The prior ordinance talked about the grace period including any extension that the board granted. Counsel  thought it would be simpler to simply expressly state that the grace period would be extended for tenants who could not pay their rent in April and May, and so has provided an updated version of the draft ordinance 2020-16.  It's been included on the website as Ordinance 2020-16 revised.

The Board ACCEPTED the revised draft; SET the expiration date of its protections to July 15, 2020; and ADOPTED Urgency Ordinance 2020-16.

Speakers:  Mark Chaucey; Denise Persha.

Anna Roth, Health Services Director, joined the meeting via video link from the Emergency Operations Center. She reported that the branch has been as its busiest these last two weeks with 2300 calls into the call center and 1049 requests for equipment and supplies.

Distributed supplies in those two weeks include 99,700 masks, 2350 goggles and face shields, 15,700 gloves, 9500 gowns, and 48,600 swabs and test kits, some of the test kits for the state lab in Richmond. In total so far, the County has distributed ove 1, 343,000 masks, 43,000 gowns, 470,000 gloves, 20, 000 face shields, 153,00 bottle of hand sanitizer (over 1100 gallons) and 61,000 swabs and test kits. Supplies have been given to health care providers, first responders and essential workers.  The call center remains open 7 days a week, having received over 11,800 calls. Most calls are about the health order.

Dr. Chris Farnitano, Public Health Officer, said that Remdesivir is the only FDA approved drug to treat Covid-19. The virus has not had any effective treatment and a vaccine is still far off. One large randomized controlled trial showed some benefit from Remdesivir, shortening the treatment time by 3 days. It is an intravenous drug and in very short supply with a worldwide pandemic taking place. The State of California is distributing its supply on a weekly basis over the next six weeks to county health departments through the Mohawk program, a medical coordination program, and asking them to distribute to local hospitals. The supply is distributed based on medical details ; the southern counties are receiving a larger proportion. Contra Costa’s first allotment came last week of 105 doses, enough to treat 17 individuals. It is expected that future allotments will be less doses; this weeks allotment was for 6 people. The Health Department worked with the partner hospitals across the counties and developed a formula to distribute the medication. Each hospital has an independent decision-making committee to help decide which patients receive the drug using FDA and state treatment criteria. The drug is distributed on the day it is received. All hospitals that do not need the drug immediately are encouraged to share with other facilities, to maximize the number of patients who could benefit.

At the end of April, The Bay Area Health Officers issued a a document stating that decisions on opening up the shelter in place orders would be based on progress towards five key indicators: number of cases, hospitalizations, deaths, testing availability, and a contact tracing program.

There are currently 1336 diagnosed cases in Contra Costa County, reflecting 255 new cases in the last two weeks, an average of 26 per day. Diagnosis of new cases may in part be a result of increased testing. Hospitalization rates continue to improve. The County has had a total of 37 deaths, including one individual in their 30’s. Testing has accelerated to 95 tests per 100,000 residents with a goal of 200 tests per 100,000 residents. Our percentage of individuals testing positive has declined to 2.4% from 2.7% two weeks ago. The contact tracing program is rolling out with over 70 staff doing case contact and more personnel coming on board this week. Two of the eight hospitals are now certified that they have or can acquire a 30 day supply of PPE through their normal vendor channels, a great improvement.

In changes to the health order, on May 13^th we updated our mass quarantine and isolation orders to reflect current science and a ten day infectious period in which people need to quarantine or to isolate for once they test positive.

On May 15^th, the shelter in place order was updated to allow for vehicle based gatherings; on May 18^th (effective May 19^th) updates were issued to open up curbside retail, manufacturing, and some health facilities. Many laboratories and medical and dental offices are reopening and encouraging their patients to come back for routine medical care that had been deferred during late March and April. 

The state has been opening up several areas under the state order that are further than the current local order allows such as local retail, religious gatherings an protests of less than 100 people, office based businesses, home care services like housekeeping, and childcare for those outside the essential workforce. The county is working closely with its partners across the Bay Area to work in concert to safely reopen this region.

Ms. Roth said the Health Department is working with several agencies to establish cooling centers for residents to go to during heat wave events.

County Administrator

The County Administrators Office continues to meet with labor representatives as well as department heads. The goal is to have all county employees working by June 1^st. Some employees have been at home unable to work for a variety of reasons. 

The large number of state and federal proposals such as the CARES Act and the new HEROES Act, have caused quite a bit of confusion everywhere. Unfortunately the HEROES Act is not anticipated to be successful. It is not yet known if the Governor’s May Revise fo the budget will be successful in adoption. The May Revise contains approximately $10 million for the Contra Costa area specifically to meet Covid-19 expendittures, of which part would be available for the cities. The SMART Act if adopted contains funding specifically for the cities. The County has retained the firm of Earnst & Young to assist in obtaining grant money from FEMA and other agencies, in the maximum allowable amount. The Federal CARES Act has expanded some uses for those funds, such as addressing the homeless.  

The County will be entering a soft hiring freeze as of June 1, 2020 in order to have as few layoffs as possible. Our goal, as it was during the recession of 2008 is to have as few layoffs as is possible. Economic experts who have worked with the county previously are predicting as short recession, with recovery beginning within several months.

It is expected the State will have some type of budget out by June 15, 2020 at which time most of the planning will be possible. The goal is to have county budget hearings in August., with budget approval hopefully in September to meet the October 2, 2020 deadline.

Mr. Twa expects to return to the Board sometime in January to address an necessary revisions in accordance with what revenue is available and costs incurred. The goal is to get to 2021 with the least amount of pain possible.