Public Health Committee (PHC) Meeting Transcript – 3/5/2025 Title: ATXN-1 (24hr) Channel: 1 - ATXN-1 Recorded On: 3/5/2025 6:00:00AM Original Air Date: 3/5/2025 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. [10:00:33 AM] This is a-t-x-n the City of Austin S Government Access Channel okay. I think they started just now, so I think we can start now. >> Okay. It's officially started recording. I was too fast. There. You see? Okay. Hi, everyone. Vanessa Fuentes. It is 10:01 A.M. And as chair of the Austin public health committee, I call our committee to order. We are joined today by all members of our committee. We [10:01:34 AM] members of our committee. We have vice chair, councilmember duchen and council member zo qadri altar and Velasquez here with us today. Colleagues, as far as our agenda for this morning, we have quite a few items. And but our goal, of course, is to ensure that we are on time and able to get to all of the items by noon. First, we're going to start with public communications. Then we'll have the consideration of meeting minutes from January 5th committee meeting. Then the committee will discuss appointments to the sobering center board of directors, which will need to head into the executive session to take up personnel matters. We'll have a briefing of the status on the Austin animal services strategic plan. And then for item number four, I do want to make a notation. This is a briefing on bond funding priorities from the homelessness strategy office. This item has been postponed at the request of the department. And then from there we will then jump to a discussion on the recent memo that was sent around [10:02:37 AM] recent memo that was sent around the measles health alert. That memo was sent on February 10th, if you would like to reference that. Any questions or comments on today's agenda? >> One question. >> Do we have a date of when the item number four will be back? Is it the next meeting or somewhere? >> We should be for the next committee meeting? >> Next meeting. Okay, great. >> Yes. April the 1st Wednesday of April. Perfect. Perfect. All right. Clerk. Do we have any speakers? >> Yes, ma'am. The first speaker is Kate grazziani. If you're in the chambers, please come to the mic. You have three minutes. >> Thank you. >> Good morning. Kate grazziani with vocal Texas. I'm here this morning to check in with you all about a budget amendment from last summer, sponsored by council member Velasquez and [10:03:40 AM] council member Velasquez and cosponsored by a number of other members of this committee. It was the budget amendment that originated through the community and the community investment budget coalition, of which we are a part. And it was intended to be an investment into our harm reduction drop in center. Our one and only harm reduction drop in center. As part of our overdose prevention efforts. I know we have many gaps in that system. But the harm reduction peer based model and the drop in center services is where we see one of the biggest gaps. Maggie Luna from the Texas harm reduction line should be joining us shortly, but we wanted to come and speak with you all this morning because we've heard that there have been changes to how those funds are going to be spent, rather than going into the community based drop in center. They will be directed to integral, integral care. And so as a member of the of the community investment budget, I [10:04:41 AM] community investment budget, I just wanted to come and reiterate that the intent for those funds, and I think for the sponsor and the co-sponsors was for that to go into much needed drop in center infrastructure. And so we're here this morning to ask that you all help ensure that those funds go where they were intended. Stand with the community and community investment budget coalition. And with the harm reduction community. Maggie is registered but not here yet. So hopefully y'all will allow her to speak when she arrives. But I just wanted to make sure we got in front of you this morning. Any questions? >> Valdez. Thank you so much for being here today. We we've spoken with Maggie and director Sturrup, and I believe they have a meeting this afternoon to discuss this at length. >> Yes, we have a meeting at 1:00, but no assurance that any changes are going to be made to how they're directing those funds. So we're asking for [10:05:42 AM] funds. So we're asking for support from our sponsors and co-sponsors to help make sure that happens. >> Correct. And I spoke to I spoke to Maggie yesterday and assured and asked her to circle back with us once they've had that meeting. >> Absolutely we will. >> Thank you ma'am. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you for being here. Okay. Moving on to item number or the next item. This is the approval of the previous meeting minutes. Item number one. Can I get a motion and a second motion by council member zo qadri, seconded by council member. Alter this for the approval of the February 5th, 2020 five minute meeting minutes. Any objection? Seeing none, those meeting minutes stand approved. All right. Moving on to item number two. Discussion and possible action on appointments to the sobering center board of directors. I'd like to take a pause on this item and take this conversation into executive session. This committee will now go into closed session to take up one item pursuant to section 551.074 of the government code. The committee will discuss personnel [10:06:42 AM] committee will discuss personnel matters related to item number says six. But let me. Is it item six? Yes. No. Item two related to item number two, discuss the selection of members for the sobering center board of directors. Is there any objection to going into executive session on this item as announced? Hearing none. The committee will now go into executive session. Thank you. Very good. Thank you. We are now [10:16:00 AM] Very good. Thank you. We are now out, actually. Thank you, colleagues, for discussion on item number two. We are now out of executive session. And this was a closed session where we discussed personnel matters related to item number two. And I appreciate the conversation. During the executive session, we had the opportunity to discuss applicants for the sobering center board of managers. And the committee has decided to move forward and schedule interviews with the candidates, with the intention to make a recommendation for appointment at our April 2nd public health committee meeting. Next up, we'll receive a briefing on the status of the Austin animal services strategic plan. This is item number three. I would like to welcome acm assistant city manager Susana Carbajal. Welcome. Thank you. Good morning. Mayor pro tem Fuentes, council members. I'm Susana Carbajal, assistant city manager. I'm very excited to be [10:17:01 AM] manager. I'm very excited to be here today to proudly introduce the strategic plan for the city of Austin animal services office. This plan represents the priorities of staff, city partners, stakeholders, and the community. The plan is a product of several months of hard work getting feedback from the community, understanding staff challenges, and attending meetings to discuss the information and the data collected. I am grateful for the animal advisory commission's guidance, hard work and input into the plan. Staff greatly appreciates the commission's support, and we have incorporated their friendly amendments into the plan. I want to take a few minutes to thank staff from the animal services office and budget and performance team, the volunteers, our partners, the animal advisory commissioners and community members who have shared their experiences, their expertise and the time during listening sessions, interviews [10:18:02 AM] listening sessions, interviews and surveys. Their valuable input has shaped the creation of aso's strategic plan. With your grace, I'm going to call out the names of the planning team, as well as the working group members who met and worked together for over eight months to create this strategic plan. I believe it is important to share with you who they are because while we all may have different opinions on how to address our challenges, we all share a common goal to have a viable strategic plan that supports animal welfare. The planning team members include animal advisory commission vice chair and Linder animal advisory commissioner Laura smagula, assistant city manager Stephanie hayden-howard, chief animal services officer don bland, Whitney holt from Travis county, Casey Roberts and Cassandra Gallegos, advisors in the city manager's office. The working group members include the planning members that I just [10:19:02 AM] planning members that I just mentioned, in addition to animal advisory commissioner Laura hoke, miles Chadwick from emancipate, doctor Ellen Jefferson from Austin, pets alive, Francis Johnson and Sarah Hammel from the Austin humane society, Kaitlin Chapman from trappers, gene hubbarth from classic canines, Shelly Lieberman as a volunteer, David London from trappers, Beverly Luna from Austin. Lost and found. Pat Valdez as a community advocate and doctor. Debbie Elliott and Rebecca Monty from the animal services office. I also want to thank our consultant, doctor Larry schooler, for facilitating our workshops and guiding the working group in completing the strategic plan. Thank you to the budget and performance team. Audrey muntz, Nicole Peterson, and Samantha Eaton for conducting listening sessions, analyzing community service [10:20:03 AM] analyzing community service surveys, and supporting logistics. I will now introduce Audrey muntz, budget performance manager, to begin the presentation on the animal services office strategic plan, followed by our chief animal services officer, don bland. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. Susana. My name is Audrey muntz. I'm the budget and performance manager with the office of budget and organizational excellence team. My team provides internal consulting services at the city of Austin on process improvements and special projects like this animal services office strategic plan for the aso strategic plan. Our team supported coordination of the strategic planning process, including facilitating and analyzing the community surveys, as well as staff and volunteer listening sessions, and I will be providing an overview of the process we undertook in creating this plan, mirroring what Susannah shared. I also want to share a big thank you to staff, volunteers and partners and [10:21:03 AM] volunteers and partners and community members that contributed their insights, time and energy to support the development of the aso strategic plan. Susana shared the names of the planning team member. The planning process was directed by the planning team, which included representatives from aso city manager's office, Travis county and the animal advisory commission. The planning team was responsible for logistics and coordinating coordination of the strategic planning process, including managing timelines and selecting the working group members. They were also involved in coming together towards the end of the drafting process to refine the plan to ensure that it was cohesive, consistent and understandable for our community. The working group included those planning team members and representatives from aso staff and volunteers, as well as several community partners. You can see all those community organizations and names on the screen here. The working group was responsible for using feedback and information gathered from stakeholders, along with their [10:22:03 AM] stakeholders, along with their expertise in animal welfare, to collaboratively develop the strategic plan. During a series of workshops facilitated by external consultant, the external consultant. So here's an overview of the strategic planning process. Preparation for the planning process began in spring of 2020 for external consultant doctor Larry schooler was hired and during the planning process, doctor Larry schooler's responsibilities included designing and facilitating the strategic plan development workshops and supporting the development of materials used for stakeholder engagement activities. During the preparation phase, the planning team selected working group members. Once the planning process was kicked off, we moved into the assessment phase. This phase was really about understanding the current state of the animal services office, including gathering input from aso stakeholders to make sure the plan could be responsive to the needs, priorities and hopes of aso stakeholders, including staff, volunteers, partners and the community. Some key activities during the assessment phase included a community [10:23:04 AM] phase included a community survey that asked participants to rate aso services, share their priorities for the animal services office, as well as their hopes for animal welfare in the city of Austin. We had more than 2000 participants in that community survey. We held listening sessions with staff and volunteers to collect their insights about current challenges, as well as their hopes and priorities for aso. We had 94 staff participants and about and 40 volunteers. Interviews were conducted with ten aso leadership team members and 11 community partners, and we also took time to review previous audits, reports and surveys that aso had completed in the past. A compilation of the findings from those community surveys, listening sessions and interviews are consolidated into two reports that are available on a public input page that has been keeping the public updated on this process throughout. That's public input. Com backslash aso plan 2024. As we were wrapping up the assessment phase, the [10:24:04 AM] up the assessment phase, the strategic plan framework development phase began. The purpose here was to use the insights from that assessment phase to create a strategic plan that could address audit findings, fulfill aso mission and balance stakeholders needs and aspirations, while also building trust among that diverse working group. A series of seven workshops were facilitated by doctor Larry schooler, and at a mid-point in these workshops, a draft framework of focus areas and goals was shared with the community and staff for feedback on what they liked and did not like what they felt was missing. This feedback was shared back with the working group ahead of their final two workshops, and the final working group meeting was held in early January. The draft plan was then shared with the public staff and volunteers and with the animal advisory commission, and we're now in this final phase where the plan is being shared and finalized before adoption and moving into implementation. So the aso strategic plan was discussed at the animal advisory commission meetings on January 13th and February 10th. They made [10:25:05 AM] February 10th. They made recommendations that have been included in the draft. The draft plan that you have in backup. And before I hand it over to don, I'm going to give a quick review of the components that you'll find in this strategic plan document. And these components mirror those that are in the city wide strategic plan, a vision, a shared idea of what the community will experience when aso implements this plan. The mission, which is the core purpose and role aso serves in supporting the community and achieving its vision. The mission was not updated as part of this process, so it is the same mission aso has had previously. Focus areas. The plan has six focus areas which don will share in just a moment. These represent aso high level priorities and the foundational elements that will guide aso in advancing its mission and achieving its vision. Each focus area has a description to make sure it's clear what is within that focus area. Each focus area has 3 to 4 goals, and the goals are the specific end results that aso envisions, plans and [10:26:05 AM] that aso envisions, plans and commits to achieve. Each goal has several strategies, and these are the actionable plans or methods that aso will take to achieve its goal. And finally, each goal has associated measures. You'll find those in the appendix of the plan. These measures will be used to track progress towards achieving the goal, and inform aso on whether to modify or sustain its approach. Aso staff will be developing targets for each of these measures, and the measures may be amended as we learn more in implementation of the plan. And so I will hand it over to don. >> Good morning. Don bland, chief animal service officer as you heard, Audrey mentioned, the vision of the animal services is to provide the resources and allow people and pets to thrive in the city of Austin. And we developed six focus areas. And these six focus areas have the goals and strategies and measurements attached to them. These measures are going to be [10:27:06 AM] These measures are going to be used to track the progress toward achieving those goals. And as you heard Audrey say, we will be working to add targets as well as add additional strategies to help achieve these goals throughout the process. The first area of the first goal is humane care, and that is, you know, under shelters, under the best conditions are stressful place for animals. So we want to be meeting the animals physical and emotional needs and ensure a high quality life for the animals in the shelter and in foster care by providing the enrichment and behavioral support and the well maintained facilities. Spay and neuter is the second goal strategy that we want to have. And, you know, with limited resources for spaying and neutering in our community, we, you know, already contracted with the national provider for high quality, high speed spay and neuter in the [10:28:07 AM] speed spay and neuter in the community to reduce the number of stray animals and unwanted animals by providing those services into our community. Open intake is the third goal, and that is to ensure that we have the capacity to accept animals and facilitate the care by partners and the public as well. To assist people in keeping their pets in a timely manner and getting the services that they need to be able to keep their pets or. Relinquish their pets. If that's the last alternative that we have. And with those, you know, we've already started, some of the things that are in there is you'll see finder to foster. That is one of the areas that that we have that it's been very successful, but we want to expand on that. And so along the way through all these, we'll be setting out what can we accomplish the first year, [10:29:08 AM] accomplish the first year, second year, third year. And along the way, we'll also be coming back to council because we will need your input on some policy decisions or decisions on, you know, staffing and financing to achieve some of these as well. Live release was the next strategy, and that's to develop strategies to maximize the number of animals that are adopted, rescued, transferred or returned to their owners through enhanced services, partnerships and community engagement as well. Public health and safety is another one of the strategies, and we want to ensure the health and safety of the public and the animals by providing resources and information and working with the community and our community partners and responding quickly to those animal concerns, you know, increasing the public awareness on how to interact safely with animals and wildlife is something that is part of this, as well as reducing the [10:30:08 AM] this, as well as reducing the number of incidents with animals in the community through education. Staff and volunteers, is another one of the things we'll be looking at. And we want to, you know, to recruit and retain well trained staff and volunteers and providing the tools and support that they need to have successful experiences as a volunteer or be successful in their career as as an animal care worker. One of the things that you know, we'll look at is, you know, volunteers, why don't we provide them with the same amount of training that we do? A staff member, if they want to have that level of training. So, you know, expanding our volunteers and their training as well is going to be something that will be very important moving forward. Because, you know, you've heard me mention probably at commission meetings along the way. We have more volunteer hours in a month that most municipal shelters have in a year. So we could not do what [10:31:10 AM] a year. So we could not do what we do without our volunteers, and we need to continue to lift them up. With all of these. They're going to be measures. Each goal is going to have a measure, and we will start tracking progress on achieving those goals and develop targets along the way, and add and modify those to achieve these overall arching goals. And one of the things that you know we will need is to look at what can be done short term and spread it out, and make sure that we achieve all these goals within our five year process, and y'all will all be involved in that. I can guarantee you that our next steps, of course, is going to the city council for consideration this month. And then upon. Acceptance and adoption of a strategic plan, then aso will implement the [10:32:12 AM] then aso will implement the strategic plan and start outlining those things on what we can do next and start making the next steps to work through this plan over the next five years to be able to accomplish all these goals. So with that, do you have any questions for any of us? >> Thank you. Thank you for the presentation. Colleagues who would like to ask us. >> Thank you, madam chair. I want to take a moment. And I'm sure everybody knows that that the animal center is in district three. So it is very near and dear to my heart. I want to thank don bland for his service. Thanks to everybody that worked on the strategic plan, animal services staff, and especially our appointee to the commission. And Linda, one of the goals of the plan is to increase the number of free and subsidized spay and neuter programs in the city. The Austin animal center currently holds good fixed [10:33:13 AM] currently holds good fixed clinics across Austin to make it easier for owners to get their pet spayed and neutered. I believe there are several currently scheduled for this year. What is the what is the turnout like for these clinics and how are how are they marketed to the community? >> We market those through social media, through radio, through television, and good fix assist us with marketing that as well as well as, you know, we supplement their press releases and everything that they send as well. And we really highlight those communities where we see the greatest need and try to really push those. We've even had volunteers go into those communities and flier those neighborhoods so that we can make sure that we're capturing those. And we have had over a thousand surgeries at each of those clinics. So it's been well received, and we keep growing. Each clinic gets larger, and we're hoping the next one that [10:34:13 AM] we're hoping the next one that will be the first week in April at. The shopping center where Neiman Marcus last call was on Lamar. And mopac is going to be even larger. >> And thank you for that. And I don't I'm not going to volunteer all of my colleagues from the Dyess. But but I'm sure they'd agree with me any time that you want to council to help you disseminate information along those lines, feel free to send it to our office. Everybody else can volunteer themselves, but we're happy to put it in our newsletter to ensure folks get out there. To those, I have. Another goal is open intake at the shelter. Are we at capacity right now? >> We are for large, medium to large dogs. We have capacity increase. We have capacity to take in small dogs and cats as well currently. >> And how often is there open space for the drop off of a pet at the animal center? >> Well, we, you know, end up taking around 40 a day currently [10:35:15 AM] taking around 40 a day currently under the current conditions. And that is those that are sick or injured or that where we have openings for, you know, small dogs or large or kittens or cats. I think yesterday I haven't seen the numbers come through this morning, but yesterday we were over capacity for large dogs by eight. So it's really came down and we're able to help those more than we have been in the previous months. >> And just a quick follow up on that. Is that a space issue or a capacity issue? >> Well, capacity and space are the same for us. >> Okay. I'm saying like when we're talking about staffing or are we talking about just actual physical space. >> Physical kennel space? >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. That was a really great question. And again, we know that this presentation today has been a long time coming. Many of us receive emails and feedback from our constituents about Austin Austin [10:36:16 AM] constituents about Austin Austin animal care services throughout the year. So this is top of mind for many in our community. Some of the questions I have are around just getting a sense of how do these proposed measures that are in this strategic plan and the goals that you have laid out, how does that compare to the current practices and current efforts? I mean, are we moving the needle 180 degrees or are we, you know, like, can you give us some insight or context as to what is before us today, how much or to what extent would these measures and strategies help us improve our overall mission as it relates to animal services? >> Well, I think that there's things that are that are in this plan that we're already doing and have been doing and those we can, you know, show very quickly that we're we're achieving those. I think there's some things that that we can do to enhance those services, just like bringing good folks in to do more spay neuter in our [10:37:18 AM] do more spay neuter in our community. There's things that we can do that are within our budget that we already can, can tweak and make some minor changes that will have major impacts. But there are things in this plan that will require staffing and funding and things that will have to come back to the council for because they're not going to be accomplished without some of those additional resources. And those are the ones that I know that will take longer. And definitely some collaborating. >> Is there a way? And I know today before us colleagues, this is a presentation to our committee. Of course, this item will come before council at our March 27th committee meeting or council meeting for further consideration of the full body. Is there a way that you all can share out or outline? What are the new strategies that are identified in the strategic plan? And to the extent you can also notate which ones would require additional staffing and or funding. >> We actually have a meeting this coming Monday to outline [10:38:18 AM] this coming Monday to outline all of that and work through that. So those notes that are made through that will be able to share. >> Great. And my next question is around setting the targets. You know this it was outlined as you're on your definition slide. We have targets on our citywide strategic plan that was set for us. Is there how does that process look like for this moving forward, when you set your targets and establish the baseline of right now we are at capacity, let's say 300 days out of the 356 days of the year. We want to have, you know, we want to increase our open days by X amount. When will you all get us those numbers? Or how does how will we all inform us of the baseline targets? And then what you're striving for. >> I think, you know, we already have key performance indicators that that we've been utilizing. And so that will be a good baseline to see where we're at currently with those key [10:39:19 AM] currently with those key performance indicators that are part of the city strategic plan as well. And then adding to those or enhancing those. And what this plan calls for, you know, we can highlight those as well. And there might be some in here that that get added to that or tracked. It might not be added to the city plan, but it will be tracked in our plan and on our website. And one of the things that this this strategic plan will have its own website. And so enhancements along the way and changes along the way will be added to it. So the public will be able to watch and see the progress we're being made along the way. >> Oh that's great. I'm really so a dashboard. An online dashboard so to speak. Yes ma'am. I think that will go a long way in in strengthening confidence with the public. Any other questions colleagues? Yes. Councilmember duchen. >> Thank you so much for the presentation and your work on developing the plan. I had a couple of quick questions. One [10:40:19 AM] couple of quick questions. One is when I was looking through the survey, I was encouraged to see that pretty much every focus area seems like it was extremely supportive or the feedback you got was seems like pretty overwhelming that everybody was supportive of those priorities. My question is, is there a sense of prioritization among those focus areas? Is there a reason that when you did or maybe you've already done this in a different place, but did you ask people which ones they felt were higher priorities? Is there, or are we just working on all of them equally? >> I guess. >> Council member a good question. Once the plan is adopted, I will be working closely with the team to. It's a five year plan. It's a five year strategic plan. And so we're working with the team. We do have a kickoff meeting to start our our thoughts and our [10:41:19 AM] our our thoughts and our planning and our structure. And what I'm, I'm hoping and planning to do is to have an implementation plan and to outline specific targets, specific timelines and specific deliverables over the next five years in order to meet that plan. And so once we have that planned out, the implementation plan, that's something that certainly I could keep everybody informed and let you all know, because we right now we're at the we're at the throes of just trying to get the plan to the finish line. We certainly want to make sure that that is adopted and blessed by the city council. And then we'll come back with an implementation plan to share what our next steps are with specific, with more specific details. >> Thank you. So just to clarify, there was no in terms of the participants of who helped draft the plan or the [10:42:22 AM] helped draft the plan or the 2000 or so survey respondents, there was we didn't drill and figure out which ones were actually the of the six focus areas, which ones were the priorities? >> Yes, sir. We did. >> Okay. >> Audrey and her group, they did prioritized everything and asked the there were questions in the survey on what are your top priorities. Rank these priorities okay. And that helped drive these six focus areas. And so with these six focus areas, from what the community input was as well as the working group, that's where the six focus areas came from. >> Okay. Is that in the survey responses on it is public input okay. All right. I haven't gotten there yet. Then next question was. You mentioned. And just to follow up on chair Fuentes's questions about the dashboard and the website, is that all handled internally within your department? >> It will be handled by. Will [10:43:22 AM] >> It will be handled by. Will provide the data, but it will all be built by I guess ctm. >> Okay. So you're partnering with ctm to get that done. And then how often would we expect updates on that dashboard or platform? >> I would anything, anytime, anything changes. We'll make an update. So it could be, you know, weekly, daily, whenever there's a change that we need, we will keep everyone informed along the whole process. Because, you know, we have folks that are very interested in this and, and they want to be kept abreast and we want to be very transparent. >> Okay. So I'm hearing you say we get potentially even weekly or daily updates as you're constantly taking in data and updating the data set and the dashboard. Okay. Thank you. >> Further questions. >> Very good. Thank you so much for the presentation. We appreciate the information. Colleagues. We are now actually, we're going to take a quick pause if the from my [10:44:24 AM] pause if the from my understanding, we have a speaker here with us who would like to provide comments. >> Yes. Maggie Luna, if you're in the audience you have three minutes. >> Thank you. >> Hello. How are y'all doing? Council members. And so first of all, I just want to thank you all for your attention to all the community work that's being done. And I want to thank Kate for being here on behalf of the community investment budget and your willingness to just address the concern that we had. And. I just want to emphasize the amazing work that's being done with our small team at Texas harm reduction alliance. The original intent for the work that we did around this amendment budget that we were bringing to your attention, was to support our drop in center at our drop in center, we've been serving 60 to 70 people, 60 to 70 people a day, with a three person staff team. Our team is [10:45:26 AM] person staff team. Our team is composed entirely of people with lived experience. This team is committed, dedicated and. I'm sorry this keeps moving. We connect people to housing, mental health care, sud treatment, medical care. We have HIV and hcv testing and treatment. Our staff has helped women flee domestic violence relationships on the streets. We help people enter respite. We help others avoid the vicious cycle common for people who are experiencing homelessness. Our drop in center work is unique. We create a space where people are comfortable arriving as they are sharing their truth, where hundreds of people each month have found enough trust and comfort in the place that we give them. And because of our team's lived experience, we can [10:46:26 AM] team's lived experience, we can non-judgmentally help our peers. Importantly, each year we hear that our supplies have reversed several hundreds of overdoses. Our team members have been able to intervene in such emergencies on site, bringing people back to life. And I got to witness this the other day. Somebody that I truly thought was gone. Our team jumped in. The man went from no breath purple to just bringing that short breath brought so much pride and relief just to being able to see everybody jump into action. And so we're just asking for the continued support of our city to ensure that this work is not jeopardized. At as the cost of living increases, rent increases, incremental support is vital to ensuring that we are there for the people that we serve and who depend on us. And so I just thank you all for your time. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. [10:47:27 AM] >> Thank you. >> Thank you, thank you for being here with us today. Okay, colleagues, we're moving on to item number four. I want to welcome Adrian Sturrup, director of Austin public health, for a discussion on the measles health alert memo from February 10th, 2025. And as she makes her way to the podium, just want to appreciate city staff. This is a new structure for our committee agenda format to have updates or briefings and really just a check in on memos that get sent to us and follow up to items that council has passed. So I appreciate you all making yourself available on this very timely topic. We know that there's been an outbreak in Texas, in west Texas in particular around measles. And so we wanted to bring in our public health professionals. Welcome to our doctor walks for being here. And we I'll turn it over to you. >> Thank you. Council member I will turn it over to doctor desmar Walkes, who is our local [10:48:27 AM] desmar Walkes, who is our local health authority for austin-travis county and the medical director of Austin public health. And she will give an update about the current case count in Travis county and in surrounding areas. And then we can take questions about specific operations that are happening as we speak. >> Thank you, director Sturrup, and good morning, members of council. Thank you for having us. As you are aware, we have an outbreak in west Texas in six counties that now, as of yesterday, comprises 159 cases of confirmed measles. There have been 22 hospitalizations and one death. And we at Austin public health have advanced from a level three to a level two state of readiness. We've activated our departmental operations center. We've begun to we've continued to reach out to [10:49:31 AM] continued to reach out to stakeholder groups to give information about measles. Measles is highly contagious, more so than covid. It has the ability to infect nine out of ten unvaccinated people. When there's someone who has measles in the vicinity of others that are unvaccinated, and it lingers in the air and on surfaces for two hours after the person who's infected has left the room. So it is highly contagious. We have had up until 2000, as of 2000, we declared measles as been having been eradicated in this country and as our vaccine coverage declined over time, we've seen increases in the numbers of cases in austin-travis county. We've in our kindergarten age group had have had a drop down to 90% [10:50:32 AM] have had a drop down to 90% overall. And in some schools it's less than 90%. And modeling has shown that when vaccine coverage goes below 90%, there's a 51% risk of an outbreak in that school. And so we are actively promoting vaccinations across the city through press releases, social media and conversations with providers, pharmacies and not information that's being disseminated to the public at large. We're posting fliers in libraries and other facilities across the city, and we've shared information with our spring festival organizers to let them know about to have them. Let the people that will be coming to visit our city, that they should go ahead and [10:51:33 AM] that they should go ahead and get protected and be up to date on their vaccination. With two doses of the current mmr vaccine on board, there's 97% protection against developing measles. Thank you. >> Thank you. And how you know, what I hear from the community is from folks who either can't find their vaccination record or their parents are no longer around. So they can't they don't know if they've had both of the shots. What's the best method for us to have that protection or what do we say to those individuals? >> We're advising people to contact either their health care provider or the pharmacist that they see in their pharmacies to discuss whether they are eligible and should have another a shot if they've had two shots. In 1989, the advisory council on [10:52:35 AM] In 1989, the advisory council on immunization practices at the CDC started to recommend that we received two doses of vaccine. So people that are born before 1980 9th may need a not a booster, but that second shot. And then there are other nuances, such as those that are born before 1957, have been assumed to have had measles, and that confers protection to them. And then others who received the vaccine that was not active during the 1963 1967 time frame may also need to have two shots of the current vaccine that's available. We do not have an outbreak here in our jurisdiction. We've had one case of travel related measles that occurred in a child, an infant [10:53:36 AM] occurred in a child, an infant who was not vaccinated, who traveled overseas. And so at this point, we do not have an outbreak in austin-travis county, but we are actively trying to get people protected. >> Thank you. Such important information. Council member qadri. Yeah. >> I think one of the questions the mayor pro tem was asking, and maybe it was answered, but it's that if you aren't aware of what vaccines you got as a child, and I think you said that you could go to either your your physician or you could go elsewhere. But I was looking online and there's a track two, which is the Texas immunization registry. You could also go there. You know, you might not be aware of what what vaccines you got as a, as a kid. I don't know, maybe you don't talk to your parents so you can't ask them. I don't know, but but if you go there, you could also see the. >> There's a nuance with m-track after you turn 21, if you don't go in and actively consent for those records to be maintained on that on that site, they do [10:54:38 AM] on that on that site, they do not remain there. And so the conversation with the provider, either a health care provider, a physician nurse practitioner or pharmacist will help you sort through those details. And because of those little nuances and complexity of the situation, that conversation will go a long way. >> Great. Well, I appreciate that insight. And then I just had a I just had one more question. You already kind of highlighted one of the questions I was going to ask, which is that we have seen a drop in vaccination rates in the past few years, and there was an article in Kut that showed that in 23, 24, in school year 2324, the vaccination rate for kindergartners was 83.67%. But in which is a drop from the year 2020 when it was 96%. So that's obviously alarming. But my question was, and I don't know if you guys have the data, but if the data is there about which high risk populations in Austin have the highest percentages of unvaccinated individuals. And [10:55:40 AM] unvaccinated individuals. And then my second question, which is kind of going off of that is, is does the city have a like a database or access to, I guess, vaccination, vaccination rates among specific schools, daycares, senior living facilities. >> So the department of state health services has vaccine coverage for schools that's listed on their website. There's no particular group that has more. Or less coverage. It's pretty much across the board. We're seeing children that are not up to date. And so for that reason, this message is going out to all of our community. I was there another part of your question that I missed? >> Yes. Sorry, I'm not on just if we had any data available, if we could, you know, buy. >> There's no there's no data. [10:56:40 AM] >> There's no there's no data. Sorry. I remember you for the long term care facilities. No. >> Or like daycares or anything of that sort. >> No. The only data that we have that's published publicly is the data that's on the department of state health website, and that's for kindergartners and seventh graders. >> Got it. Thank you. >> But an important note there, councilmember qadri, is the just another rationale why we need to strengthen our public health infrastructure and having these systems in place where they are easily accessible, and the importance of that. Thank you so much for councilmember Velasquez. >> Yes. Thank you. Thank you all so much for being here. Do do we know and I don't I don't know if that was answered in councilmember zo qadri question, but do we know what percentage of kids in Travis county are vaccinated for the measles? >> Specifically that we have are the ones that are in the department of state health services website. And that's the for the kindergartners and. [10:57:41 AM] for the kindergartners and. >> The. >> Seventh graders? Yes. And I did want to mention that we've developed a tool in partnership with the UT modeling consortium that will soon be publicly available. It's now being looked at by our school officials that will allow them to look at their vaccine coverage in their schools, so that they can use that as a way of doing risk communication to parents so that they'll have some awareness of why it's important for their child to be vaccinated. >> And thank you for that. And my second question is, do we know what school districts in Travis county require or if they require measles vaccinations? >> The state of Texas has a law that requires that childhood immunizations be obtained by children who are attending schools. And so that's a law at this point. [10:58:41 AM] this point. >> Okay. So okay. Perfect. Thanks. What I needed thank you. >> Yes. Thank you. I believe parents can opt out for personal or religious beliefs as well. And last but not least, I'm glad you mentioned the if you were born before 1989, because I had some blood work done last year and it came out that I was didn't have the full immunity on on measles. So I got my shot last year. I feel good, good on that. Anything else colleagues. All right. Thank you so much. We appreciate the update. Colleagues. We're now on our last item. This is a discussion on any future items. I would like to propose a question. In preparation for April, we are set to receive a report back on the resolution related to investments in our homelessness response system. I'd like to propose a special called meeting with the audit and finance committee meeting for mid April. My question to our fellow committee here is should we cancel our regular April [10:59:43 AM] cancel our regular April committee meeting, or should we keep it as scheduled April 2nd. Now, as I'm reading through this, I believe we will have to have this given the interviews that we'll need to do for sobering center, and perhaps we'll have the update from zo on the bond priorities by then. Okay. And then a few topics that are still in consideration for our public health committee is a report back on council member Ryan alter's resolution regarding a multi-year plan for the city city's living wage for, in specific to future solicitations of social services. Any other additional topics for committee consideration that any member of the committee would like to propose? Okay. All right. Well, thank you everyone for your participation and contributions to today's meeting. If there's no further business, I will adjourn this meeting at 11:00 a M. Thank you.