Commissioners meet via teleconference to approve Covid-19 Emergency Executive Committee recommendations
Tue, 04/07/2020 - 1:04pm
admin
By:
Karen Edelbach
When the Clearwater County Board of Commissioners met on March 31st, it was with significant differences from previous meetings due to the Corona Virus concerns in the County. Board Chairman Neal Illies and Commissioner Mark Titera were present in the Board room, along with County Auditor-Treasurer Allen Paulson. The remaining three commissioners, John Nelson, Dean Newland and Mark Larson were present using a conference call system, each announcing their name and presence at the meeting.
Covid-19 updates dated March 23, 25, and 26, 2020 from the Emergency Executive Committee were distributed showing motions passed by the committee.
The Committee recommended adding Sheriff Darin Halverson as a voting member of the committee, to which all Commissioners were in favor. A motion was made and approved to do so.
Summary of the Updates:
Incident Command: The Sheriff is the commander and public information officer. Sheriff Darin Halverson has a radio spot scheduled. Nursing Director Marissa Hetlund has a chart of a plan for a pandemic.
The Sheriff's Office and other law enforcement offices are asking the Governor to give a 48-72 hour notice if he orders Shelter in Place in Minnesota.
Screening and Quarantine Procedures: If anyone is sick, they should stay home until fever free for 24 hours. At this time, the period for which employees must quarantine if they have been in an area that is infected is 14 days, which may change.
Staff and anyone who needs to enter the county buildings are required to fill out and sign a screening questionnaire before entering. This form is on the intranet site. Employees may use sick leave if required to quarantine. Maintenance will do regular disinfecting in the entrance area of the courthouse.
Positive Test Steps: Marissa has a list of steps that would need to be taken if someone tests positive in Clearwater County. These steps would include reporting to Department of Health and tracing where and whom the person has been around.
Supplies: Nursing Services purchased 60 masks from Community Oil. Digikey is shipping medical supplies and putting other business on hold. Requests are being made to B & M and Team Industries for any extra masks since they are both closed now.
Marissa said that people may be using masks unnecessarily and would like to see them saved for Hospital staff and people who need to enter into people's homes. Hand sanitizers, gowns, alcohol wipes and probes for thermometers are on order, but it is not known how long it will take to get them.
Marissa is planning to apply for a grant for health agencies to help with these costs.
Essential Employees: Al Paulson said all County employees are considered essential. A motion was made and passed stating that all County employees are considered essential.
Department Heads have the authority to temporarily adjust their staff levels to ensure continuity of operations.
VPN Access/Working Remotely: Virtual Private Network (VPN) access and working remotely was discussed with IT Director Stuart Lien. Nine extra laptops are updated and ready to use. Department Heads will decide who can work from home and give clear direction how to go about this. His department will make sure everything is secure with accessing the network remotely. Normal working hours will be available to help people who are working remotely.
Policy Manual: A policy manual to address Covid-19 issues and post them on the intranet site. At the beginning of the policy it states, "This is a fluid situation and subject to change."
Family First Response Act: Al Paulson informed the Committee that effective April 2, 2020, the Federal Government passed that employees taking time off for Covid-19 will get 80 hours of sick leave given to them for this purpose. Private businesses will be reimbursed, the Counties will not.
He stated that employees will have to use their own sick leave or vacation for this order. The 80 hours under the Family First Response Act is only for employees required to quarantine.
Probation Procedures: Sara Ubel discussed these. Enhanced probationers will be permitted to see their probation agent at this time, and will go through a screening process before meeting with their agent.
Court Procedures: Vern Wittenburg, Al Rogalla and Candace Coulter discussed court procedures. They will be similar to probation procedures including screening at the door and escorting up to the courtroom.
Union Negotiations for March 27 were cancelled.
Board Chair called for a motion to accept the committee minutes and all motions the committee had made as if the Board had made them. A motion was made by Commissioner Mark Titera and seconded by Commissioner Dean Newland to that effect, and was passed unanimously by the commissioners.
Highway Department: Dan Sauvé said his department is between seasons right now. There is work to do but wants to keep all of the operators from being at work at the same time. It was suggested that half of the workers take a week off, then the other half take the next week off so they will not all be at work at the same time.
Assessor Jamie Freeman said boards are coming up and that most counties are setting up virtual boards. IT Department will use conference calling for it.
In the future, County Board meetings may be done with all present via the conference call system, and having a roll call at the beginning.