flannigan: Even if we all took three minutes that's another half hour, so it is much more difficult to sit on these calls for this amount of time than it is to be in a council meeting where you're not literally having people's voices piped directly into your ears. I'm also finding myself having a lot of eye strain doing this for as many hours in a row. [12:10:35 PM] So I would prefer that we at least take a short break, not long. Just minutes. Just to let ourselves get a refill on our coffee or whatever to come back. You're on mute, mayor. Mayor, you were on mute. >> Mayor Adler: Sorry. That will help. It's 12:10 now. Let's go ahead and take a 10-minute break, get a chance to go to the restroom. Let's say 15 minutes, 12:15, and we'll come back for questions on the presentation. >> Kitchen: Mayor, can I ask a question? How do we want to handle lunch today? I'm not suggesting it will be right now. But if we're going to take a 10 or 15 minute break now are we taking a break for lunch in an hour or two or [12:11:36 PM] what's the thinking of everyone? >> Mayor Adler: Well, we have the pulled items and we have the executive session and we have the questions on this. Obviously we're going to need to take a lunch break in there somewhere. We could take the lunch break now and come back and do questions on this presentation, then go into executive session. So I think one of the executive session -- item number 81 we're going to talk about in executive session before we talk about it on the dais. So I guess that makes more sense than leaving and coming back. How much time do we need for lunch? When we come back from lunch we're going to finish this conversation, we'll do all the pulled items except 81. We'll go into executive session, come out of executive session and then have the conversation on 81. How long do people want for lunch right now? Does half an hour work? [12:12:36 PM] Let's do half an hour. And we'll come back -- >> Pool: I think it needs to be longer than 30 minutes. It's Leslie, I think it needs to be longer than 30 minutes. >> Mayor Adler: How long do you think it needs to be. >> Pool: I don't know. I don't even have lunch here so I'm going to have to figure something out. But I think an hour would be good. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. Then it is 12:12 now. Let's come back at 1:15. I'll give everybody an hour to get lunch. When we come back we're going to begin this conversation, we'll go into pulled items except 1, the executive session, and we'll come back out and discuss 81. >> Alter: Should we turn everything off or do we need to sign out? What's the best way technologically? >> Mayor Adler: Staff, do you want us to sign out or just put it down? >> Flannigan: I'll defer to corrie -- [12:13:37 PM] >> Garry is saying to leave everything on. >> Flannigan: Put it on mute and turn off your camera. >> Yes to that. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. It is 12:13ment we're going to recess this meeting and come back out at 1:15. The meeting is in recess. [12:16:54 PM] Pep. [1:19:22 PM] >> Mayor Adler: All right. It is 1:19 and we are now back together again. Council, it's still April 7. It's our work session. We're going to continue where we left off on questions. Questions related to the report, finish that. We're going to do the pulled items except for 81, executive session. Then come back and do 81. We still have the staff with us, talking about the economic development issues. >> I'm still here, mayor. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. Ed, you with us? Veronica? >> Yes, I'm in. >> Mayor Adler: Okay, great. Anybody have any questions? Jimmy. >> Flannigan: Thank you. Couple of things. [1:20:23 PM] One is the -- when we're working with the county, Ed, based on your report to us and the volatility of taxes is it fair to assume the county budget is a lot more stable given their revenues are in property tax? >> Mayor Adler: Ed, did you hear the question? >> Couple things. One is the -- we were working with the county -- >> Mayor Adler: You're on speaker, Ed. Ed, you're really muffled. >> Can y'all hear me? I'm -- you said you're having a hard time alleger me. [1:21:23 PM] >> Mayor Adler: Much better. Thank you. >> Great. So we have been in conversation with the county. They're not subject to the sales tax fluctuations we're going to experience but they do received a mixed beverage tax that's going to impact them. Similar to us in the neighborhood of $1.4 million -- or $000,000 per month is what they collect in their mixed beverage tax so that's dropping off for the county. They're also impacted by the drop in interest earnings and interest rates, it's going to affect their interest earnings. They're experiencing impact but nothing on the order of magnitude that city of Austin is dealing with. >> Flannigan: To that point, Veronica, to what extent have the economic solutions we're working on being discussed with Travis county for them to be a financial partner? >> I definitely think we could continue conversations in that regard. We've established a weekly phone call to touch base and [1:22:23 PM] make sure that we're coordinating. I was partly waiting for the presentation today to continue on those conversations, but I think that certainly will be a priority for us moving forward. >> Flannigan: And on the -- I love the case managers. That's such a great tool, and I'm so glad to see that you're doing that. How is that working with the case management that workforce solutions might be doing with small businesses? >> We're working really closely with workforce solutions as well. We've really focused our case managers on looking at the loan opportunities through the city and [indiscernible] Through sba, as well as other -- [inaudible] >> Mayor Adler: I think there's someone on city staff that has not muted their phone. >> Sorry, Patrick -- [1:23:29 PM] >> Mayor Adler: I think that we have a staff member that doesn't have their phone muted. Hello? Do you have the capacity at the -- to mute things? Can you select who you do that? >> City staff, if you're on the call please mute your line. >> Mayor Adler: All right. I think we're there. Ed? >> I had the question about workforce solutions and how we're working in fan DEM -- tan dex in terms of case management. We've looking at the loan programs the city offers as well as the federal government, the sba is coming out with. Workforce solutions is [1:24:32 PM] focusing on resources for unemployment, unemployment insurance and so forth but we're really -- we're -- part of that weekly call I mentioned with the county, workforce solutions is also part of that because we want to make sure we're providing resources as streamlined as possible and that we understand that an individual in this situation who is dealing with a crisis, the worst thing we can do is send them to a million places. We're trying to make sure our services and outreach are coordinated so we're pointing them in the right direction initially. >> Flannigan: I know we talked about regional partnerships in the item from two weeks ago but I've had some just small conversations with other elected officials in surrounding jurisdictions, and I think it might be valuable to consider what type of unified application process there might be where we're collaborating with our surrounding partners, where we've got a lot of small businesses who have locations in those cities or their employees work with nose cities. I know that you know that, Veronica, but I want to make a note of how valuable that [1:25:33 PM] might be to start putting out that kind of unified access point for the region. >> Completely agree. We also understand in some cases we can be a resource for our smaller neighboring cities and counties so we will definitely engage in that broader regional conversation as well. We do see this as a regional approach. That's important. >> Flannigan: Good point, Veronica. There might be ways to get economy of scale on the covet of administration by operating regionally. Another question, Veronica, for you when we talk about resources for small businesses, if someone is a small landlord and they have just a couple of properties, my landlord is an example of that, he owns a half of duplexes, he's not an international conglomerate, how are they treated in terms of the slate of resources being provided? >> There are loan programs in particular that I highlighted would apply to a small landlord. [1:26:34 PM] Additionally one thing -- I should have pointed this out in my presentation, one thing we're working on communicating is the eviction ordinance applies to businesses. We're working at communicating that in layman's terms so we can make sure that small businesses are aware of their rights as well. >> Flannigan: Thanks. And then just a couple of quick comments from the presentation. That chart that hockenyos put up that shows jobs and sales tax revenues, the jobs line was msa. It wasn't just city of Austin, but the sales tax was just city of Austin. We can see it diverge, which to me shows that as the region has sprawled out it has not afforded that value to the city as more and more jobs spread out. So it's just an interesting chart that I have not seen laid out in that way before. Then from Ed's presentation, the -- just the questions of sustainability, we want to move quickly to help the community, but we also want to be prepared for when the economy recovers. That's a very delicate [1:27:34 PM] balance for us all to strike but it's gonna be the hardest part for us to figure out. Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. Further questions? Councilmember alter. >> Alter: I'm sorry. Were you -- I missed the very first beginning. Were we only focusing on Ms. Briseno's presentation first? >> Mayor Adler: No. This is for anybody? >> Alter: Thank you. So I just wanted to say I really appreciated all of the presentations, and I think, you know, it's really important that we convey a message to our community that we are starting from a very strong fiscal position. We have done a lot of things right as a city over the years. We have very strong fiscal policies, and it's times like these when we're faced with a crisis where all of that hard work and those important decisions pay off. But we also have to remember [1:28:37 PM] that we're going to have to craft carefully how we move forward so we can continue those policies and keeping our high level rating, et cetera, et cetera. But I really appreciated how Ed's presentation communicated the strong position where we're starting from to navigate things. I've had several opportunities to ask Ed and Greg canally questions, so my questions at this point are a little more on process. We had originally planned a budget process for July because we had to think about whether we were going to go for a tax break increase election, and I understand that we may still want to make a decision to adopt a tax rate election with respect to project connect but with respect to our basic budget I'm not sure since we can go up to [1:29:38 PM] 8% if that's something we need to keep live. I want to throw out there it might benefit us to have that extra month to be thinking about our budget and for staff to have a little bit more breathing room for preparing a budget. So I just wanted to ask Ed if there was a possibility for that. Again, I don't know how that interacts with a potential project connect referendum in terms of how you would naught on the ballot, but from a budget perspective we could have that flexibility. Or is that a -- >> Mayor Adler: Who is that to? I'm going to have to think about that one. I think it's a good point, having more time to do the budget. I don't know -- I don't know as it develops whether we're going to need it or not. Obviously if we do we do. We could be finding ourselves at the back side [1:30:39 PM] of this virus thing wanting to have a significant job program in the city. So I'm not sure yet what the indicated outcome is, but I think you identify and highlight an important issue we need to address as we get closer. >> I'll echo that. Just kind of acknowledging the councilmember foraying that and as we continue to have these we'll make sure to keep raising those issues for council consideration, but the timing is going to be important. >> Alter: Great. Thank you. And then I just wanted to confirm that in the charts that we saw, you had assumed for our budget the three and a half% -- 3.5% tax rate increase, not the 8%. So there's that leeway. [1:31:40 PM] And about how many million is each percentage point under a typical situation? >> So you're correct. What I showed you on the board, that graph of what our forecast had looked like prior to covid-19 that all assumed a 3.5% increase. In regards to your question about what 1% equates to, 1% is right about $5 million. >> Alter: Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. Further questions? Mayor pro tem? >> Garza: This is for Ed. The pie charts that show the different scenarios with the reserve fund, when -- I [1:32:42 PM] guess when does -- my understanding is if you dip under the 12% that's when it could affect our bond ratings. But when does that clock start? For example, the specific area I'm talking about -- of course we can talk about this item later, but if we do provide some emergency funding for people with basic needs right now, my assumption is that federal money, that's the very reason for that federal money is covid type funding. If we dip under the 12% but refunded by the federal money, is there a scenario where our bond rating is not affected because of the timing of that going, dipping in but also be refunded at some point? >> I think as long as we're prudent about it, as long as we're staying within our financial policies and what [1:33:42 PM] they were established for with the expectation that our reserves would be replenished by -- you know, the federal stimulus package, as long as we have a plan I think the impact on our ratings of that particular decision would be fairly minimal. I think we're -- eyebrows start to go up if we're doing things outside of our policy that we don't have a plan for replenishing the funds, to the extent it appears like we're just going to drain our reserves with no plan in mayor, I -- noplan in place that's where our challenges occur and of course what's not what we're talking about doing. >> Garza: The biggest problem to dipping below the 12% to my understanding is our bond rating. Is that right? >> Yeah. We have our financial policies in place. They set a goal to some degree. We talk about our combined reserves should be 12%, and I think that language was carefully selected, knowing [1:34:43 PM] during times of crisis like this that reserves are there to be tapped into and that, you know -- so you might rarely go below 12% but when the reimbursement process is done we would expect to get back up to 12%. Of course there is a lot of uncertainty. Everyone is waiting with bated breath to see what the treasury is going to do. [Indiscernible] >> Garza: Okay. Just to be clear, that item does not put us bloat -- put us below the 12%. I understand that would dip us broker but as long as there's a plan for some kind of contingency, it doesn't affect our bond rating is what I'm hearing? To get us back above the 12 -- >> I think as -- right, as long as we have a plan and we can demonstrate that, I think if we were showing our [1:35:44 PM] rating agencies that next year as a result of our crisis recovery our reserves are gonna be below the 12% threshold that we will have a five-year financial plan where we can show how the reserves are expected to be replenished I think we'll be in good shape. >> Garza: Last question. I don't know if this is for Ed or for Jon. I guess my assumption is most cities -- a lot of cities aren't in the great financial position that we are in. So I'm assuming that there are going to be cities that -- many cities will be in a position where we're dipping into stores, possibly not a contingency plan. Am I right in thinking that -- I guess I'm thinking that generally they're not going to be the only city dipping into our reserves, we're not going to be the only city trying to wait for federal stimulus money, and [1:36:45 PM] most cities will be reporting similar scenarios to their bondholders. Is that right? >> Hello? >> Garza: Yes. >> Hello? >> I can't hear anything either. >> Yeah. I can't either. I'm not sure. >> Garza: Did y'all not hear my question, Delia Garza's? >> This is Ed. I'm not sure any of us heard it. I think you might have went out for 30 seconds there. >> It looks like all the video folks heard it but not the telephone folks. It was just, generally speaking, is it correct to assume that many cities -- you know, most cities probably -- or many cities are probably in the same position we were financially and they will also be affected by possibly, you [1:37:47 PM] know -- even scenarios where their bond rating is affected. So I'm just -- if we are in that position we're not going to be the only city in a position where we're facing that situation. Is that right? >> No. Because -- [indiscernible] This is Jon hockenyos. I'm actually working with a lot of cities right now and that's correct. I mean, everybody in Texas -- every municipality to a greater or lesser existent relies pretty heavily on sales taxes, and, you know, everybody is in the same boat. Restaurants all over the state with the possible exception of maybe wide spot in the road places have been shut down for some time. So you're correct. This is a situation that is affecting and we need really affecting everybody across the country. >> Garza: Thank you. Those are all my questions. >> Alter: Mayor, can I speak to that point specifically? [1:38:49 PM] >> Mayor Adler: Yes, councilmember alter, go ahead. >> Mayor Adler: You need to come off mute, Alison. >> Alter: Thank you. Can you hear me now? >> Mayor Adler: Yes. >> I want to clarify before when I was talking about the importance of our financial policies, as Ed and mayor pro tem suggested, our reserves are there for just this kind of situation. But how we take other steps as we move forward will affect our fiscal health moving forward. So we just have to keep all of that in mind. When we came out of 2009 we actually had an upgrading of our bond rating and we did I believe use reserves at that point in time. So it's just the sum total of what we're doing has an impact while we recognize that we are going to need to spend our reserves on some things and we will be reimbursed and as we navigate it we just need to keep the larger picture [1:39:51 PM] there as well. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. Raise your hand if you wanted to speak. I'm having trouble seeing the deals here. >> Renteria: I got my hand up. >> Mayor Adler: Pio, why don't you go ahead? >> Renteria: Thank you, mayor. You know, I'm really concerned about this right now. It's -- I've lived through three recessions here in Austin, and one time in the '80s, after the savings and loan collapse, that it took us a long -- I know this is different but it took us a long time to recover. You know, it's -- these type of recessions even though this one is created by a virus, it's very hard to recover because of all the jobs that are going to be lost. By the time people start [1:40:52 PM] paying up their loans or whatever else that they borrow from, it's gonna be a hard -- a long process. And I'm really concerned about the whole process of -- I don't want to get to the point where because of the [indiscernible] It's going to be a slow recovery unless a miracle happens that we're going to be laying off our employees. I seen that happen before. You know, the development services department are the first ones to really get hit. But, you know, we -- so I'm really concerned, and I want to make sure that when we're starting to spend the money that we have and savings for emergency purposes that it goes to, like, projects and it helps the city out, not hurt it. And so I'm really concerned about, you know, this whole process. [1:41:52 PM] I really want to get down to more information about what the treasury department rules are going to be to make sure that we make a really intelligent decision on what kind of -- you know, what should we support and how fast do we go into it? And I think that, you know, if we need to really just -- really focus on how we're gonna do this, you know, and that's -- that's my opinion. I've been -- I lived through three of them already, and it's been very difficult to recover. So do you see the possibility of this being a slow recovery? >> This is Jon hockenyos. I do, actually. If you look at the projections we put forward, I don't think it will be quite as slow as the [1:42:54 PM] recovery from the savings and loan crisis and sadly I'm old enough to remember as well, but I do think it's probably a couple of years before we're back on the track we were prior to all this happening. Now, the good news as has been pointed out, both as the local economy and as a city entity we're in strong shape going into it. And also the good news is that there is no sort of systemic problems in one sector of the memory such as there was in the 2008. 2009 recession around our financial institutions. I think you're wise to caution us that these will not be magically back, completely normal in a couple of months. It probably will be more like a matter of a couple years before we have fully and utterly recovered and that's actually reflected in the projections that we shared so far, that it's probably a II year process to get back to whatever normal looks like. [1:43:59 PM] >> Renteria: Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Councilmemberharper-madison. You're on mute. >> Harper-madison: Sorry about that. I have a couple questions. One was I heard the expression tip of the iceberg, the expression tip of the spear, and I appreciate some of the questions that my colleagues have posed, councilmember Renteria and alter, by way of -- I'm just trying to get some sense of where we -- you know, take the opportunity here to figure out what our pivot point is, you know, where do we need to start innovating faster than we anticipated, you know, I recognize that there's gonna be a great deal in the way of job loss so I'm trying to figure out, you know, how to be productive in the system of job creation. [1:45:02 PM] As I'm thinking along those lines I'm trying to get a gauge from anybody on the line who has got some idea about what next steps look like, you know? What kind of job training do we need to be focusing on? What kind of, you know, concerted efforts around digital access do we really need to be focusing our attention on given the data you guys gave today? Which is super helpful and informative, stark really but totally necessary if we're going to be taking into consideration what our next steps look like, just like any advice you have there. >> So this is Jon, and I'll jump in. I'm sure Ed and perhaps Veronica will want to say something as well [indiscernible] >> Harper-madison: Having a hard time hearing you? >> Can you hear me is now my fault. I moved my chair. [1:46:05 PM] So, anyway, the tip of the iceberg comment had to do with the fact that the official data is only just now beginning to reflect the effects of the virus and only just the very early effects which, you know, realtime has gone fast. But I think it speaks to the short-term needs, which are to do everything in our power to help our existing economy weather this storm. Whether that's a business that needs financial help because it's been closed or it's lost a bunch of customers or whether individuals who need help buying groceries and medicine and staying in their housing. We've got to get through the storm of this crisis first and then, as part of that, we then have to figure out once the crisis is either, if not passed us, we can see beyond it. And we're not there yet. Most of the projections show we're a little ways away, and given the pace that things have been rolling out [1:47:05 PM] from the federal government, that's gonna consume us for a little bit of time. We will then begin to see what new normal looks like. Does it mean, for example, that many companies have discovered that working from home is a more viable option than they thought? Perhaps. We don't know. I think first it's shore up what we can and then, second, it's see where that leaves us and then start talking about where are the new opportunities and how do we respond to that. And I don't know that we're ready. There's huge desire of course to get on to that second phase and I think we should probably be thinking about it but really job one is helping people deal with the situation and access the federal monies and other monies and figure out ways to support the existing economy, which has just been totally overturned. >> Harper-madison: So I appreciate that response. I think in a lot of ways it answers my question but [1:48:06 PM] maybe I'll elaborate just for a little more clarity. While I can appreciate, you know, the meet need being our existing economy, I still have -- like, I think you what said earlier was something around -- something about our I was, you're talking about making investments in critical infrastructure. So maybe if I ask that question, you know, you said we need to be thinking about it. What sort of critical infrastructure systems do we need to be thinking about? What sort of long-term, you know, 40 long-term greater good investments do we need to be thinking about that could theoretically in terms of our recovery process help us to get there faster? >> Well, again, that's something the mayor alluded to this earlier, too. Traditionally in tough times, infrastructure in the form of utilities and transportation are normally what people thinking about. In the modern world utilities would obviously include digital infrastructure as well and that could be a fantastic jobs program. [1:49:07 PM] A lot of the question then becomes what's the financing package when wherever the funds to pay for it come from. This is hope if there's let's call it a phase five that the federal government will in fact take the traditional route and say we are going to make funding available for people who want to upgrade their transportation system, people who want to upgrade their digital infrastructure system, people who want to do other things to enable the community to function more health care as part of that digital umbrella and the feds will pay for if. That will be a huge opportunity for us in the median term to create what has been a jobs program kind of with a modern spin to it. >> Harper-madison: Thank you. I appreciate that. My other question is about unemployment statistics. I heard somebody say 1.7 million calls came in through that unemployment [1:50:07 PM] application line. We've heard a lot of that in my office and just curious if there's any advice. We leader if you call really late at night you can get through, very early in the morning, keep calling all day you can get through. Is there any real clear advice or offers of how we're going to reconcile the system being so bogged down, any advice for what we can tell our constituents? >> What we have heard is the Texas workforce commission is very aware of it and adding resources quickly so they are staffing up as well. They are doing things like adding portals so that there's better access on the internet. So it's not the best advice but honestly patience. They're getting there and they're hearing the community and doing what they can do. Unfortunately, the -- they are the resource for unemployment so we're working as quickly as possible. [1:51:09 PM] >> Mayor Adler: Workforce solutions has also started giving people certain times to call in based on the first number of your area code, area code 512 with a 5 is the priority call Monday, Wednesday, Friday between 1:00 and 5:00 in the afternoon. >> Harper-madison: Thank you. I hadn't heard that. Appreciate it. Then last, I'd like to say I really appreciate councilmember Flannigan's idea about a unified application process. And this whole, you know, concept around a case management route to this sort of what sounds like an intensive intake process to really get people the loans that they need. I just wonder [indiscernible] Is that something that seems possible? A unified application that's regional or even national, some sort of standardized process? >> We can certainly look into that. I agree where we can union fight process as much as [1:52:09 PM] possible we need to. For the H.U.D. Program that we are working on locally, we did model our application after the sba application so that as folks are working through that process it's a similar process. We're not asking for different pieces of information. A big part of that is pulling together the documents you need to support that as well. We're also working on a checklist and we should have that available as soon as the loans go live so that we can communicate very clearly with our businesses what items they need in order to apply. >> Harper-madison: When you say we are working on the check list, when you make that announcement are you talking about the economic investment department? >> That's correct, economic development department. >> Harper-madison: Thank you. I appreciate it. >> Sure. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. Councilmember tovo. >> Tovo: Thank you. I have a couple of questions about particular slides, [1:53:10 PM] and, Ed, these are primarily for you, I think. Though I may have one for Veronica, but I just want to underscore and -- something that you said, that, you know, we do -- we use very conservative projections in our budgeting, and I just want to thank you for being the leader on that. It certainly has put us into much stronger positioning than many other cities so thank you for your leadership in that area. With regard to slide 7 and 8, I want to just better understand -- I want to check my understanding of some of those expenditures. So when you have referenced things as expenditures, when you've referenced things as expenditures, those are [1:54:12 PM] non-contemplated -- now you're not reallocating funding from something else? These are additional expenditures? Or are there instances where you have retooled existing programs? >> So right now -- >> Tovo: Let you ask you about specific lines. One point three, the emergency management, et cetera, I assume those are all coming out of our -- the a funding that we have outside of our reserve funds? The economic injury bridge program, 4.5, it's my understanding those are funds from existing programs being retooled for this purpose. Is that correct? >> That goes -- that is correct, both of those are correct. >> Tovo: When you say both of those, you mean both of the different loan programs? >> You had said 1.3 million was coming -- had come so far from outside of our reserves and that is correct. Those are expenses that [1:55:12 PM] departments have incurred thus far, covid response, the $4.5 million you're correct that came from our urban and development housing. >> Tovo: And the hotel leases is also listed as a budget amendment so you are in that case reallocating funding that existed within which budget, which source? >> So in the budget office okay, these expenses have come forward and departments have not had the budget for them. We have approved the expenditures going through on an emergency basis. So the leases have already been approved, but this action on the ninth is to amendment the budget to take funding out of our reserves and also out of our housing trust fund in order to pay for those contracts with the three hotels. >> Tovo: Okay. [1:56:12 PM] Some of that will be housing trust fund dollars. Moving on to slide 8, the Austin energy and Austin water customer assistance programs and I just want to -- I'm not sure whether we'll have an opportunity in some other section here today to comment on that but I just want to thank both utilities to their responsiveness to the council resolution and work they've done to help find ways to help mitigate effect on ratepayers. I think it will make a big difference for all of our ratepayers so thank you to the utility for doing that. This $10 million budget amendment is, too, from existing funding. That's correct. They're allocating money from their existing budgets. Okay. The item above it, $15 million budget amendment that is contemplated on our 4/9 agenda would be from the funding source on that would be from that 25 million that is in excess of what we need [1:57:13 PM] to have for our reserve funding. Is that correct? >> Yes. Specifically it would be an appropriation out of the city's emergency reserve. >> Tovo: Okay. >> Part of what adds up? >> Tovo: And then -- pardon? You said something about adding up but I spoke over you. >> No. I was saying that the emergency reserve is one of our true reserves and combine those two reserves are $25.7 million above our policy level. >> Tovo: Right. Thank you. >> [Indiscernible] Typically come out of the emergency reserve. >> Tovo: Slide 6 that talks about the projected revenue shortfalls by source and I understand these are -- that you're continuing to conduct that analysis and we'll get more information soon. It would be helpful to know when those come back, it would be helpful to know what was the projected revenue coming? I know that's in our budget documents. Most of us have left them at the office and though we can [1:58:15 PM] find them via the website of course I think that as we continue this conversation it might be helpful both for us and for the public to just as we're talking about the shortfalls to remind us if you would what those projected revenues would be unless there's someone necessarily your -- they're somewhere else in your presentation and I just forgot. >> No. When we get information, more information on hotel taxes and airport revenue, we can report that out to you similar to what we did on slide 5 for some of the general fund revenues where we'll slow you both what was budgeted and currently projecting. >> Tovo: That would be helpful. If you have it in a format where you can shoot us what the projected revenue was budgeted for, that would be helpful to have even in advance of the short -- of the projected shortfall analysis. And then I wanted to ask a question about rental assistance. It was my understanding that we were -- and I think director Hayden talked earlier about providing rental assistance through [1:59:17 PM] our neighborhood center through other means. It was my understanding that we were increasing -- staff are increasing the rental assistance that's going to be provided by at least $250,000, and I think that was coming out of our housing trust fund as well. I just wanted to check in on whether that -- my understanding of that is accurate and when those funds will become available. >> I don't have -- sorry, go ahead. >> Tovo: I was going to say I know you're correct in they were increasing those funds. I was going to verify the amount and if it was a trust fund with Rosie. There's a delay in our conversation with the TV so she probably hasn't quite heard that question just yet. >> Tovo: Sure. Again, as happened to me last time, suddenly everybody on my screen is gone so I'm just talking to myself. I'm the only person I can see so it's discombobulating [2:00:17 PM] for a few of us participating in the conversation. It would be helpful to know when the rental assistants might come back to council for a budget amendment because obviously we want to get that money out to people who need it as soon as possible. >> Sorry. I was going to let you know Rosie confirmed it is 300,000, it is coming from the housing trust fund and they're working on finalizing the contract right now. >> Tovo: Then will that need to come back to council for a budget amendment are they going to begin distributing it? How does the time line look at this point in terms of getting that assistance out to people? >> This is city manager. I'll just say if we're able to get it out, we will do that as soon as we can and come back to council just as we have with a few of these other items. >> Tovo: So the rental assistance that was raised [2:01:17 PM] earlier is from existing funds for existing rental assistance programs? >> Yes. >> That's my understanding. >> Correct. >> Tovo: Thanks. One of my staff members participated -- has been tonic participate in the national housing alliance conversations, and one of the points they raised is how important it will be for municipalities and other entities to really work to get the federal funding out to organizations and individuals as soon as possible, and so I wondered if that is an ongoing conversation? If you had any examples at this point of ways in which our typical processes might be adapted to ensure of course accountability for that funding but also just to make -- to expedite the process of getting that funding out, especially within the area of housing dollars, rental assistance dollars, other funding of [2:02:18 PM] that sort? >> Councilmember, I don't think that Rosie is on so we don't we get you a memo to outline some of the efforts that are on the way and what additional efforts we're taking on to make sure we're getting as much of the resources out to our community as quickly as possible. >> Tovo: That would be great. And the q&a is another good -- it's easier to do it that way but if there are -- an amendment at some point would be super just so we can get a sense of what the whole funding array will be and the time line on that. Thanks very much. That was my last question. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. >> She did confirm that planning is underway. They are aware of the discussion. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. Anyone else before we get to pulled items? All right. We'll go to pulled items. Thank you very much, staff -- >> Casar: Sorry, mayor, one [2:03:21 PM] last thing. >> Alter: I also had one last thing I wanted lock hock on. >> Mayor Adler: Casar and then alter. >> Casar: Mayor and manager, I know everything is moving so fast but we already are starting to hear anecdotally about constituents and community members receiving notices to vacate or informal evictions where someone is being told that they need to leave, potentially a violation of the ordinance that we just passed and the mayor's order. So, manager, if you could start helping us get information online, I think some of that has already been written about people's rights and same thing, a place for people to call when those things happen so that it isn't having to be fielded through council offices but can go straight to enforcement so anyone that has those things happen to them, who has been impacted by covid and can't pay their rent that we don't keep hearing reports and having to field through different council offices Flynn that is potentially being evicted against the mayor's order, against the council ordinance. So that would be very [2:04:24 PM] helpful. >> Sounds good. >> Mayor Adler: Councilmember alter? >> Alter: Yes. I had a question I think for Mr. Hockenyos, but maybe for other -- Greg. So part of how I'm thinking about what we need to be doing right now in light of the health crisis is, like, we're trying to keep our economy in a coma but we have to make sure people are able to live in a stay at home order where they may not be able to go to their" they may have lost their job, we need to provide them enough to survive through this period. We're not trying to jump start the economy. We're trying to help people to be able to stay at home, which is different than what you normally do in a recession, where you're trying to jump start the economy and make investments in infrastructure and other things like that. And so what I'm trying to understand is if what we're doing is keeping the economy in a coma and providing [2:05:26 PM] folks what they need to stay in place, what is the right balance between kind of cash payment versus very specific rental assistance or food security or health care support? How should we be -- what should we be considering in thinking about that? >> So this is Jon. It's a -- huh! I wish I had a simple answer to that question. I think it kind of goes back to something I said earlier, which is as you -- and I think the term keeping it in a coma is kind of an interesting comment. It really is a very, very individualized situation. One individual may have a couple months of savings. And may be fairly sophisticated about applying for assistance in one way, shape, or form and they come out of this just fine. And another individual is living paycheck to paycheck, doesn't really understand how to access the federal funds, has a hard time, gets frustrated and ends up -- [2:06:27 PM] you know, if not being evicted but maybe, you know, being unable to pay for food and medicine. So I think on the coma side what I would say is provide as much sort of assistance to people as we can to access the resources they are entitled to in this expeditious fashion as possible. Of course that's easy for me to say. Hard for know get the Texas workforce commission to magically increase its system capacity by some orders of magnitude. And then have emergency things and backstop, similar to what council is doing, such as putting a moratorium on evictions, pumping up food pantries, you know, providing potentially some assistance with pharmaceuticals or whatever so that the absolute fundamentals of life, if everything else falls apart, you still have a place to stay, you still have, you know, access to food, you still can get the medicine you need. As we go through coma phase. [2:07:27 PM] Then what will guide us, tell us what we've begun to transition of course is, one, when people above us tell us, okay, it's time to come out. Two, when people actually do. We could magically say everything is fine tomorrow and I do not believe the city of Austin collectively would rush back out to go to a bar, go to a restaurant, go to the storks go to the park, go to Barton springs, what have you. I think that people would not believe it was safe and wouldn't go, and that's a conversation that's being had in the business community out there. There's two schools of thought, at least on the hospitality side. One is people are so cooped up they'll be dying to get back together and there is some of that but there's always also that will be cautious until they're sure it's safe. We won't really know that until kind of the world tells us, when we tell them it's safe to go back outside and people do and they feel comfortable. That's when we're back to say, okay, what do we do now [2:08:27 PM] start rebuilding our economy. >> Alter: Have we been paying -- >> This is Ed? >> Alter: Go ahead. >> I just wanted to say, too, if I could, part of that question, that calculus of what's the appropriate balance and appropriate timing I think comes back to the cares act, the coronavirus aid relief and economic security act, $2 trillion, astounding amount of stimulus. The entire budget for 2019 was 4.4 trillion so this is essentially 50% of the entire annual budget of the federal government. It's more than three times as large as our annual defense spending, which as everybody knows is significant. So it's an astubbedding amount of funding that's going to be pumped into the economy, local economies, there's funding in there to support transportation agencies. There's going to be direct payments available to individuals of up to $1,200 [2:09:28 PM] each plus $500 per child. Lots of support for small businesses. Airlines, hospitals, additional funding for food and nutrition programs. I think really going through the work of trying to understand how that funding is going to help our community trying to figure out where the gaps are is the critical part of this balancing act. And I think the timing is important as well, because, you know, we are kind of flying without complete information now. The $150 million of that stimulus for the relief fund, the -- or -- more than that, actually, 150 plus is coming to Austin. We need to see what the rules are going to be for Lou that can be used, and we're still somewhat flying blind in regards to the revenue impact this is going to have. We don't know how long this is going to last. We won't even have March sales tax data until may so we're making educated guesses based on the best [2:10:28 PM] information we have but we're not going to have any hard numbers really for at least another four or five weeks. So that's the challenge. But to the extent that helps with the conversation about what the right balance and what's the right timing of different remedies that we might want to bring forward. >> Alter: Thank you. I appreciate that. There's a lot of questions here that I'm trying to unpack and there's, you know -- as you noted or Jon noted, there's different types of individuals experiencing different things, and we know that we have undocumented workers who are not eligible for a lot of the federal support who are going to need help to be able to stay home and live and other things. And so I'm just trying to, you know -- I'll just sort of throw it out there. I don't have a solution for it but I'm trying to understand what that sort of right balance is in terms of types of support and who is delivering it. We also have a lot of things where we have these nonprofits that have the connections and are in a lot of the communities that [2:11:28 PM] we're trying to serve and if they don't receive support they're going to go under as well. And so I think there's some tricky questions that we still have to resolve here. >> Mayor Adler: Councilmember kitchen. >> Kitchen: Okay. I'm unmuting. Did it unmute? >> Mayor Adler: It is. I can hear you. >> Kitchen: Okay. I want to follow up on something that councilmember harper-madison had raised earlier. And I heard some response to it, but my question is really what's our plan. Because I think that one of the things that we need to think about as we think about economic recovery, is think about how we can change and augment our infrastructure to make us more resilient for the future. Just to give you some examples, the paid sick leave, for example, is an example of a structural change that we made a while [2:12:30 PM] back that helps make families more resilient. So those kinds of things. The work we've been doing as a council on housing for homeless individuals is another kind of thing. What I would like to see as we talk about our economic recovery, I would like to see plans for how we can actually change and augment our infrastructure to not just cover to get back where we were, to get to a point where we've put in place some additional resiliency for our families, our people in Austin. I'd like to know what our plan is for that. So I'm hoping -- and I think this might fall in your area, Veronica, but I'm hoping as part of the efforts for economic recovery we're also thinking about what changes we could make at this point in our infrastructure. [2:13:30 PM] And I mean human infrastructure and capital infrastructure -- to come out of this side with people being better positioned to be more resilient so the next pandemic orca as it if I we have we're call in a position for that. Veronica, do you feel like that's within the scope of what y'all are doing? I know you have a lot on your plate with economic with economic recovery but does that sound like something on your scope as y'all start thinking about your plans for economic recovery? >> Councilmember, I completely agree and I think this is definitely an important part of that discussion, so much so it's one of the reasons why we have that subpanel of council to focus on recovery from the individual perspective. I think that as we're looking at recovery, we need to talk about how we can help our citizens be resilient and what are some [2:14:31 PM] good tools that we can work in that regard. So absolutely agree, and that will be part of the framework moving forward. >> Kitchen: Okay. Thank you. I'll look forward to that. I think that -- I think we have an opportunity here to move -- to recover -- to not only recover but to improve where we're at in terms of families' resiliency in the future. So thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Anyone else before we go to pulled items? All right. I think that's it. Staff, thank you very much. Thanks for staying with us this long. >> Councilmember Renteria I had someone -- >> Mayor Adler: There's lots of stuff going on. >> Renteria: I noticed that [indiscernible]. >> Mayordler: Someone saying something? >> Flannigan: Pull your mic down. >> Renteria: Dallas was actually hiring some of [2:15:31 PM] their laid off restaurant workers to work at the food banks because they weren't getting as many volunteers as they used to and they were hiring these people to put the boxes of food together so they can distribute. And I wondered if we had been looking at these type of programs. >> Councilmember, yes, we've been talking to other cities and what kind of strategies they've been using. Then even getting creative internally about how we can make sure we're looking for other resources and people that may have been recently our efforts, so absolutely that's part of the plan. >> Mayor Adler: Sounds good. Thank you. >> If I could take this opportunity to point out that workforce solutions has on their website employers that are hiring. There are some businesses that are hiring and we're pointing individuals to that website as a resource as well. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Staff, thank you. [2:16:32 PM] Manager, thank you. Let's go to pulled items, colleagues. First pulled item, councilmember tovo, you've pulled, item number 9. >> Tovo: Thank you, mayor. I need just a minute to switch gears and get to my notes on it. This is an item that we haven't talked about in a long time. It came forward, gosh okay, I think about a year ago. And my concerns are -- I'm going to put this on [indiscernible]. My concerns are that the restrictions, as I understand it -- maybe staff can elaborate -- require that this be open space or if it was not used as a school. And so I'd like our staff -- I mean, I do appreciate the [2:17:34 PM] applicant's willingness to do a water quality but I thought the intent of the agreement was really to allow that acreage to remain undeveloped if it wasn't going to be a school so I wondered if our staff to kind of speak to this issue. >> Sure. Councilmembers, this is Jerry rusthoven -- >> Tovo:when this came forward the staff were recommending against it. I don't know whether that recommendation has clade. I'm sorry, manager, you may have been trying to talk. Again, I can't see anybody so I can't see if anybody is responding or interacting. >> Councilmember, this is Jerry rusthoven with the planning and zoning department. Can you hear me? >> Tovo: Hi, Jerry. >> Hi. Yes, staff is recommending it. As you know the property is in the etj but it's a mud so it has a land use plan. The property was set aside as a school site for Ames [2:18:36 PM] ISD. They no longer need the site so the applicants were proposing to clay it to office. The reason we were not initially recommending it had to do with environmental reasons. The environmental staff has negotiated with them and the school site was grandfatherred under 245 out of sos. They have agreed to a 35% impervious cover limit and to do sos water quality and to incorporate that into all the M.U.D. Documents as well as lock in the open space that was in the M.U.D. So we got that secured down. But I'm not aware of any plan that said that it would default to open space if it didn't become a school. It was just intended to be a school and now they do not want to do a school anymore. >> Tovo: Okay. But the original recommendation when this came forward was it about a year ago? Was I right on that timing? >> Right. Yeah. Wasn't recommended because -- >> Tovo: The original -- sorry, go ahead. >> Yeah, so the original plan was they wanted to complacent the grandfathering for the office buildings that they had for the school. [2:19:38 PM] And we did not agree to that so we weren't recommending it. And in the year since then the environmental staff has negotiated with them to get -- not total sos compliance because of the impervious cover but to reduce the impervious cover to 35 and do the sos water quality controls. >> Tovo: When did they get their chapter 245 determination? >> I don't -- I'd have to look into that date. I'm not sure. I just know that it was grandfatherred. >> Tovo: Okay. All righty, thank you. I think that's my only question on this issue. >> Mayor Adler: Great. Thank you. Next pulled item, item number 30. This is pulled by mayor pro tem Garza? >> Garza: I only pulled it if there were questions. This was supposed to be on the last council agenda, and it was pulled off of it, off of consent. So I'll just briefly -- it's -- the resolution is [2:20:39 PM] addressing the issue with wealth-based detention. The city has an Ila because we planning straight for the county, and that's -- we conduct the hearings immediately following loss -- when a person's bail is set. We've been working with law to make sure that we are not crossing any lines as far as we can't tell judges what to do. Appreciate the work the county has done to move us in a better direction, but because we are stakeholders in magistration I think it's important that we -- when we have that seat at the table, we are expressing our strong desire to obviously follow the constitution and to the greatest extent possible. And so I don't know if anybody has any specific questions, but other than [2:21:39 PM] that, I don't -- I can stop there. >> Mayor Adler: Any questions about item number 30? >> Mayor, can you hear me? >> Mayor Adler: Yes. >> Pool: So I think that -- councilmember pool. >> Pool: Councilmember Flannigan also [inaudible] >> Mayor Adler: You're fading in and out. >> Pool: I said I think the other pull was councilmember Flannigan and then I do have questions when [indiscernible]. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. Councilmember Flannigan, you want to go first? >> Flannigan: Yeah -- >> Mayor Adler: He had pulled it but he had pulled it off his pull. So the only one that kept the pull on was the mayor pro tem and Garza. >> Flannigan: Just to clarify since it was brought up I had pulled it when I didn't have time to get all my questions answered. I was able to do that over the last two days. >> Pool: All right. I have several concerns about the resolution and I've spoken with legal staff and with folks at the county. I'll just kind of give you an overall summary. Specifically the resolution is coming without collaboration with our [2:22:42 PM] county partners in the interlocal agreement that Delia mentioned, that we have an Ila with Travis county, so with central. So my main apprehensions are around the lack of collaboration, potential cost of millions of city of Austin with changes to the process and all [indiscernible] County. The county does have some estimates for what it would cost to move forward with this -- with this effort and in fact they are moving forward with magistration at the jail door. So the cost of millions, the timing of this, given the covid crisis we're in and lack of supporting information or any apparent vetting. I know this didn't go through the judicial committee so it hasn't had an opportunity for public input. So with the collective efforts with the county, the county recently decrease the jail population by about 24%. Y'all are probably aware of that. And in may there was a study [2:23:44 PM] issued by the who's in jail and why work group. That included city staff. And in the work [indiscernible] The commissioners court for approval of a grant to fund a pilot for defense council at 24/7 magistration. Those are just two examples of the progress that I see being made on the county's part. So I think we should take time to meet with the county, learn about any possible unintended consequences that the resolution -- that the resolution may have. I think there's some consequences financially and otherwise, procedurally and financially. And then I'm concerned about several issues that our legal staffs had brought forth that indicate possible conflict with state statutes and the proper separation of legislative and judicial branches. So I understand the effort at this point, and I'm [2:24:45 PM] supportive of a collaborative approach, which I would ask that -- I think that that's the direction we should move in. I worry that this resolution will obstruct the good progress that's being made. I'll just stop there. Others may have some other things we want to talk about. >> Garza: Can I address some of the concerns? >> Mayor Adler: Mayor pro tem Garza. >> Garza: So first, we're not changing the process at all. The process in fact calls for the city to sit down with the county. That was supposed to start in February. I understand that that has -- it was just about to start but hadn't officially. This doesn't change any of that. It doesn't change the fact we will still sit down with the city. We will still have discussion. This is the first time I'm hearing anything about this costing millions. Nobody on our city staff has [2:25:46 PM] expressed that. We worked [indiscernible] With law and in fact I don't know if we've gotten back to Lee, his last suggested edits, but we have implemented every single one of his from law, with the exception of possibly two that I don't believe are -- I think it's wordsmithing, frankly. We're not -- we are collaborating with the county. We are sitting down with them. Many of these are aspirational and in fact the additions that law asked us to include since it was on the last agenda were specifically because of concerns of conflict with state law and because of that we implemented all of law's suggested changes. >> Mayor Adler: Great. In -- >> Pool: We have -- oh, yes. So you -- if I may, Delia, you said you have addressed the concerns that law brought? >> Garza: Yes. >> Pool: I didn't find that in any of the backup. [2:26:47 PM] >> Garza: Go ahead, Ann. >> I was going to say, the recent -- the backup doesn't have the amended document yet, but I know, councilmember Garza, that you did work with Lee Crawford and either he or I or your office will put that into the backup just as soon as we can. >> Pool: I need to -- >> Mayor Adler: Councilmember pool councilmember pool. >> I want to take the time to look and see about the state law preemption, the judicial Independence [indiscernible] And amendments to the Ila that we have with Travis county for central booking. My understanding in talking with people at the county and at the city, that the changes that are being prescribed in this particular item will in fact have significant impacts on current procedures. There's also an effort underway by the county to find the money. Hopefully in the next session it's -- at least -- it's over $2 million and could be as much as $4 million to implement this [2:27:49 PM] program of 24/7 magistration at the jail door. That specific -- that burden is on the county, not on the city. And there's concerns that we may do some things at the city that may have some negative implications for the work the county is doing in order to get the funding for the pilot in the next session. The point that I'm trying to drive home here is that efforts on the -- for the issues that the mayor pro tem is bringing are already in effect or are underway with regard to the pilot at the county level. And so considering the fact that we cannot effect either the judiciary because of the separation powers and we cannot tell Travis county how to do its work, I would like to understand how what's in the item would [2:28:49 PM] change the procedures and the processes that we already have in place with our municipal courts. I'd like to have some conversations with our presiding judge and staff. >> Mayor Adler: And then councilmember Flannigan. >> Flannigan: Thanks. I think the process around bringing resolutions is really challenging right now for everybody, but noting that the entire judicial committee is the set of co- sponsors for this item was not an accident, that was intentional. And to be fair, I don't think the committees are really public input areas. We don't do full hearings at committee meetings so I'm just not -- that's just not a concern for me. I do know that the mayor pro tem and others, myself included, have engaged with plenty of stakeholders about this question and I talked to the presiding judge last night again about it to ensure that she had a comfort level with it, and, you know, to the extent that [2:29:49 PM] there are any kind of questions or concerns, this resolution is not an ordinance. So it is like most of our resolutions, directing some intent and then we will have staff come back and do the work and see how much can be implemented, acknowledging that Travis county really runs most of the show here. >> Mayor Adler: Councilmember Casar. >> Casar: You're muted if you're speaking. -- >> Mayor Adler: You're muted if you're speaking. >> Casar: I've been in conversation with the county about this and many other issues, and I have been appointed by the council on the Corona justice committee so I'm there with the folks from the jail and the sheriff and the county judge, district attorney and the attorney general and we talk about this issue and have been. As you noted there's really important progress both on the city side and county side and it's important for [2:30:50 PM] us to continue doing that work which I think is what the resolution asks us to continue to do. In the end those magistrates, those folks that are doing the work at intake of the jail are going to be by the city council and it is important for us to run that process without running afoul of giving judges their own discretion. So to me it makes sense because we are -- we are trying to cover the city part while understanding that the city does a significant part of this work. Insofar as collaboration goes I was on the phone with the county judge this weekend. She had some suggestions and I'm working on some of those with the mayor pro tem, but ultimately she said she's in full support of every be it further resolved in the resolution. So again, I'm interested if anybody at the county has reservations where available and all those folks have any phone number and email [2:31:51 PM] address. And we're talking about the edits to the any whereas's that the county judge wanted to give, but right now full support for all the whereas clauses. >> Pool: There might be some misunderstanding about who our staff when me magistrate. The minute they go into magistration they are on the county side of of that Ila and no longer part of the city. It's a shared effort, but they are under county authorities at that point. So again, you know, I would like to be supportive, obviously we all care about social justice and criminal justice reform. We've certainly labored very hard in this. I want to make sure, though, that the concerns, the very specific concerns that have been raised with me I did not go seek them out from [2:32:52 PM] folks at the county that they are addressed carefully and that we are not overstepping our bounds with regard to judicial Independence because we also can't tell our good judges how to rule, whether to let someone go or to grant them bail. An additional concern that I have may be that if you don't have a defense attorney available to provide some advocacy if it were someone arrest and that person has already been handed over to the jail, they will have to remain in jail until a defense attorney can come and advocate on their behalf. So we may be having the opposite effect, the opposite impact of what I know is the intention. So until we are sure that we have clear lines of authority that we understand [2:33:53 PM] the fiscal implications and that there's then a feasibility study because I understand there has not been any vetting of the procedure and how it interrelates with Travis county's established procedures. Which by the way are really a model for state, Travis county has been for decades, further ahead on criminal justice reforms than most other if not all other cities, certainly in the state of Texas. >> Mayor Adler: All right-- >> Pool: If I can say, we lost Ronnie Earle this week, and it was his far-seeing principle principles that put Travis county on the top of the help with criminal justice reform and restorative justice principles and programs. And I know we all appreciate that. We want to build on that. We don't want to do anything [2:34:54 PM] that would harm that or dilute those things. So I think there's more work that needs to be done with this resolution than -- and plus, I haven't seen all of the amendments, which would be great to see. Thanks. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. We ready to move on to the next one. Mr. Flannigan, you ready to close us out? >> Flannigan: One thing. I think if you read the resolution carefully you will note that it does all those things and it asks for a report, ask for a working group in Travis county. It is not making a final resolution, it is asking staff to explore it. But I wanted to thank the mayor pro tem for continuing to shepherd this resolution through a very difficult time when it is hard to shepherd anything. So I just want to make sure that I said that. >> >> Garza: Mayor? >> Mayor Adler: Yes, mayor pro tem. >> Garza: It's great seeing councilmember pool interested in the subject matter. I think this aligns with the work that the judicial committee has been doing for the past three or four [2:35:57 PM] years. , Since we started this committee, including two years ago when we worked with the municipal court on standardizing ingentleman sentcy and making sure we weren't a debtor's prison. It is aspirational in many aspects. It does include things in that aspirational portion that is new, that is not done, like data collection. And we can't change outcomes if we don't know what data we're getting and how we're reporting that and if we're reporting that. With [2:41:17 PM] >> Mayor Adler: Is that what you're talking about? >> Casar: No. I think we can see each other. I think there are some number of people with online streaming where streaming is a challenge. It might mean that we can legally keep the meeting going, it just might be important for I don't know how many city staff might be supporting this that are watching this online or council staff, but I just wanted to raise that. I'm not suggesting that we stop. I just wanted to make sure that we decide. >> Mayor Adler: Ann, can we continue going? >> Can you just tell me if the public can see what's happening and hear what's happening? Can anybody verify that, Lori? >> No, I don't think so. >> My staff said it's back on now and atx1. >> I can see you on the television and we can know see you. Staff is working on it and aware. >> As long as the public can see and hear then we can continue even if there are glitches. >> Mayor Adler: I [2:42:18 PM] understand that atxn is broadcasting us now. Any other items on this item 51? All right. Then we're going to move on. This next item is item 77. Councilmember Flannigan, I think this is the budget amendment that has become item 87 on the most recent addendum. Councilmember Flannigan, I think you pulled 77. >> Flannigan: Yes, I'm fine with it posted on 87. [Background noise]. And it's mostly questions on 81 anyway. >> Mayor Adler: If there's nothing else we'll go then to item 81. 81 we're going to address first in executive session -- I see -- we're not going to talk about 81 now. We're going to do executive session and then come out and talk about 81. Councilmember harper-madison? Did you want to address one of the earlier ones? >> Harper-madison: No, not at all. I wanted to ask you to remind everybody to mute their phones. [2:43:18 PM] I'm having a lot of dealing noises and having a hard time hearing. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. If you're not speaking, please mute. Councilmember alter. >> Alter: I just wanted to ask councilmember tovo if I could be added as a co-sponsor for item 86. >> Tovo: Can you hear me? [Echo]. Councilmember alter, I believe I do have another spot open. I was waiting to hear back from one of my requested co-sponsors, and so I don't believe that individual is going to join. So I do have room. >> Flannigan: To be clear, that was posted yesterday. We are not posted to talk about that item today. >> Alter: We're posted to talk about any -- >> Mayor Adler: We can talk about -- >> Flannigan: It was on the addendum yesterday. It hasn't been public for 72 hours. >> Mayor Adler: 86, right, [2:44:19 PM] that's correct. It hasn't been -- the layout sufficient to talk aboutium 86. >> Alter: Then I will just follow up with the clerk then. >> Mayor Adler: Sounds good. I think you got that done. >> Tovo: Great, thank you. >> Mayor Adler: That gets us past item 81. That gets us to item -- 81 we're going to come back. [Background noise]. Item number 83, councilmember Flannigan, you pulled this? >> Flannigan: So one question that I had for staff and I just wanted to daylight is how we can ensure that we're working with other utility providers that serve city of Austin residents. I have a pretty significant area and a few of us do that are in pedernales. I think there might be some that's bluebonnet. And so we're working on just some tweak language in there to authorize the manager to engage in those discussions as well. But otherwise it's a fine item. And while we're on 83, just want to make sure that city [2:45:20 PM] staff, utility staff is working with the pecan street project. Since I'm on their board, they're in the best position to be looking at how this crisis is impacting residential electricity use. This is actually a global leader in measuring electric use for residential properties. It gets the type of minute to second to second data that is going to be really important information, not just for Austin energy, but for every utility in the country. So I just wanted to make a note of that too. >> Mayor Adler: Great. All right. With that, council, I'm going to recess the meeting that we're in right now so that we could go into executive session. After executive session we will come back out into regular session to talk about item 81, but we're now going to go into executive session to take up three items. It is 2:46. We're going to discuss item e-2, which is the lawsuit. [2:46:23 PM] We're going to take up item e-3, which is line of duty reinvestment we're going to take up item -- line of duty leave. And we're going to take up item 81, the rise resolution. Without objection, what we're going to do is to go into -- you have to sign out of this meeting right now and then click on the link for executive session and that will take us then into the executive session. Everybody okay? All right. We'll see you in just a bit in executive session. [Executive session]. [3:58:48 PM] [Executive session] [4:40:58 PM] >> Mayor Adler: Last item we have to discuss is item no. 81 pulled by council member -- pulled by mayor pro tem Garza and council member Flannigan. Anybody want to discuss this item? >> I'd like to lay it out. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. >> So I mean, as I stated before with the testing and inequities in testing for covid-19 -- we've known inequities existed, they have just been magnified by this current crisis. And so we have all -- I know for myself, obviously, but I know since speaking to other council members have had a huge increase in the volume of constituent concerns, specifically about losing their jobs, whether they should go to work or not. Concerned about if they can't go [4:42:00 PM] to work are -- if they don't go to work they can't pay the bills. Many austinites who live paycheck to paycheck already and now are out of work. And so we were trying to find a method to -- building off of the work done by council member Flannigan, to get to those most vulnerable as quickly as possible. And so the focus of this resolution was, you know, equity and expediency. And how do we reach those who, because of a -- including employment status, will not be eligible for federal stimulus money. But it doesn't preclude people who are eligible from receiving this help. It just prioritizes those who may not be able to receive that help. And we've already seen that even those who are able to receive that help may not be seeing any help any time soon. I have heard as long as 20 [4:43:02 PM] weeks, in some cases. I didn't want to call out specific industries because I don't want to limit this to specific industries because it has affected so many different industries and it's really for people who need help now need help fast. It's great that we've -- the work that we've been able to do for the grace period in evictions, I'll really proud of the work we did there, led by council member Casar, but the fact was we didn't make the back rent forgivable so they're still going to owe that rent. Anything we can help as quickly as possible. You know, this fund is specifically for this very reason. It's or reserve to help people as quickly as possible. I hesitate to call out industries, I do want to point to the workforce solutions did send some statistics -- and I'm [4:44:04 PM] sure y'all seen that -- of the unemployment claims. 45 of them come from the cooks and food services and she provided the zip codes in order of magnitude where they are receiving these jobless claims. And in order of magnitude, 78741. And so that's just the top five. We all know that this has touched every single one of our districts. And so then in trying to address the basic needs of our constituents as quickly as possible, in talking to nonprofits and learning that they have seen double, triple, quadruple the amount of need in the past month, the food bank provided my office with some information about the percentage increase in their different pantries, their partner pantries. One example was at one partner pantry they saw three new [4:45:04 PM] clients, so to speak, at their pantry in February. And this month they have seen 300 new families. And I'm sure you have all seen the picture of thousands of cars in line waiting for food. And so, because of that, we tried different, you know, we talked to staff. We said -- we presented to staff how do we get these basic needs met for folks as quickly as possible. We debated chapter 380 or chapter 380 policy allows us to have some flexibility with nonprofits. We talked about, you know, being a part of the atx together effort with United Way. And then -- so we went this direction because according to our public health, they believe this is the fastest way to use current contracts to get that help out as quickly as possible. And then their estimates we could -- they could get it out, once we pass this, in about two [4:46:04 PM] to three weeks if we can get this done on Thursday. So that's just -- sorry if I went on a little bit too long, but that's the background for this. >> Mayor Adler: Anybody else wish to talk? Anybody else? >> Council member Flannigan has -- >> Mayor Adler: Council member Flannigan. >> Flannigan: Yes. I'm with -- 80, 90% of this is great. I just have some questions on the margins. The amount, I think was originally posted at 10 and then it was up to 15. Can you talk about where the numbers come from? >> Mayor, I can speak to that one. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. Council member Casar. >> Casar: The amount I think has always been posted at 15, but I have seen reporters sometimes get different numbers. I think that in response to the message board post there was a news story where it said 10 to [4:47:05 PM] $15 million is what we were looking at. Landing on the number primarily had to do with talking with some of the large social service providers about what a very aggressive expansion of their services in the month of April and in early may, what it would look like. Because we recognize that even if we put 30 or $40 million into the system, we may not be able to staff up and help people that quickly. We also recognize that with that federal money coming in, we'll need to ramp up even more because I anticipate the economic consequences will only get worse in the coming weeks. And so another important reason to do this is to start building that infrastructure to help, you know, record levels of unemployed folks get support. So that's how we got to the $15 million. We also talked with county commissioners and the county judge about them making a contribution, considering that we think a lot of this money could actually get used by the time may -- by the end of the [4:48:05 PM] month of may. So trying to get another 8 to $10 million from the county to help us get us through the end of may, end of June was part of our conversation as well. >> Yeah, I mean, I'm really interested again in the county conversation based on what we heard during the budget hearing that we're going to be facing a much more dramatic budget consequence because of the crisis. And so I'm hopeful that the county will step up, especially for their constituents of the county that are outside the city of Austin, which we know our affordability crisis has moved folks out to the outside. Gregor, have y'all been given data that shows how many people we think we can help, compared to how many people we think are in need? >> Maybe Stephanie can speak to that. We don't -- unfortunately, I think the need is infinite right now. And I would prefer allocating [4:49:08 PM] the $26 million in reserves because this seems like it is a one-time cost and it's going to get people over a couple of hurdles and then we really hope that the federal government comes in. And I think that's -- when I said we want to focus on equity and expediency, the equity portion is we're not doing this the federal government way where we're just going to hand everybody $1200. You know, every family is going to have a different need. Some families, maybe it's more trips to the food pantry than they were having to make before or they have never had to make it. I think it's going to differ with every family, the need differs so tremendously and I think that's another reason why this approach is good is because these nonprofits, they know the community they're serving. They have the trust of that community and they're able to tailor aid for each person. [4:50:08 PM] You know, you always speak to letting staff make those -- like it's giving it to them, the nonprofits who are boots on the ground, literally start giving people boxes of food. One example was a nonprofit that has only been providing food at this point has said we have seen a tremendous -- one of the next things that people need are diapers. Families are asking for diapers. And so they're able to tailor the need based on the obvious unique needs of the families. It's hard to answer that, basically, because it depends on the family. It depends on the, you know, maybe mom's out of work and dad's still working. Obviously, some families both parents are out of work. >> So, yes. >> Sorry. >> Go ahead. >> I didn't mean to interrupt you. We did have some numbers, you know, nearly 200,000 folks, work [4:51:09 PM] in food service, retail, and construction. Obviously that number goes down with construction working. At the same time we want to provide that opportunity or option for some folks to not work if they don't feel safe working. So we could be looking at such high levels of unemployment when there's hundreds of thousands of people that need help. The question is who is the most dire need of help and that's part of why we hope those social service providers can help identify those people who are on the brink where this fund helps keep people housed or helps keep people from losing their car or food insecure. Based on how social service providers that we currently work with, that $15 million will obviously be able to help tens of thousands of people. So it would be at a greater scale. >> Yeah, so I think, you know -- and for the public, you know, I always think we should remind folks that sometimes we have to have these conversations in [4:52:09 PM] public even when we're probably in agreement, because of the way the open meetings act works. No one should take this debate as not supporting the need and trying to solve the need. You know, I really like the parts of this that effectively mean we aretabilizing the social service infrastructure. That speaks to me really strongly. And we have weirdly had these conversations before the crisis as it relates to homelessness and workforce solutions where it probably makes more sense to block that out to outside groups who are closer to the constituents or closer to the folks in need. And in some cases, especially with equity, may trust those groups more than they trust the city. And that's always something I think we can acknowledge without having it to be weird. So I mean, I think this is good and I like mayor pro tem, kind of the way that you've laid out kind of all the intent but it [4:53:10 PM] still seems to allow staff to roll this stuff out with providers in a way that is compatible with everything else that's going on. I guess my only question is whether or not this half and half thing is the right way to go, because that seems to be the one thing that's really specific. That half -- that it's divided into these two buckets -- and I don't know that that's necessarily what we need to define. But that would kind of be my only remaining question. >> Mayor Adler: I'm going to talk real fast and turn it over to mayor pro tem. People are asking in the community what they can do to help. And, you know, this is one of the grandest ways I think acting together. I really appreciate the leadership last week of council member Flannigan pushing us collectively to work, everybody at council working. Mayor pro tem picking this up [4:54:10 PM] this week and moving with it. This is how we -- this is how we help the people that need the greatest measure of help. I know we're all going to get $1200 checks here shortly from the government. A lot of us are still working and probably don't need the $1200 check. I would suggest that those consider making that $1200 go to somebody that -- >> I don't think we're all going to get checks for $1200. >> Mayor Adler: Many people are going to get a check from the government. >> Possibly. >> Mayor Adler: And the many people that don't necessarily need the check, they could contribute to others. Two other things real fast. We just got the data back on social distancing movement. Austin was the only county in the state getting an a minus grade to be in the a range. It's a beautiful day out today. Four days ago it was raining in [4:55:11 PM] the city, one of the reasons why we got that. It's a sunny day again and everybody has to maintain that discipline, especially on the running trails. And the final thing I would just say is these masks, quite the fashion statement for us all to put on and wear -- we're encouraging everybody in the city to do this and people should get used to seeing them. And, with that, my colleagues, I have to get on another line. I turn the chair over to mayor pro tem. Thank you. >> Mayor Pro Tem: Okay. The question of half and half, council member Flannigan. I'm sorry. Mayor, are you on? >> Mayor Adler: Off. >> Mayor Pro Tem: Okay. Yeah, we were trying to find what the formula would be and we heard a lot from nonprofits and [4:56:13 PM] advocates about allowing families to decide, you know, the need and what they would do with aid and trusting them to make the best decisions for themselves. And, frankly in trying to get something out as quickly as possible, that's where we landed. You know, I think that -- I think it still allows flexibility, frankly, even the way it's written, it will allow flexibility in public health, determining, you know, creating that unique package, depending on the nonprofit and depending on the need. Council member alter. >> Alter: Thank you. I appreciate the need for this kind of immediate assistance as the economy and keep people able to be at home. I had one question for the [4:57:15 PM] authors. First, I didn't see seniors particularly called out, and I'm wondering if you would find it in at least one place, probably two where we talk about reaching particular communities. And they might be considered historically marginalized communities, but I think this would allow funding to go to organizations serving seniors specifically. That's something that -- I know it's in at least one place. I thought in the prior version there were two places, but I haven't found the other place yet. >> Mayor pro tem. >> Mayor Pro Tem: Go ahead, council member Casar. >> Casar: As it becomes more clear, especially low-income seniors that may not be filing taxes, we need to get help for them to file to be able to get more help. And a lot of those folks are left out, so I think we could mention that and highlight that, especially. [4:58:15 PM] Because I know that that's increasingly becoming an area of concern out there. Seniors generally, but then especially those seniors who just live on social security. And so then they don't file taxes and they may get cut out of some of the federal help for that reason. >> I think -- >> Trying to get some of those folks connected. >> I think that is fine to also call out low-income seniors but I think seniors is a broad class that might be in need. I mean, broadly speaking, you speaking, you know, there are going to be people who have trouble at this time who don't fall into these traditional categories too. And I just want to make sure that we're, you know, those people are going to go to these food banks and they're going to go to these other things as well, and I'm trying to understand how we thread that needle. I understand we want to pay special attention to make sure that we're delivering it to those that are most vulnerable and those who are most [4:59:16 PM] vulnerable to begin with are most vulnerable. But we have a lot of people in this particular situation who are vulnerable as well. And so I'm just trying to understand. That's maybe a related >> Casar:I meant it to be sort of supplementing or supporting what it is that you said. I wasn't saying what I meant was to cancel out your broader seniors -- I meant saying that that is something that I think is increasingly more concern given the new treasury guidelines on that. >> Alter: Do I need -- >> Garza: Quickly. I think -- so all of the nonprofits that might get funding through this are people with current contracts? And what are those guidelines to current -- one of those guidelines is under the 200% poverty line. So it would be - - it would [5:00:18 PM] be lower income seniors specifically. And I'm happy to add that to the resolution. >> Alter: Okay. Thank you. I guess I'm just trying to understand, you may not have been low-income before this hit and now you are. So how do we judge that? I mean, I'm just trying to understand what that distinction means if something is newly out of work and they don't have an income but maybe they were above it before but for a variety of reasons they don't have lots of cushion, saving, et cetera. >> Garza: Public health, in those guidelines, they speak to that, those criteria on how they qualify people. So it will apply to anybody who was under the 200% poverty line today. Whether they were there before -- and I don't know if director Hayden is still on the phone but my understanding is doesn't matter whether they were before covid-19 or whether they became after. [5:01:20 PM] The whole point is helping those who were paycheck to paycheck already. Maybe they were above 200% but maybe they're below because of a loss of employment. >> Alter: I guess I'm trying to understand there are people now not getting any paycheck who were getting a paycheck before. Are we saying they are not eligible? >> Garza: They are eligible. >> [Indiscernible] [Overlapping speakers] >> Alter: Don't need to do it now, just so I'm understanding better and -- I know you've been living and breathing this, but appreciate that. And then the other question I had is to what extent are we going to help the nonprofits with some of the infrastructure stuff? Right now one of the challenges we face is that the Texas workforce commission has got like a 40-year-old technology and is not able to deliver the unemployment checks in a speedy fashion. And we have, I don't know, a three-month wait for rental assistance as it is now. Assigned that kind of giving it out to the service [5:02:20 PM] providers helps to some extent, but how are we mitigating some of those -- that infrastructure question? It's not just a matter of money going out the door. >> So in having these discussions with staff, director Hayden talked about reaching out to those -- to understand their capacity limits and I don't want to speak for her, but I believe those discussions are underway. So I think that's a good way for Thursday, possibly. >> Alter: Okay. Thank you. I'll try and -- [overlapping speakers] >> Garza: I would say or off-line if you would like to do it that way. >> Alter: I'll try and refine that. It may be that we need a slightly different ifc to work on for helping the nonprofits' capacity which I might think about for the next -- you know, we may need to make some capacity investments that are less tied to serving a particular [5:03:21 PM] thing or making sure that our grants are covering certain basic overhead so they can do what we're asking them to do on our behalf. >> Garza: Is director Hayden, are you still on? On the call, on the line? >> [Indiscernible]. >> I'm here. I'm here. >> Garza: Can she hear me? I don't think they can hear me. Okay. I'm sorry. I didn't hear you what said, Spencer. She's what? >> She had to jump off the call. >> Garza: Jump off, okay. >> Garza: I think offline or through the council q&a would be another way to handle it. >> Garza: Okay. Thank you. Did I see another hand? I only see -- >> Renteria: Yes, my hand. >> Garza: I think councilmember harper-madison? >> Kitchen: Mine is up too. [5:04:21 PM] Natasha wants to -- >> Renteria: Minor is it -- >> Garza: Pio. Natasha. >> Renteria: I just had a quick question. You know, there's a lot of businesses out there also [indiscernible] Funds and I'm just wondering, do our money qualify for matching funds for some of these large corporations? >> Garza: That's a question for staff. Are you asking if we can [indiscernible] From outside? >> Renteria: Like the millionaires out there are saying we're giving money, we're matching this. I'm wondering if -- would our money that we give to these nonprofits qualify for -- as matching funds for other groups that are willing to fund some of these programs? Do you know anything about that, Spencer? [5:05:21 PM] Can we use that if -- >> Councilmember, we'll certainly look into how it can be framed. We want to make sure whatever investments we are making as a city are leveraged in as many ways possible because, as we know, this has to be a community-wide effort and we are just one important player in that, but to your point, we want to take advantage of other ways to bring in more resources. So we talked about -- with the county, I think bringing in other ways that we can get larger corporations to also make sure that they're contributing as well. Our community is coming together in so many different ways, but I hear your concern and the more we can frame that we will do so. >> Renteria: Thank you. >> Garza: Councilmember harper-madison. >> Flannigan: On this point I want to add if I might? >> Garza: Okay. [5:06:22 PM] Go ahead. >> Flannigan: I want to say part of the advantage of doing it with outside groups, they can take those dollars when the city can't if we were trying to administer it ourselves. I would hope the organizations applying to be part of the program would be talking to their donors now that saying that would be part of their pitch to the city to participate, is that they were able to find matching funds for this. And nonprofits often have a key set of donors that particularly like their approach or their group, and so all that stuff should be on the table even though it won't necessarily be administered by staff to find those dollars, would be my take at least. >> Garza: Councilmember harper-madison, you're on mute. >> Harper-madison: I just realized that. My coworkers were practicing Spanish. So I think honestly a lot of the question I was going to raise have been addressed by my colleagues, so I really appreciate that. Especially some of the questions raised by [5:07:22 PM] councilmember alter around capacity and infrastructure investment. Those are some of my major concerns, and I'll echo councilmember Flannigan. Generally speaking, I absolutely get the direction here. I see the need. I think it's critical. I just -- it's one of those things I certainly wish it wasn't happening in the middle of the biggest crisis any of us will ever see because there's just so many questions about oversight. I appreciate that the resolution includes some language around auditing. I really appreciate that the resolution has some language around the expansion of current contracts. I think those are really smart things to include. I'll tell you what some of my fears are still. It's sort of propronged. Councilmember Flannigan brought up the consideration around the split of the funding. Like you said if we could we'd give all of the reserves to the people who need it the most. One of my concerns there is, one, for the long-term greater good, just to echo [5:08:22 PM] what you said about this feeling like it's going to be a one-time injection, in which case I have so many questions about long-term greatest good, best, highest use. Then I have questions also around, you know, how frequently as a municipality we sort of marginally fund an initiative and then can't complete the rest. I don't want us to partially fund what on its face value is a really valuable initiative. I just have a lot of concerns about how many people will still get left behind even with this injection. In which case there's a part of me that wonders if there's a way to just put more in building our systems and building infrastructure and doing the capacity building because I think it will stretch longer. So many people pointed out today I really do think we're in the very infancy of this. We don't know how it's going to play out. And in a lot of way like Ed [5:09:22 PM] van eenoo pointed out even if some of this was eligible for reimbursement when did we get it? That concerns me. That concerns me. How far do we make it stretch? That concerns me. Are we spreading it too thin? I have concerns, but I'm more in the department of I think where -- the mayor saying we're stuck between a bad decision and a bad decision. I think this is certainly the best of what we have available to us now. And so I would like to -- here in the next day just shoot some questions through the q&a around that capacity and infrastructure investment thing so I'll give you an example. There's an organization that reached out that I think under the current [indiscernible] Around eligibility for service providers. I don't know that they're being -- that the population of people that they're serving would be considered in that eligibility consideration so I'll shoot a question over in q&a around that. [5:10:24 PM] And then the other question about people who -- so I think councilmember Casar was talking about people that are sort of -- that paycheck to paycheck space. I just don't know how much, you know, sort of like the caritas folks saying -- in terms of their advice, they're saying, yes, we need, this yes, you got to get it done, be nimble, get it done fast, don't let the city micromanage too much but they're also saying try not to make it stretch too much because then we're spreading ourselves too thin and won't be able to fully execute as robustly as we could. Then the other thing they said was -- I'm going to G back and check real quick. Excuse me. The other thing they said that stood out to me was that -- the goals being around how to house people and keep people housed. And it feels to me like this effort is exclusively going to keep people housed as [5:11:24 PM] opposed to the other part of the consideration. So I'll formulate some questions to ask on the q&a around that too. All in all I really appreciate the expert I'm glad y'all brought it forward and the authors and coauthors worked so hard on it with their staff. I know this is a tough one. Thank you. >> Garza: Councilmember kitchen and then councilmember alter. >> Kitchen: I'll be quick. I just wanted to say that I support this. I think that the approach working through social service, existing social services will be the best, quickest route because those are in place. I recognize there's options in other cases to go to other agencies and I think that's good. Anyway I want to say at this point in time I share all the concerns that have been raised. Like councilmember Natasha harper-madison said, but I think I want to err on the side of expediency right [5:12:25 PM] now, and I'm sure this money is needed. So I support it. >> Garza: Thank you. Councilmember alter. >> Alter: Thank you. I just wanted to thank the media that have helped [indiscernible] Trying to do something very similar to this in our community, all together atx which has raised a lot of money and if you want to match you can go to the website and it's doubled right now. Then I also wanted to ask the city manager if he's still on, I'm not sure if he is, [indiscernible] Dell foundation and now it's about $80 million that would be spent on covid-related activities and communities they and we need I think it would be important to task someone on staff right away to be working with them on identifying ways to collaborate with the city to make that money go as far as [5:13:26 PM] possible in conjunction with our funding. So if Spencer is on or somebody is representing Spencer is on, if they can work to coordinate online with funders like Michael and Susanne Dell foundation so we can match [indiscernible] Coming into our community. >> Thanks, councilmember. We are actively working with the foundation and we do have staff that's already in contact with them. But appreciate you plugging that and we'll continue to update and follow up with council as we learn more. >> Alter: Great. Thank you. >> Garza: Is there anybody else that has questions about 81? >> Casar: I want to thank everybody for their comments and questions and we want to make there work the best we can for people, knowing there's so much more we still need to do. There's hundreds of cars on the [indiscernible] Councilmember harper-madison's district we have to help with what we [5:14:27 PM] can really, really fast now. And then I do recognize, councilmember harper-madison, and everyone, that there is this longer term work we need to do. >> Mayor Adler: Councilmember Flannigan. >> Flannigan: Again, thank you, mayor pro tem, for bringing this item and I just want to kind of reiterate I put my hand up and Greg said what I was thinking. This is one of many programs that we're going to be working on, and I'm really proud to be part of a council that is unified in trying to move as quickly and expediently and as thoughtfully as possible so that every person in our community can survive this crisis. So thank you. >> Garza: Yeah. I'll quickly say that this is specifically for how to keep people housed more. Then there's all kinds of other programs going on and all kinds of -- as councilmember alter mentioned all kinds of [5:15:27 PM] things that will supplement this kind of funding. It's something I do believe the city -- we all know. Everybody, nonprofit, profit needs to step up and do a little something. This is the one thing that's obviously -- it is one time and it is -- the need is tremendous but it's something that we need to do to help folks get through this period. So I believe those are all of the items. Is that right, Ann? I want to say, Ann Morgan, your name organic, you sound like a super hero. So if there's no objection, we are adjourned at -- do we want to talk about any procedural stuff, the meeting, just that's going to happen, like, last time? Speakers at the beginning of the meeting. Is that right? >> That's my understanding, yes. >> Garza: Okay. >> We don't have any [5:16:28 PM] executive session for Thursday. >> Garza: Okay. So then any amendments please post asap so everybody can see before Thursday. And we will get our item 30 posted soon. The latest revision. >> It's not clear to me whether -- how long our meeting is going to be. I would suggest that at the outset of the day we get some understanding of whether we're going to take a break at some point as we usually do for lunch. >> Garza: I'll ask the mayor -- >> Tovo: I'm sorry. I didn't hear your response. >> Garza: I'll ask the mayor to post something about the time of the meeting. And lunch. >> Tovo: That would be great. >> Garza: We're adjourned. Thank you, all. >> Thank you.