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BCC Minutes 03/27/2020 E (Covid-19)March 27, 2020 Page 1 TRANSCRIPT OF THE MEETING OF THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS Naples, Florida, March 27, 2020 LET IT BE REMEMBERED, that the Board of County Commissioners, in and for the County of Collier, and also acting as the Board of Zoning Appeals and as the governing board(s) of such special districts as have been created according to law and having conducted business herein, met on this date at 1:00 p.m., in EMERGENCY SESSION in Building "F" of the Government Complex, East Naples, Florida, with the following members present: CHAIRMAN: Burt L. Saunders (via speakerphone) Andy Solis William L. McDaniel, Jr. Donna Fiala (via speakerphone) Penny Taylor ALSO PRESENT: Leo Ochs, County Manager Nick Casalanguida, Deputy County Manager Jeffrey A. Klatzkow, County Attorney Crystal K. Kinzel, Clerk of the Circuit Court & Comptroller Troy Miller, Communications & Customer Relations Page 1 March 27, 2020 COLLIER COUNTY Board of County Commissioners Community Redevelopment Agency Board (CRAB) Airport Authority Emergency Special Meeting to Discuss Responses to COVID-19 and Consider Declaration of Local State of Emergency AGENDA Board of County Commission Chambers Collier County Government Center 3299 Tamiami Trail East, 3rd Floor Naples, FL 34112 March 27, 2020 1:00 P.M. Commissioner Burt Saunders, District 3 – Chair Commissioner Andy Solis, District 2 – Vice-Chair Commissioner Donna Fiala, District 1: CRAB Co-Chair Commissioner Penny Taylor, District 4 Commissioner William L. McDaniel, Jr., District 5; CRAB Co-Chair NOTICE: ALL PERSONS WISHING TO SPEAK ON AGENDA ITEMS MUST REGISTER PRIOR TO PRESENTATION OF THE AGENDA ITEM TO BE ADDRESSED. ALL REGISTERED SPEAKERS WILL RECEIVE UP TO THREE (3) MINUTES UNLESS THE TIME IS ADJUSTED BY THE CHAIRMAN. REQUESTS TO PETITION THE BOARD ON SUBJECTS WHICH ARE NOT ON THIS AGENDA MUST BE SUBMITTED IN WRITING WITH EXPLANATION TO THE COUNTY MANAGER AT LEAST 13 DAYS PRIOR TO THE DATE OF THE MEETING AND WILL BE HEARD UNDER “PUBLIC PETITIONS.” PUBLIC PETITIONS ARE LIMITED TO THE PRESENTER, WITH A Page 2 March 27, 2020 MAXIMUM TIME OF TEN MINUTES. ANY PERSON WHO DECIDES TO APPEAL A DECISION OF THIS BOARD WILL NEED A RECORD OF THE PROCEEDING PERTAINING THERETO, AND THEREFORE MAY NEED TO ENSURE THAT A VERBATIM RECORD OF THE PROCEEDINGS IS MADE, WHICH RECORD INCLUDES THE TESTIMONY AND EVIDENCE UPON WHICH THE APPEAL IS TO BE BASED. COLLIER COUNTY ORDINANCE NO. 2003-53 AS AMENDED BY ORDINANCE 2004-05 AND 2007-24, REQUIRES THAT ALL LOBBYISTS SHALL, BEFORE ENGAGING IN ANY LOBBYING ACTIVITIES (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO, ADDRESSING THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS), REGISTER WITH THE CLERK TO THE BOARD AT THE BOARD MINUTES AND RECORDS DEPARTMENT. IF YOU ARE A PERSON WITH A DISABILITY WHO NEEDS ANY ACCOMMODATION IN ORDER TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS PROCEEDING, YOU ARE ENTITLED, AT NO COST TO YOU, THE PROVISION OF CERTAIN ASSISTANCE. PLEASE CONTACT THE COLLIER COUNTY FACILITIES MANAGEMENT DIVISION LOCATED AT 3335 EAST TAMIAMI TRAIL, SUITE 1, NAPLES, FLORIDA, 34112-5356, (239) 252-8380; ASSISTED LISTENING DEVICES FOR THE HEARING IMPAIRED ARE AVAILABLE IN THE FACILITIES MANAGEMENT DIVISION. LUNCH RECESS SCHEDULED FOR 12:00 NOON TO 1:00 P.M. 1. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE A. Commissioner McDaniel gave the invocation 2. BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS A. Update and Discussion on Responses to COVID-19 (Dan Summers, Bureau of Emergency Services and Stephanie Vick, Director Collier County Health Department). (All Districts) Kathleen Marr – Presented for the Department of Health Dan Summers – Emergency Services update Paul Hiltz – President & CEO of NCH update, 300 beds available, drive-up testing will resume on Monday, March 30, 2020 Page 3 March 27, 2020 Dr. Zubin Pachori – Premier Patient Partner at NCH & Physicians Regional asks to pass this resolution to prevent deaths Dr. Cesar DeLeon – Collier County Medical Society is in favor of a ‘stay at home” order (membership of 650 doctors) Dr. Monica Woodward – wants the BCC to say no to the resolution Sheriff Rambosk – Update; FWC will close Keewaydin Island; anyone violating orders there is a $500 fine and up to 60 days in jail Public Comment: Patricia Drow – Vote no on this order and use common sense Crystal Gabbard – Right to life Alfie Oaks – Not in favor of the order Steve Bracci – Governmental Limits of Authority Sam Saad III – Reconsider by adding Real Estate businesses to the order Chris Riching – Section 8, I – Appliance repair Lauren Melo – NABOR not in favor of the order Patrick Dearborn – Reserves his right to speak Rep. Byron Donalds – The order not constitutionally sound Tom Conroy – Not in favor of the order Keith Flaugh – Not in favor of the order Rich Yovanovich – Business needs to go on in a safe way Bob Rommel – Not in favor of the order Thomas Turner – Not in favor of the order Jacob Winge – Balance the need for the medical community as well as the economic community Carolyn Johnson – Goodwill Industries offering to help with distribution and keep them as an essential service Terri Caspersen – Medical needs for the public Dean Sarns – Medical Equipment Derek Verderamo – First Pawn and Pine Ridge Pawn Section 8, G John Dalia – Pawn Ridge Pawn Jose Nunez – Not in favor of the order, Pawn Shops are essential services Eric Solomon – First Pawn Tom Henning – Not in favor of the order and allow the governor to decide Antonia Demornay – Suspend mortgage and rent payments for those employees out of work B. Recommendation to Consider Declaring a Local State of Emergency for Collier County. (All Districts) Motion to do away with any Stay at home order and follow the CDC & Page 4 March 27, 2020 Governor’s guidelines - Approved 5/0 3. ADJOURN - Consensus Inquiries concerning changes to the Board’s Agenda should be made to the County Manager’s Office at 252-8383. March 27, 2020 Page 2 MR. OCHS: It's time to call the meeting to order, sir. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right, Mr. Ochs and members of the Commission. The emergency meeting will please come to order. We're going to start off as we normally do with the pledge. Before we do that, Mr. Solis, you're in the room there and you're vice chair, and I think when we get to the public hearing part of this, I want to hand the gavel over to you to conduct the public hearing. Then once you close the public hearing, I will retrieve the gravel. But I think your being in the room will make the public aspect of this go much, much more smoothly than if I tried to it do from the phone. Is that acceptable to you? COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Absolutely. Thank you. Be glad to. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. MR. OCHS: Mr. Chairman, just so you know, we have three members of the Commission physically present in the room. Commissioner Solis, Commissioner McDaniel, Commissioner Taylor, and I believe Commissioner Fiala has joined by telephone; is that correct, Commissioner? COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yes. Okay. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Okay. So we have all five of us present. Then let's start off, Commissioner McDaniel, if you're willing to do a prayer, I think that would be most appropriate under the circumstances, and then lead us in the pledge. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: If you'd all bow your heads with me, please. Heavenly Father, we ask for your blessings upon our proceedings. Father, we ask for you to continue to remind us that it is with your guidance that we will maintain humility, that you have a greater plan for us, and that with your guidance we will be managing March 27, 2020 Page 3 through these circumstances as a humanity. Father, we ask us -- we ask that you continue to remind us to be thankful for the many blessings that you bestow upon us every single day. And, as always, Father, please keep close our first responders, our military, and the people who are on the fight -- on the front lines fighting this invisible enemy. And in Thy name I pray. Amen. With me, ladies and gentlemen. (The Pledge of Allegiance was recited in unison.) CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Thank you very much, Commissioner McDaniel. There are two items on our agenda, and it's very important that we continue to update the public on things that are happening, and so we've asked Dan Summers to provide a report, and Kathleen Marr, who is the preparedness coordinator for the Department of Health, will be assisting and making comments on behalf of the Department of Health. And we do have Ms. Vick, Stacey [sic] Vick on the phone in case there's anything that we need to ask of her as well. So with that, I'll turn this over to you, Mr. Ochs, to coordinate the presentation of our staff and the Department of Health. MR. OCHS: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'll move directly to Mr. Summers to begin the briefing. MR. SUMMERS: Commissioners, good afternoon. For the record, Dan Summers, Director of Collier County Bureau of Emergency Services and Emergency Management. As we have in our routine, I'll, today, pass this over to Kathleen Marr who manages our emergency preparedness and speaking for Department of Health Collier, and speaking with and in coordination with Administrator Vick. So, Kathleen. MS. MARR: Good afternoon. Kathleen Marr for Department of Health Collier. March 27, 2020 Page 4 I'm just going to go ahead and give a situation update on our current status in Collier. It's a little bit different than the slide. I can tell you that currently as of 12:00 p.m., we have 81 cases in Collier County; 71 of those are current residents, and 10 are nonresidents. We have 29 travel related, 31 are definitely community acquired, and 25 still to be determined. In that age group, it extends anywhere from age 17 to 93 with the average age being 56. The total Florida resident cases are 2,765 -- excuse me. Thirty-five are total Florida deaths documented. In the United States we're at 86,012 with total deaths at 1,301. Obviously, our current strategy is to do the best we can to slow the spread of this particular virus in our community. We are actively testing individuals who are symptomatic who meet the high-exposure criteria on DOH and, obviously, we're making recommendations for social distancing. Other social behavior that we are actually strongly encouraging is what we're doing today in this room, is having people at least separate by six feet. We determine close contact as within six feet for more than 30 minutes. We want people not to meet in groups greater than 10 in a closed space in meetings such as this. Frequent washing of hands, and we mean really washing your hands, the top of your hands, in between the fingers and also thumbs. This particular virus does not like soap. That's one of the simplest things that every resident in this county can do. If soap and water is not available, hand sanitizer at least 60 percent alcohol. We want to make sure you cover your coughs and sneeze. If that's now -- if you do not have available tissue there, go ahead and cough into your sleeve. This virus dies faster on fabric versus hard surfaces. But if you cough or sneeze, it can land on a hard surface, and it can last there for days. So cleaning your space is important, too. March 27, 2020 Page 5 I saw people bumping elbows today. Nobody was shaking hands, and I applaud you all for that. Most-at-risk individuals of great concern, especially for Collier County with our elderly population, individuals over age 65 with what we call comorbidities, so if you have any cardiac disease, lung disease, if you are immunocompromised, particularly those under treatment for cancer. We plan to continue testing with the help of our local partners and the hospitals that are testing and also at our community center, the Healthcare Network of Southwest Florida. We are trying to test as many people as we can. Obviously, we have significant outreach on the education component. Our PIO officer has been actually submitting reports twice a day with information that's on the State of Florida DOH website. Significant challenges are -- for us in this county is personal protective equipment. We are fortunate to have some local caches. We've been able to support the first responder and receiver community and also our own public health first responders, which are our DOH staff, which are working seven days a week right now. Also, we are working with referrals from the medical community to improve testing that might be available at the hospital testing sites. Our contact investigation continues. Our Department of Epidemiology is working seven days a week in order to do what we call contact tracing. Each person must be actually interviewed to determine who they had close contact with, and that can take hours and hours to complete that. We are also augmenting that department with additional staff. We have a local phone bank that is staffed by registered nurses and our health educators helping to screen and also to take many, many calls from the worried well. March 27, 2020 Page 6 Our Emergency Support Function 8, which is health and medical for the county, is staffed by Department of Health Monday through -- I'm sorry. Now it's seven days a week from 8:00 to 5:00. Obviously, there is significant fear in the community that we're trying to mitigate with education and also testing when we have the available equipment. We did receive a shipment of swabs this weekend, and our testing has increased. We are recommending isolation in certain cases aside from social distancing. The CDC does have this site that we have linked to on our FloridaCOVID19.gov site. If you do have symptoms, that is a good site to go to and can help you make a decision on what you should do. That's it for me. Dan? CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: And let me interrupt for just a quick second as Dan Summers is prepared. I understand that there may be someone, potentially Paul Hiltz, from Naples Community Hospital there to present some evidence and some concerns. And so if there's a representative of NCH or any of the -- you know, any other hospital, Physicians Regional, if they could come forward and be part of the early presentation. We want to certainly get those folks back to their respective facilities. So as Dan is making his presentation, if there's anyone that is going to be making a presentation on behalf of the Medical Society, on behalf of Physicians Regional, or on behalf of NCH, please come forward to be part of the presentation; of course, maintaining your 6-foot separation. Thank you. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: This is Dr. Susan -- MR. OCHS: Yes, sir. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: That's fine. March 27, 2020 Page 7 MR. OCHS: After the briefing, as I understand it. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: After the briefing, yeah. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And I will send a text to Paul to find out if he's coming himself as well. MR. OCHS: Dan? MR. SUMMERS: Commissioners, thank you. Just a quick reminder that we've been on this as well from day one, as well as the Florida Division of Emergency Management, our state director. They are doing everything humanly possible with bulk buying purchases. They, too, are struggling a little bit in the marketplace, as you would expect, between areas that CDC and FEMA are attempting to addressing -- or attempting to address, rather, with their supply cache. We are working with them. We have received a few small partial orders, and we were fortunate to have resources here internally that have bought us some much-needed time. There is a tremendous effort going on around the clock in Orlando. The National Guard is typically used in some cases to haul this equipment. So we just want to let you know that their mission is logistics related. There's no one carrying sidearms or anything along those lines whatsoever. The National Guard is also augmenting some of the screening done at the airports, again, with their medical personnel from the National Guard working with Florida Department of Health. So that's the component associated with the Military support. We want to remind you as well that another tool in our toolbox is mass notification resources, and we're using those. We will let you know, if and when we use those, if any additional information needs to go out. But we do have that as well as our social media outlets, our press outlets, et cetera. The ongoing effort for PPE has been immense. We continue to March 27, 2020 Page 8 look in the marketplace now. We continue to work with our state partners. The community has done an excellent job of supporting our hospitals, and we thank the community for that. Without a doubt, I think as these PPE issues become challenging, the state and the feds are saying, hey, look, you may have to improvise. And I know a lot of volunteers around the community have improvised with some alternatives to the conventional masking and surgical masks and those type of things, and that's still not off the table as we work to address this particular demand. So a lot of agencies supporting the hospitals. That's a good thing. And we're also working with a number of private-sector partners to see what else might be in inventory outside of what FEMA, the state, and the national stockpile are attempting to provide. Again, a great news story with what's gone on at Collier schools with the food service. They were able to expand that service and even do some mobile drop-offs in some of our community locations that were transportation impaired. They've done a great job. They're keeping great visibility. They're also passing out -- we put 6,000 flyers in their hands in order to use the lunch pickup location as another location to provide emergency information for the families. So a great job going on there and, certainly, along with their online education efforts as well. I'm not going to read to you the recap. We went over this the other day, the general operations in terms of things that were open and closed. Local states of emergency, we have posted that on websites. That's been repeatedly shared around the community as well with most of our operations being limited, as you are well aware. Just a couple of great partnership efforts continuing of an intensive blitz especially in the Immokalee community with information, working lots of strategies. We have daily calls with the March 27, 2020 Page 9 partners. Not everybody is happy about the -- you know, do we have an overnight success story there, an overnight plan? It is certainly evolving, but we have had all sites working really, really hard in communicating and listening and explaining to partners preventative health measures in Immokalee, and I think that's working really well. Community Foundation, the Healthcare Coalitions have provided hand sanitizing kits in Immokalee. And we continue to partner with the Sheriff and our Road and Bridge Department for message boards. That's going very well, and we continue to look at additional sources for managing information re -- capability, rather, in Immokalee. I'll stop right here with the important phone numbers are reposted again. Kathleen's team is certainly working this incredibly hard, and we are -- I don't want to say we're steady state. We're steady state in an incredible pace right now to make sure that, logistically, we're supporting the community with the resources that we can get as single-point ordering for the county. We're managing that pretty well. I've got the supplies and the commitment. I have no unmet needs at the given -- at this present time, and we're working very hard to support the community. We have supported 58 agencies in Collier County with some level of supplies, both internal from public health and internal from emergency management to the tune of around 40-some thousand masks have been distributed by our office in the joint efforts with Department of Health. And I say "our office." We're a team. We work down the hall from each other, so we're closely embedded in partnership and working together. So I'll stop right there, Mr. Ochs. Thank you. MR. OCHS: Thank you. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Before we get to County March 27, 2020 Page 10 Commission comments or questions concerning that presentation, is there anyone from one of the health providers that has come forward? MR. MILLER: Chairman Saunders, yes. Paul Hiltz has come in the room, and I have a slip from him. I think you wanted to hear from him. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Yes. And I want to make sure that the medical providers have whatever time they need to deal with what they want to present. So if it takes more than three minutes, we're not going to cut those folks off. That's part of our presentation on the current situation. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: And, Mr. Chairman, it's Andy Solis. Also, I just want to make sure that Dr. Deleon is here from the Medical Society as well, just to make sure he's in there. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Yes. MR. MILLER: Yeah. I don't know that we have a slip from him, but we were going to call him up anyway. I do have one other slip. I'm told it's a Dr. Monica Woodward. Yeah. And I will check for Mr. Deleon, sir. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Okay. MR. MILLER: And Dr. Pachori is also in the hall. So we'll make sure I have a slip for him as well, sir. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Yeah. Let's get some of those folks, and then we'll get them back to their medical practices. MR. HILTZ: Thank you, Commissioners, and thank you for the invitation. My name is Paul Hiltz. I'm the CEO of NCH. And I wanted to just give a quick update on our status as it relates to coronavirus. So far we've treated 20 patients since the outbreak. We have discharged four from the Emergency Department and four from our in-patient hospital all to home to self-isolate as they continue to recover. We have 12 currently in the hospital. March 27, 2020 Page 11 Our current status of supplies, our biggest need right now, we think, is going to be for widespread community testing. The test kits have been very difficult to get. The supply of those has been very uneven, so we've been judicious in how we do community screenings. So far we've not run out of test kits, but the supply is low. Our PPE equipment, again, we're being very judicious in terms of how we use that, but our biggest concern is protection of the physicians and the staff taking care of these patients. We're continuing to get supplies in PPE donations and what we're purchasing. I've been incredibly impressed by this community in terms of the amount of people that have stepped up to donate masks, gloves, and gowns, and so that's been very heartwarming. The community has also rallied around the caregivers with lunches and all kinds of donations, and it's been something to really see. We have been advocating all along for social distancing, and we continue to emphasize social distancing, hand washing, all the things we just heard about here. And, as I said, we're interested in taking care of the community and, at the same time, keeping our caregivers safe. Be glad to answer any questions if anybody has any. I know there's a few doctors out here that would more -- have a little bit more detailed knowledge. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Let's see if there are any questions for Paul Hiltz, and then that way we can send you on your way back to the hospital. Commissioner Fiala, do you have any questions of Paul Hiltz? COMMISSIONER FIALA: No, no, I don't. Thank you. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Solis. COMMISSIONER FIALA: I did want to ask, though, Mr. Hiltz was saying something about we are really in need of masks and March 27, 2020 Page 12 things. Didn't we just give a bunch of them, 150 or something like that, to Lee County? CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Mr. Ochs? COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: They were test kits. MR. OCHS: My information is those were test kits, Commissioner Fiala, not masks or gowns. I'm seeing a confirming nod from our Department of Health officials. COMMISSIONER FIALA: Okay. Well, I'm sure if we did, it was for good reason. But I just wanted to ask about it. MR. OCHS: No, we didn't. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Solis, do you have any questions for Mr. Hiltz? COMMISSIONER SOLIS: I do. I think one of the toughest -- well, I think the issue, at least for me, is -- in making a decision on what we're going to do today, is getting enough information from the experts, you know, that we need to rely upon. None of us are physicians or hospital administrators -- for making the best decision that we can. Somebody had said to me today that, you know, it's an easy decision to -- it's an easy decision to overreact. Well, I don't know about the rest of you, but I don't think there's -- none of this is an easy decision either way for us. So, I mean, from the hospital administration standpoint, can you help me understand whether or not, at least in your opinion -- and I'm putting you on the spot, and I apologize, but this is where we're at. Is taking additional steps something that will lower the risk of the healthcare system not functioning if there's a spike in the infection rate and hospitalizations? I mean, this is the question for me. MR. HILTZ: Really complicated question for sure, and I know the clinical people are going to weigh it. What we've been trying to do is keep nonessential people home March 27, 2020 Page 13 away from the hospital and encourage all the prevention things that we've seen here and to do it in a way that doesn't backfire on workforce and our ability to take care of the staff. And there's all these moving pieces around that topic of how do you make sure that we can take care of our doctors, nurses, and caregivers that take care of people with all the other moving pieces around businesses either being open or closed? And that's why -- I think it would be helpful -- you'll hear from the doctors, I think, and get a little bit more detailed clinical information. But we've continued to say that we really would like to see a lot more community testing so we would know where the outbreaks are, and we are going to continue to push to try to get more and more PPE so that we're ready in case a surge happens. Right now we're okay, but we're just trying to anticipate what could -- the models are just all over the board right now. So we're, you know, preparing for the worst and hoping for the best. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Okay. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Taylor. COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Yes. And I'm sure you're familiar with Dr. Fauci's -- could you please explain what you took from what he wrote about the change in the way we're looking at this disease. MR. HILTZ: Well, I haven't seen within the last couple hours Dr. Fauci's -- and, again, these models seem to be moving a little bit right now. New York is looking at different -- what's driving these spikes in what they're calling the epicenter of this disease in New York and in New Orleans. And that's -- but I haven't seen anything in this last few hours. COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: No. It would have been earlier this week. I mean, I understand that now they've changed or relooked at again -- the CDC is looking at maybe reducing their March 27, 2020 Page 14 estimate of morbidity or mortality for this disease; is that correct? Did I read it incorrect -- did I read it correctly? You're the expert here. MR. HILTZ: Well, the mortality is the difficult thing to pinpoint, because with the limited testing, it's so hard to know. If we could test more people, we'd know what the mortality was. And that's been one of the biggest question marks to me and to a lot of us in the healthcare field is, what is the true mortality? Because we're using these statistical models right now out of Pennsylvania. That seems to be one of the models that people are -- but the -- but the projections vary wildly. And just from my narrow point of view, I'm trying to just make sure we've got everything we need in case it really takes off. COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Proactive stance? MR. HILTZ: Yes. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Correct. COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Thank you. Thank you. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner McDaniel. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes. And forgive me, Mr. Hiltz, I may have missed it, but did you say how many beds you currently have available? MR. HILTZ: We've got about 300 beds available. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Plus or minus. And, again, there's no absolutes with this. This is -- as you and I have spoken before, there's a lot of fluidity with this entire process and information streaming at us. If you would care to address, there was an article that came out about a quarantine for some of the employees of Naples Community Hospital. It was represented, I think, in the paper of 80 people. MR. HILTZ: That's around the right number. We've got some of those people back now after they went through the 14-day March 27, 2020 Page 15 self-isolation, and we're down now to around 50 employees that we've got quarantined. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And the -- and if I recall, the -- a large portion of those folks were from the first two positive cases that came to the hospital before we had all of the necessary protection procedures in place. MR. HILTZ: Right. That was early on, and we've gotten a lot better at this now with the tents outside the emergency departments and treating more people as if they are, in fact, infected. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And one last question before you go. And I'm -- with regard to the data -- and you and I have talked about with regularly -- and the necessity for mass testing. How is NCH prepared in the advent that those mass tests start to become available? Do you have the equipment, staff, and capacity, or do you, as Commissioner Saunders said, need to get to taking care of our community? MR. HILTZ: Well, I think we would love to be a part of it. I don't think NCH could be the entire solution to mass testing. But we have a process. We've got some of the personnel, and we've got some tests. But if we want to do widespread community testing, it would probably need to be a joint effort. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Very good. MR. HILTZ: And we'd love -- we're here to serve the community. We'll do whatever we can to help. And, again, I appreciate the invitation to be here and appreciate what you're doing for this community. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And thank you, sir. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: I have just a couple quick questions. In terms of ICU, intensive care units, I had a conversation with the Paul earlier today, and my understanding is that you have generally about a 70 percent occupancy with your typical ICU beds March 27, 2020 Page 16 because of just regular folks being ill, and then you have the ability to open up 54 more ICU beds, which would give you about 70 or so available ICU beds. I want to make sure that we understand that number. And then the second part of this question is in terms of ventilators. My understanding is that you are pretty well stocked with ventilators for any major illnesses that may develop. So if you could comment a little bit on ICU beds and ventilators, because I think that's critically important to folks that may come down with this. MR. HILTZ: Right. Thank you for that. So, yes, right at the present time we do have capacity in the ICU and actually have -- we've just ordered more ventilators and we had, again, some nice community members step up and have donated the money to purchase, even, some additional ventilators. And, again, we're trying to prepare for the worst. But right at the present time, we're in good shape as it relates to ICU beds and ventilators. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Okay. And I really appreciate your being here. And unless there are any other comments or questions from the Commission, I would suggest that you head on back to NCH. COMMISSIONER FIALA: Could I ask one more question? CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Sure. COMMISSIONER FIALA: I don't know if he'll have the answer, but are both hospitals testing, or is only NCH doing the testing? MR. HILTZ: We have suspended at both hospitals the testing but we will resume the drive-up testing on Monday because we got more test kits in, so... COMMISSIONER FIALA: I meant "both" meaning also Physicians Regional. Are they testing? MR. HILTZ: I don't believe they are testing. March 27, 2020 Page 17 COMMISSIONER FIALA: Okay. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: So just to clarify, Mr. Chairman, so there's no testing until Monday? MR. HILTZ: No drive-up testing. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: No drive-up testing. MR. HILTZ: Yes. So these would be what we call the worried well or people that would like a drive-up testing. We did it as a community service for free. We did 40 a day with appointment, but we were trying to -- we're trying to manage our testing -- free testing with our supply chain. As we've gotten more test kits in, we're going to open that back up for another week, and we'll continue to monitor the supply of the testing kits. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: So there's still testing going on in the hospital if somebody meets the criteria or -- MR. HILTZ: Oh, yes, yes. That's why we suspended. We wanted to make sure we had test availability for people that were truly sick and symptomatic in the hospital. COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Sorry. Mr. Chairman, with all due respect. So the drive-in testing were for folks that just were worried about whether -- they didn't have a prescription in hand? MR. HILTZ: They did have a prescription. But the term has been used, the "worried well." They had a prescription, but they weren't in a hospital. COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Okay. Very good. MR. HILTZ: So I used a term there that's maybe not that accurate, so... CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: That's fine. MR. HILTZ: But thank you. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: They had a prescription from a doctor, correct? March 27, 2020 Page 18 MR. HILTZ: They had a prescription from their doctor. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: That is still a requisite of getting a test. MR. HILTZ: Yes. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: You prequalify with your own physician or healthcare -- MR. HILTZ: And that's really, again, to manage a limited supply of testing to be prudent about what we're doing. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Correct. COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Thank you. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Thank you, Paul. MR. HILTZ: Thank you. MR. MILLER: Mr. Chairman, Troy Miller, for the record. Yeah, we have another doctor. I'm going to not say the last name right. Pachori. He's on his way in from the hallway now. Please, Doctor, right here. And for our court reporter that's doing this remotely, could you spell your first and last name, please. DR. PACHORI: Yes. First name is Zubin; that's Z-u-b-i-n. Last name is Pachori, P-a-c-h-o-r-i. MR. MILLER: Into the mic, please. MR. OCHS: Yes, sir. Please pull that microphone closer. Thank you. DR. PACHORI: So thank you for having me on. I appreciate it. I actually rounded this morning; saw patients in the hospital. Came here to give my viewpoint from the front line, so to speak, of dealing with this disease. Zubin Pachori. I'm Managing Partner for Premiere Inpatient Partners. We are a hospital medicine group that provides inpatient care for patients at NCH and at Physicians Regional, so at all four hospitals in the county. March 27, 2020 Page 19 We are the ones who will take the patients when they come into the ER, and the ER physician says, hey, look, this patient is sick enough to be admitted to the hospital. So docs, myself, are the ones who get called to take care of these patients, and we take care of them with the rest of our hospital team, our ICU docs, our specialists, and our fantastic nurses and techs. I've been reading in the community about a lot of falsehoods that are commonplace. I hear them from my own family. I hear them from my own friends and neighbors. And I'm trying to educate them about what little we do know about the corona/SARS virus two, COVID-19, whatever you want to call it. Unfortunately, the science of pandemic and epidemics is not an exact science. By the time you have all the answers in place to answer all the questions we have, it's too late. You've killed 20 million people like the 1918 flu. The science and treating this thing is you overreact because you don't have the answers. You don't know. We're hearing a lot of the euphemisms. I'm preparing for the worst but hoping for the best. What's the worst? What's your worst? What's my worst? What's his worst? The worst that we're seeing from places like China, from Italy are horrifying, and we're no different. We're going to see this happen here, we're seeing it happening in New York right now, we're going to see it happen in Louisiana, we're going to see it happen in California, and I fear it's going to happen in Florida. So what is the worst? If we don't do anything, we're looking at about 2.2 million American deaths by the end of the year according to the Imperial College data from in London. These models are changing. No model's perfect. There's a lot of this information out there. It's tough to keep up with everything March 27, 2020 Page 20 because a lot of this is changing so quickly, but we have to have an idea of, hey, what is the worst that we're preparing for. If you look around our county, we have a higher average age. The very first hotspot in the country was in Kirkland, in Washington, which is at a skilled nursing facility. We have about a dozen of those in this county. If one or two of those get it, our ERs, our ICUs, our hospitals are done. We're full. Forget the heart attacks. Forget the strokes. Forget the commonplace stuff. So that's why we're advocating for us to pass this resolution. I don't know how long we're going to need to do this. This is going to evolve as the science evolves. But right now if we don't take the steps that we need to take we're going to be facing a disaster. The average time span people are spending on the vent is about 10 days. That is three times normal than your average patient in the ICU. So not only are they coming in sick, but they're sitting in the ICU sicker. I have a patient -- I got the very first coronavirus patient at Physicians Regional. I had sent this patient home. He came back crashing, ended up in the ICU, still there, okay. He's sick. He's slowly improving, thankfully. But this is -- this is a disease that's taking longer. And it's -- it's horrifying watching what's happening, because we don't have any effective treatment. This is not like influenza. If you're hearing that, that's incorrect. That's one of the facts we know now. This is more infective. This has a higher mortality rate than influenza. That's for sure. Not the flu. We've missed the time span and the window of opportunity we had, like Korea, to do the things that South Korea did. That's gone. That's why we're having to take more draconian measures of asking to close down businesses, of social isolation, of quarantining because we missed that opportunity already. March 27, 2020 Page 21 The question shouldn't be whether we shut down businesses. The question should be how long and for -- and how strict do we get with this, not if we do it. The "if" shouldn't be a part of this anymore. Questions? CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Let's see if there are any questions from the Commission. Commissioner Fiala? COMMISSIONER FIALA: No. Thank you. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Solis? COMMISSIONER SOLIS: No, thanks. Thank you. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Taylor? COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Yes, thank you. Have you read the resolution before us? DR. PACHORI: It was on -- I read a summary of it from the CCMS, because I'm a part of the CCMS as well. COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: How do we -- I mean, my job is to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the people of Collier County. That's number one. How do we protect people when we have exempted -- we've allowed to stay open 37 business categories? And that's umpty, umpty, umpty-ump businesses connected to each category. How do we do that with this, what's before us? DR. PACHORI: So I think the question to ask is how many people are going to get infected and how do you do it? If you take even a place like South Korea right now, they have infections. You're not going to be able to stop a virus completely. What we're looking to do is to slow it down, slow it down to a level where we can manage it. If I get two corona patients a day versus 20 corona patients a day, it's a gigantic difference. That's what we're asking for is to slow down the virus enough that not only can we deal with it in the hospitals, but the science behind it, the studies, the treatment protocols catch up so that we can effectively treat this. March 27, 2020 Page 22 If we leave everything open, you're going to have a skyrocketing amount of admissions in the hospital that overwhelm us, and then simple things are going to start killing patients. If we can control this, we can deal with it. You can eat an elephant in small pieces. You can't eat him all at once. That's what we're asking for is to slow this down enough so that we can deal with it. That's what's happening in Korea. They're still having an increasing number of cases. If you watch the number, they're still getting cases out there. They're not going to be able to stop a virus, but they've slowed it down enough that their medical system can handle it easily, keep the mortality rates low, keep their ICUs free and open and deal with whatever's coming their way. COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Thank you. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner McDaniel. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes. Doctor -- and, again, you know, I've cautioned our folks on a regular basis about their information sources. I read an article yesterday that that scientist, I believe his name was Neil Ferguson, has already retracted his original estimations of that two-plus million fatality rate attributable to this virus. And, again, we all have to be very, very careful. And I certainly have the utmost respect for taking as many precautions as we necessarily can. But there are already procedures in place to assist with slowing this curve to lower the spread of this virus with the CDC's recommendations and our governor's recommendations now and the actions our community has already, in fact, taken. Have you read that article, or are you aware that that scientist who -- DR. PACHORI: So Neil Ferguson did change his estimates based on an Oxford study that came out. Now, the Oxford study is claiming that 50 percent of people in UK already infected, which I March 27, 2020 Page 23 don't believe is backed up by data in places that have effective testing. There's very few places on the planet that have that. South Korea is one of them. South Korea got the infection before UK did. South Korea's doing a lot more testing per capita than the United Kingdom is doing. And they're showing a lot more negative than positive. If you're expecting 50-plus percent of your population to be already infected, then your data would back that up. In other countries like Bahrain, which also has a high per capita testing, and Iceland, which also has a very high level of testing, you're not seeing that. This was a guess made by Oxford. I'm not sure why Mr. Ferguson pulled back on his estimates, but I think that study had something to do with it. And I don't agree with some of the results of the Oxford study, because there really isn't enough testing right now, and that's what we're seeing. We don't know. I don't think -- I think you can pick and choose your data. What we do know is that in -- this is not influenza. This is more infective than influenza. This is worse than influenza. A bad influenza year is already a tax on our hospital systems. This is a compound on top of it that's going to take a heavy toll in this county if we don't enact some measures above and beyond what we're seeing in places that already have hot spots, like New York. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Thank you, sir. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Mr. Chairman, I've got a follow-up question, if I can. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Yes, Commissioner Solis. You're recognized. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: So -- and I wasn't aware of this study. I mean, the numbers -- Mr. Ferguson's estimates were reduced by how much, or do we know? DR. PACHORI: So the latest estimate that we're using from March 27, 2020 Page 24 University of Washington is about 300,000 by August, and then that's all they've been able to predict up to. They're predicting another increase in cases in winter when -- so we don't know -- COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Yeah. DR. PACHORI: -- what that number's going to look like. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Okay. COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Excuse me. That's cases. That's not mortalities. DR. PACHORI: That's mortalities. COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Okay. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: This is -- I'm not sure if this is a question or kind of a comment on this. I had seen different estimates where the highest prediction was about 2.2 million, and on the low side, using all methods for social distancing, that 200,000 would be on the low side. So that is probably not too far off from what was just stated about the potential for 300,000 deaths by the end of August. Do you -- I'm assuming, based on what you have said, that your recommendation is that it would be better to err on being overly restrictive and flattening the curve as it would be to not be restrictive enough and have a surge of these cases. Is that a pretty good summary of what you're telling us? DR. PACHORI: So, yes. You know, what we're looking for is this is not permanent. As the data changes, as it gets better, as testing improves, we can -- we're going to revisit this, and we're going to be like, okay, take the foot off the brake. But right now we don't know what's in front of us, and we need to brake. The estimates are all over the place. We're all quoting numbers. We're all citing studies. But what we're seeing in actuality in places like Northern Italy, which is one of the richest places in Europe, it's an industrial zone in Europe that has excellent fact -- March 27, 2020 Page 25 excellent hospitals, we're seeing an enormous death toll. Fifty percent of the people getting tested there -- and they're testing only the sick -- are getting admitted into the hospital, and they're having a very high mortality rate because they can't deal with it. In countries that can deal with it, the mortality rate is low. Let us deal with it in a way we can handle it. There's going to be coronavirus cases here in Collier County. We just need to slow it down enough that we can deal with it. And once we -- once we know that, okay, we can -- we've got some medications, we've got a vaccine on the way, if we have more data, then, okay, let's get back to business as normal. As of right now, we don't know that. And another thing, we are actually testing at Physicians Regional as well. We're testing in the emergency room. We don't have a drive-up testing right now, but for our patients that are coming in sick into the hospital, testing is there as well. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Thank you, Doc. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. If there are no other questions, thank you very much for your appearance -- DR. PACHORI: Thank you. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: -- and we really appreciate everything that the medical providers are doing. You guys are the real heroes in all of this, and thank you for your service there. MR. MILLER: Mr. Chairman, Troy Miller again, for the record. We also have Cesar Deleon from the Collier County Medical Society, as president, is making his way to the podium right now. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Great. Thank you. DR. DELEON: Good afternoon. Thank you for the opportunity. Past president of the Collier County Medical Society in favor of a stay-at-home order. And the professional medical opinion believes that COVID-19 is much different and much worse than the March 27, 2020 Page 26 known yearly flu for the following reasons: One, much more contagious with an average of two people getting infected by every person who gets it. Pace of infection being much more rapid than what we're used to. One of the reasons, we've already seen hospitals in other areas become overwhelmed very quickly; Two, we have no vaccine to prevent it; therefore, more citizens will fall ill. It is estimated that about 50 to 60 percent of us will catch it; Three, we do not have enough tests to know who is infected; therefore, many infected patients are walking around our streets without diagnosis despite the current recommendations; Four, death rate is estimated between 2.5 to 10 percent, as it is the current state in Spain and Italy. So it is very difficult to assess 300,000, 2.2 million. Every country has been different, from China to Italy. If we expect to have any numbers in between, numbers could be very wild. Influenza kills 0.1 percent, to let you know. So even if it was 1 percent, it will be 10 times more. The Spanish flu had a death rate of 2 percent. So we're looking up to a death rate of 10 percent as it is in Italy and Spain; Five, we currently do not have any medications to treat it; Number six, it is more difficult to diagnose as it presents from asymptomatic to full-blown respiratory distress and everything between. I actually have had two patients that presented with sinusitis. I happened to miss it. They ended up in the emergency room because, after my 20 years of medical professional opinion, they presented as something else. So there's a lot of people walking around who actually may have it; Eight, it will cripple our current healthcare system. It is already at the brink of collapse with the lack of PPEs. We're not able to -- if March 27, 2020 Page 27 we're not able to flatten the curve of infection. Presently, a 30-year-old nurse on a ventilator at Gulf Coast is -- on a ventilator from being exposed at work. We cannot allow that to happen to our healthcare professionals; Nine, it affects the elderly worse but also affects the young. Average age in our county is 57. We have been fortunate to have no death so far, but this can change very quickly if we don't contain the spread. I highly respect our business community. We all depend on them. But if we do not protect the health of our employees and customers, they will not be there in the future to protect the integrity of our businesses. If we don't protect our healthcare workers, they won't be there -- there won't be anyone to care for the community when the community members become ill. There's no future without people. It is a healthcare crisis, not a financial crisis. What will you do if you or your staff or your family get COVID-19? Who will you -- how will you feel if the healthcare workers can't take care of you because they are overwhelmed, hospitals overcrowded with no PPE or sick? Construction companies, my recommendation would be to donate their PPEs to the healthcare providers instead of requesting us to continue risking our lives. We almost do anything and everything that's possible to save lives. Money can be replaced after the crisis passes. We have already done it multiple times in the past. God bless you for what you do. Thank you. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Same to you, sir. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Let's see if there are any questions from the Commission. Commissioner Fiala. COMMISSIONER FIALA: Excuse me. I had to release that March 27, 2020 Page 28 button. No, no questions. Thank you. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Solis? COMMISSIONER SOLIS: No. Thank you. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Taylor? COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: No. No, thank you. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner McDaniel. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Just thank you, Doctor, for what you're doing. DR. DELEON: Thank you. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: And let me just -- you're speaking on behalf of the Collier County Medical Society? DR. DELEON: Correct. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Okay. And what is the membership there? That's 650 doctors? DR. DELEON: Yes, sir. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Okay. I want to thank you as well for your service and get you back to your practice there. So thank you very much. DR. DELEON: Thank you. Blessed day. MR. MILLER: Mr. Chairman, Troy Miller again, for the record again. I have one other slip submitted from a Dr. Monica Woodward. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Let's go ahead and hear that, and then we'll move on. MR. MILLER: And then, yeah, that is the last, that I know of, medical professional I have here in the room. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And then the Sheriff first. DR. WOODWARD: I'm representing myself as a member of the community. I have a medical practice in Collier County, so I'll read what I have. I would like you -- to encourage you to vote no for Resolution 2020-50. I'm a board-certified internal medicine, pulmonary March 27, 2020 Page 29 medicine, sleep medicine, and formerly critical care medicine. As an intern, I was required to work on an HIV floor in Newark, New Jersey, and am very familiar with PPE. I completed residency at UMDNJ in Newark and fellowship trained at Jackson Memorial Hospital. I was there the busiest night in the ER in Newark in the city hospital due to overdoses and suicide attempts, which was sadly Father's Day, and not a bed could be had on that annual event. I have been responsible for 200 critical-care beds at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, and on some nights, as a senior fellow, was required, due to staff shortages, to manage those 200 beds and also had to clear 40 critical-care beds in one night for a cruise ship fire many years ago. The engine room caught fire on a cruise ship with at least 40 engineers and crew who were sent for critical care. I was trained by a German professor who taught us, "Always tell the truth, speak your mind, and say you don't know when you don't know." I moved to Collier County in 2003 and have been proud to say I have been a resident and practicing physician here in Naples for 17 years. Full disclosure: I'm married to Mark Woodward of Woodward, Pires, Lombardo firm, to whom Tony Pires is well known to the commissioners. Suffice it to say, I have many years of experience working with ventilators, pulmonary patients, and critically ill. In regards to the COVID-19 crisis, we are on about Day 11 of the stay-at-home measures, school closures, church closures, and the one-week restaurant closures. The beaches were also closed this week, and I have observed that many of my patients are cautious, and the community has been respectful of the 6-foot social distancing measures and avoidance of large groups. In medicine, we risk-stratify patients before they go to surgery March 27, 2020 Page 30 as mild, moderate, high risk for perioperative complications. So for this outbreak, we're not severe risk, because we're not New York City, and we're not at mild risk, because we're not in Ozark, Missouri, with a population of 20,000. And from the data I can see from the Department of Health, we are probably at mild to moderate risk for having an increased outbreak here mainly due to people coming in from out of the area. Future risk stratification is subject to CDC, and that's an ongoing conversation with Dr. Fauci. As many of you know, the 2018/2019 influenza season, there were more than 490,000 hospitalizations and 34,000 deaths in the U.S., but no one's up in arms about that. If the goal of the commissioners is to avoid an attractive nuisance, which is a legal term, you should have closed the beaches sooner, and that would avoid the spring breakers from coming to our beaches on Vanderbilt Beach. A suggestion to deal with a public area like Keewaydin Island may be posting on social media two sheriffs in riot gear under tents at Keewaydin Island, which would be an excellent deterrent to keep young people from congregating. And I heard this was effectively done at the Great Dock Canoe Race one year. I am aware that some of my Collier County Medical Society members and colleagues in the hospitals are pushing for this order to be passed, but from what I can see, most citizens in the county have followed CDC and state guidelines, and few have tested positive for COVID-19 relative to other areas. Personal responsibility will be the best strategy to limit the risk of infections anywhere, including Naples, Florida. We're all practicing CDC guidelines, and we tell our patients, if you're sick, stay home. Don't go to work. If you have chronic medical issues, stay away from public areas. Maybe at home you're best. And if March 27, 2020 Page 31 you're 65 and older, the governor has already given them a shelter-in-place order. This will -- adding the order here will not add to public health and may, instead, cause more unintentional consequences like depression and isolation. The hospitals should continue to test more, and we need more data to make better decisions. You can always enact a shelter-in-place order in the future, but for now I can't see that this can add to the public health. And I know that each and every one of you want to save every single life, but even when everything is perfect, that is not always possible. Thank you. (Applause.) CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Thank you. Let's see if there are any questions. Commissioner Fiala? COMMISSIONER FIALA: No, no questions. But I do want to ask -- it probably wouldn't be this doctor, but one of the doctors -- how many people -- they always tell us how many people are ill now, and it's up to -- to the 80s now. How many have recovered? CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Well, we told the physicians after they made their testimony that -- to go back and continue healing patients in their practices, so I don't know that there are any of the physicians still there other than Dr. Woodward. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Mr. Chair? COMMISSIONER FIALA: Well, I would love to know that piece of advice, because if we know how many have already recovered, you know, it would give us a good idea as to we've got a way to treat them and we're doing a good job at it. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Could Kathleen Marr answer that question? MR. OCHS: She's coming to the podium, Mr. Chairman. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: While she's coming, let's see if March 27, 2020 Page 32 there are any more questions for Dr. Woodward. Commissioner Taylor? COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Oh, Commissioner Solis? COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Nothing from me. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Okay. Commissioner Taylor? COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Nothing from me. I just thank you very much for coming in here. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner McDaniel. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Absolutely. Thank you again. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: And also, I want to thank you for your service as well. Then let's see if we can get an answer to Commissioner Fiala's question. And, Dr. Woodward, thank you, and best wishes in terms of staying healthy and treating your patients. Thank you. MS. MARR: Hi. I want to remind -- Commissioner Fiala, I'm going to try to answer your question. The Department of Health twice a day releases a 55-page document that gives quite a bit of detail on the number of cases that have been tested who were reviewing and also, obviously, the deaths in the state. There is some detail also on the CD -- excuse me -- the FDOH dashboard, which is on our FLHealth.gov website. I also would like to answer the question about the modeling that the doctors have been referring to. I can tell you that yesterday our surgeon general stated they are working very closely with the CDC to identify a specific Florida model that should help us with some of these concerns and estimates. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: That's correct. I saw that same information. MS. MARR: Okay. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Thank you very much. March 27, 2020 Page 33 MR. MILLER: Mr. Chairman, I'm sorry. Troy Miller, for the record. Dr. Pachori is coming back in the room, I think, to try to answer Commissioner Fiala's question. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. DR. PACHORI: Yes, we have had people who have recovered from this after being diagnosed. But part of this is also -- some of this is -- we're talking about mortality rates, but we're not talking about morbidity rates. Morbidity rates are people who are going to have permanent lasting effects from this, and this is probably going to be your younger patients who are going to come in, get intubated. They will survive the ICU stay, but they're going to have permanent medical harm from this virus. So we don't know those yet, and we're going to start seeing those in the future when we see our younger patients affected by this, which is happening. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Thank you, Doc. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Thank you. All right. I know we have a lot of people that are going to want to speak in the public hearing part of this -- MR. OCHS: Mr. Chairman, excuse me. It's the manager. We have Sheriff Rambosk here who would also like to address the Board before you move into your public speakers. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Okay. Well, no, we're not going to move into the public speaking until after we open up the ordinances and have the County Attorney explain the ordinance. So we're a little bit off from that. But if Sheriff Rambosk wants to speak now, that's fine. MR. OCHS: Thank you. SHERIFF RAMBOSK: Good afternoon, Chairman, members of the Board. Kevin Rambosk, Collier County Sheriff's Office, and I'm providing you an update as part of the unified command along with the Department of Health and Emergency Management. March 27, 2020 Page 34 I just wanted to take a minute to give you an update on observations and information that we have gathered since the last time we met on Tuesday. We've seen a reduced traffic on our roadways, at times somewhat less than even out of season. Our businesses have been complying, particularly restaurants, with the orders that they've been given to close; restaurants and bars particularly. We've had a very strong implemented plan by the Collier County Public School system, and with the help of teachers, parents, and guardians, our school-aged kids are learning now online, and they are not in the streets. So that's important for all of us. Keewaydin Island, as you remember, that was one of the areas that we had significant concern last week. We've been in contact with Florida DEP. They have given us a verbal notification of closure of the island for this weekend. We'll be assisting FWC with that closure. We will respond in our normal fashion. However, we still remind people, as we mentioned the other day, that doesn't mean you can hook up 100 boats five feet off the island. You should still use common sense in what you're doing. We continue to fly and observe the beaches daily. Our most recent was yesterday, on March 26th. Other than a few stragglers who, when we contacted them and explained what was in place, they complied, there is broad compliance throughout the county. I already touched on the bars and nightclubs. I want to really thank the owners for their participation and cooperation with that. General orders and guidance. In general, relative to the governor's orders or even the CDC, once people understand what they're being asked to do, for the most part, we gain compliance. In the few instances that we haven't, when we've provided them more information and what the options were, they have complied. So, really, the bottom line for us is, you know, if you choose not March 27, 2020 Page 35 to be compliant with any or all of the orders in place, there's a $500 fine and up to 60 days in jail. So there is teeth to where we are. And that's the completion of my update for the moment. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Thank you, Sheriff. Let's see if there are any questions. Commissioner Fiala? COMMISSIONER FIALA: No, no questions. Thank you. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: And, Commissioner Solis. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Just curious if you've actually imposed any fines. SHERIFF RAMBOSK: We haven't had to yet. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Okay. Good. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Taylor? COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Thank you very much. I think you, sir, Sheriff Rambosk have a really, sort of, boots-on-the-ground view of our community, and I'm very proud of our community from what you just reported. That's fantastic. SHERIFF RAMBOSK: So are we. COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Thank you. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner McDaniel. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes. And thank you, Sheriff. When you spoke to us on Tuesday, you were talking about regularly flying the drones, and people seemed to be adhering to the social distancing side of things. And I am glad to hear that we are reminding folks that they're not supposed to be on the beaches at all. So I thank you for that, number one. Number two, how are you and our first responders doing with reward to PPEs and contact with regard to cases and such? That's question one. SHERIFF RAMBOSK: We're fully equipped with PPEs for now. We, of course, keep continuing to look for them. We've March 27, 2020 Page 36 probably got a month-and-a-half to two-months' supply, and we have been supported by Emergency Management midweek last week for additional things. As far as coming in contact, we have very strict rules. We're working together with Fire Rescue, and particularly EMS, who follows those specifics so that we don't all encounter an individual who may test positive and contaminate everybody. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Amen. And the last question, if you -- and it's only been a few days, but if you recall on Tuesday you reported that you've seen a 30 percent increase in domestic violence since the -- since these closures have started? SHERIFF RAMBOSK: Well, over the weekend -- that was the weekend report. We had seen an increase. That has gotten back to normal throughout the middle of the week. We've actually done work with the shelter and did some information out. And I want to thank Linda Oberhaus for that. She's done a great job. So, yes, we have moved forward with that. And, again, sometimes, unfortunately, the weekends -- by the end of the weekend, we see a lot more disturbances than we do on a normal week. But we're going to continue to push that, and so far we're back down to normal. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And, again, I can't say -- my personal thank you, sir, for your leadership and what you're doing for our community. COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Yeah, thank you. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Sheriff, just one quick question. At our last conversation on Tuesday you had indicated that -- I believe the number was 80 firefighters and EMS, first responders, had been sidelined because of exposure to the virus. Is that number still valid, or has that changed one way or the other? SHERIFF RAMBOSK: I believe that will be down. We March 27, 2020 Page 37 haven't -- we have a call later this afternoon, and we will refresh that. But I know that we had some of our members that have been released out of that hold and back to work, so it's probably not as many. But I'm still sure we're 50-plus at this point waiting for tests. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Well, I want to join my colleagues in thanking you and the men and women that are first responders that are doing a yeoman's job in this. As a lot of people have said, you guys are the real heros keeping us safe. So thank you for what you do. SHERIFF RAMBOSK: Thank you. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Mr. Ochs, before we get into a public hearing, I wanted to go through a couple comments and then have Mr. Klatzkow spend a few minutes, or however long you need to spend, to explain what's in the order, because that may alleviate some of the concerns that some speakers may have. And so let me start off by just saying that I did ask the County Attorney to draft this order, and I want to thank the County Attorney's Office for their responsiveness and the County Manager for his responsiveness. And I believe that it's important that we listen to our medical experts and do what we can to protect the public health, safety, and welfare. And that's one of the reasons why I wanted to have this hearing was so that we could hear from the medical experts. We've seen the letter from NCH. We've heard from the Medical Society, and we've seen their letter urging more steps for social distancing. I want to -- this is a little bit old, but I want to read just one sentence from Dr. Fauci. Now, this was on March 20th, and, of course, things have changed to some extent. I don't think they've changed dramatically in terms of what his position would be. But he said, and I'm just going to quote, "I think we should do everything we possibly can do, I mean, in all sectors because, obviously, as I've said so many times, when you think you may be overreacting, you March 27, 2020 Page 38 probably are not acting as forcefully as you should. So as we've always said, we've got to try very much to stay ahead of the curve." And we've heard from our medical folks that there is some -- this is some concern. Now, the benefit of this meeting is twofold. First of all, we're letting the public know how important this issue is and how important social distancing is. And I know a lot of people are watching and paying attention to what we do. And the other thing that is important just to keep in mind, we're elected to make hard decisions, and this is one of those hard decisions. If we go forward with the order, there are consequences, and we have a bit of an understanding of what those consequences are. They're economic consequences, and there are potentially benefits from slowing or flattening the curve. If we don't go forward with the order, there are consequences as well. And we don't know what those consequences are, necessarily, because we won't know what the infection rates are and those sorts of things until after the fact. And so I felt that it was important for us to consider all of these issues early on as opposed to waiting and trying to catch up as the virus spreads. So as I've said, I'd rather err on the side of being overly restrictive than err on the side of not being restrictive enough. The -- Commissioner Taylor you mentioned, you know, how do we -- how does this improve things if you've got 30-some-odd exceptions? And I want the County Attorney to explain what's in this order, though we haven't had a lot of time to read it. It was sent out yesterday. But I think the County Attorney can go through it, and with your concurrence, I'd like for the County Attorney to spend a little bit of time -- or not a little bit of time, but whatever time's necessary, to explain what's in the proposed order. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Mr. Chair? March 27, 2020 Page 39 CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Yes, sir. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Before we switch gears -- I've got a list of questions that I'd like to pose to the Department of Health, before we switch gears from, you know, the medical issues and what the medical professionals and public health people are saying to us. Can I do that now before we get into the wording of the ordinance? CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Yes, absolutely. I thought we'd already had those questions asked and answered. But if the Health Department can get back up to the podium along with Dan Summers, Kathleen Marr and Dan Summers, if they'd be available, again, standing six feet apart, to answer Commissioner Solis' questions. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Thank you. I know that we were trying to get the doctors back to work, so I was going to delay it, but -- and I'll try to run through those really quickly, because I think for me these are very relevant questions in terms of, you know, the decision we're going to make. One is, where do we stand in terms of the infection rate per capita compared to, say, like, Dade -- the places where it's the worst? Dade County. And I'm assuming that is a relevant issue. MS. MARR: Well, we base it on population. What I can tell you is that we are actively testing every day, so the expectation is our cases will increase. So we try to plan for that scenario where the cases would increase and what we could do now to help prevent the additional spread. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: So -- I mean, so there's -- you can't give us a number in terms of what our infection rate is compared to the other areas where it's obviously much more significant than it is here, is that what you're saying? We can't know that? MS. MARR: What I can -- what I can do is I can get that answer for you from our epidemiology experts at the Department of Health, and we can get that information back to you today. March 27, 2020 Page 40 COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Okay. One of the things that concerned me -- and correct me if I'm wrong, but the numbers that you reported today, this is the first time that the community transmission number is greater than the travel-related number. MS. MARR: Correct, sir. It is in our community. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: And that is of great concern. MS. MARR: Yes. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Right? MS. MARR: Yes. It's easily transmitted. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: I mean, that's the worst-case scenario. MS. MARR: It's easily spread. It is in our community. And that's why we are trying to encourage people to please follow the simple recommendations they can do and why social distancing is so important, because we also have people that are asymptomatic. They carry no symptoms with this, so it's hard to know who is actually carrying the virus and who is not. Not everybody presents with an obvious symptom. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Okay. And from a public health standpoint, would a further reduction of interaction between people, if it's that infectious, decrease the risk of a spike in the number of infections? MS. MARR: Yes, sir. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: That's all the questions I had. And, if I can, just -- I would just like to say something before I give up the floor here. One is that I think there's -- there are situations that -- around the country that maybe we don't hear of. I mean, my brother is a surgeon in Georgia and a hospital in Valdosta Georgia. And there is a small town west of there, Albany, Georgia. And my discussions with him this morning is that Albany, Georgia -- and I researched it -- is March 27, 2020 Page 41 overrun with the virus. They are out of ventilators. They are out of ICU beds. It spread through the community there, and the medical community before they could get control of it, and a significant percentage of the healthcare professionals have now come down with it, and they have a shortage of healthcare professionals. So that -- the effect of that specifically to my brother, who's a peripheral vascular surgeon, is that anyone in the Albany area that requires surgery or intensive care or anything like that has to be put in an ambulance and driven to Valdosta hoping they make it, and some of them have not. And I think that's the worst-case scenario, I think, that we have to think about. We cannot disregard that that's a possibility, and that's what happens when the system gets overloaded, which is what our hospital administrators and our doctors are telling us is the danger. It's not only about those people that have compromised immune systems. It's not only about the elderly. It is about the other people that -- it's about, you know, the kid riding his bicycle that falls off, hits his head and needs to be on a ventilator can't get in to have a ventilator, you know, because there's no capacity. I mean, these are the scenarios that I think, while hopefully will never happen, we have to take into consideration. And it's -- you know, it's not only New York City, and it's not only New Orleans. It's happening in a lot of different places around the country. So thank you. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: And, Commissioner Solis, that is -- you articulated that very well. Those are the concerns that I raised at our commission meeting concerning the fact that we want to protect our healthcare system not only for people that are suffering from COVID-19 but just our general population that needs medical care on March 27, 2020 Page 42 an ongoing basis. So let's -- with the Commission's permission, I'd like to have Mr. Klatzkow go through what the proposed order really does. And I'm going to give you an example of how this may -- his commentary may alleviate some concerns. People are concerned about ongoing and future construction sites, home building, whatever. This order clearly exempts contractors and construction. We want to keep our people working as much as possible, and a lot of that is outdoors and a lot of that is in isolation. So I think when he goes through this, this may give our commission members some solace that it's not as much of an overreach as a lot of people think that it is, and it may also help people that are waiting to speak to know whether they're covered or not. So with that, I'd like to ask Mr. Klatzkow to go through this in some detail, because I know commission members have had a very short period of time to review this as well. MR. KLATZKOW: And I will go through the ordinance with it on the monitor so that the general public and the people in this room can see. Please understand the purpose of the order. The purpose of the order is to slow the spread of the virus, period. To do that, what the order says is subject to the exemptions set forth below, and they are extensive. All persons living within Collier County are ordered to stay in their homes. Again, the purpose of ordering people to stay in their homes is to slow the spread of this virus, understanding that we have over 100,000 Collier County residents who are 65 years and older. Since we're asking people to stay at home, the nonessential businesses would close. There's no point in having people go someplace that they don't need to be. We are also prohibiting public March 27, 2020 Page 43 and private gatherings of people as set forth in the order below. Now, we're asking people to stay at home except for leaving for essential activities. Essential activities include for your health and safety. So go for a walk, understanding that when you're going for your walk, you're trying to keep social distance. Walk your dog. Again, keeping social distance. If you want to go for a jog, go for a jog, just don't do it in a group of people. We understand that you need to go out for necessary supplies and services. People have to go out and they have to get groceries. We understand that, and there's a list of businesses that are exempted from this because we understand people need to go on with their lives. We understand you have to take care of your friends and family. And so if you need to leave your home to take care of someone, well, of course you do. We're asking that the essential businesses in Collier County stay open, and those are defined below. And we're saying that the essential government functions, the police, the fire, our ambulance folks, that they stay open. Paragraph 7 is a nod, quite frankly, to Monroe County. And understand that this order is put together from another -- a number of counties that have similar orders. Monroe County -- and I talked with their county attorney -- recognized their biggest danger was not within Monroe County but without Monroe County. People coming there. People fleeing Miami. People fleeing New York and coming to Monroe County and bringing the disease with them. And so Paragraph 7 is asking our hotels and just asking our short-term vacation rentals, please stop renting to people who are out of town, all right. We understand that, you know, you should be renting to healthcare professionals. We understand National Guard March 27, 2020 Page 44 and law enforcement. But please, to the extent that you can, let's shut Collier County down from people from the outside, because you know what's going to happen. You read what's happening in New York City, and people with money in New York City are going to leave New York City. Where better than Collier County to go? Paragraph 8, thou starts a rather lengthy list of what the state, in general, and other states have all deemed to be essential. Healthcare providers; obviously we want the ability for you to go to your doctor. Grocery stores; obviously we want you to be able to get food. Obviously we want people to farm. We want people that provide shelter to stay home. We want the media to stay open so that people can understand what's going on about them. Gas stations we want open because people have to move around. People have to get to their stores. We want banks and related financial institutions to stay open, because people need money for their essential activities, but we're excluding pawn shops because pawn shops are more of a retail operation, and much of the retail business will be closed in Collier County because of this. Your Lowe's and Home Depot we want open. We want people to continue working to the extent we can. So construction sites will stay open. We want people to be able to call up to get their air conditioner fixed. And so, yes, you can call up and get your air conditioner fixed. If you have a plumbing issue, you can get your pluming. If your garage door doesn't work, yes, of course, you can do that. We're trying to prevent groups of people congregating. Businesses primarily involved in mailing. We want you to use Amazon Prime to get your goods and services. We want you to be able to go to your UPS store to get your goods and services. They intend to be low-populated venues. Private colleges we're asking to do as much online as you can. We want the laundromats and dry cleaners to stay open because March 27, 2020 Page 45 people still need to get their basic, you know, life functions done. Restaurants is largely now governed by the governor's executive order. Restaurants stay open for delivery purposes and for people to walk up to the window and get whatever they need but, otherwise, the sit-down is no longer part of our lives. Businesses that primarily supply office supplies. We want you to work at home. So if you run out of paper, we want you to be able to get paper. If you run out of copier toner, we want you to be able to get copier toner. We want people -- businesses stay open who primarily deliver groceries. We want people to stay in their house and order from Grubhub and that type of thing. Airlines, taxis, buses, and other transportation providers are to stay open. People need some mobility. Not everybody has a car. And, frankly, the airlines which, personally, I'd like to see shut down, you know, is really a federal issue, not ours anyway. We want businesses engaged in providing home care for seniors and adults to stay open. I mean, these are populations that need to be served. Assisted living facilities, of course, you stay open. Businesses providing necessary legal or accounting need to stay open. Childcare facilities need to stay open. Warehouses, because you have to get your goods shipped, need to stay open. Telecommunication providers; you know, we all rely on cell phones even more and more these days if we're going to be in our homes. We want businesses to be able to continue selling propane and natural gas. Office space would stay open to the extent that they can, and there are guidelines in here as to the number of people. Architects can continue with their businesses. We want the factories and the manufacturing plants to continue doing business. We're not trying to shut these down but, again, later on we're asking that they try to keep March 27, 2020 Page 46 the groups of 10 noted. Waste management services because, well, you've got to pick up the garbage; otherwise, it's a severe health issue. We want the hotels and motels to stay open but, again, we're asking that they stop taking reservations from outside of Collier County. Veterinarians and pet stores and boarding facilities should stay open. Unfortunately, the mortuaries are going to need to stay open. Businesses providing services to any local, state or federal government need to stay open because the governments are giving you essential services, such as your fire. Any businesses that employs five or fewer people are exempt from this. Of course, you can stay open. Again, we're trying to keep groups of people from being together. We just ask that you try to remember the 6-foot separation rule. Electrical production and distribution services, there's no harm there. May as well keep them open. And marinas. Personally, you want to take a boat onto the gulf by yourself, God bless you. You're probably safer there than anywhere else. And those are the guts of the businesses that are staying open. Some would argue that that's too many, but this is a general consensus of what people across the country and Florida are doing who are enacting stay-at-home ordinances. We're asking that people do remote work, which is Paragraph 9. I know I have some of my people doing remote work now. I know the County Manager has some of his people doing remote work right now to the extent that you can. We understand that we can't think of everything. And I have given Leo the terrible task of being the person who would take an appeal of this. So if somebody's not sure whether or not they're essential or nonessential, they have to be able to ask somebody. I've given that to Leo who can designate that to someone else. I can't March 27, 2020 Page 47 bring the Board of County Commissioners in for a hearing as to essential/nonessential. There's going to be too many questions. And I'm happy to work with Leo on this. We're not -- the order does not affect the Collier County School Districts or any public utility. It does not affect, again, essential businesses. I'm not touching religious services with a 10-foot pole. This ordinance is going to -- has a -- this ordinance is going to have its challenges anyway, and religion's one of those things that really gets people going. But we do ask you that you limit your gatherings to 10 people or less and at least be six feet apart. We're asking that groups of 10 are discouraged and may be ordered to disperse. And we're saying these are our minimum standards. If the municipalities wish to come in and give stricter standards, that's up to them. The severability portion basically just says that we understand that the governor may step in, and we're not going to be inconsistent with what the governor might have to say. The order would be effective within, more or less, 24 hours' notice. And I've basically given it 21 days just -- the Board could obviously change that. It's in addition to the executive orders issued by the governor. And at the end of the day, it's a code violation, all right. That's what we have the power to do. Code violation is a maximum of $500 with a misdemeanor. It's the most we can do. And that's the proposed order. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Thank you, Mr. Klatzkow. I know that there are going to be a lot of questions and comments from the Commission. And I've been sort of picking on Commissioner Fiala since she's representing District 1. So maybe we'll reverse that, if that's okay with you, Commissioner McDaniel. March 27, 2020 Page 48 Let's go through what comments that you may have or questions that you may have. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes. First off, County Attorney, I want to thank you for preparing this. I know it's not the funnest thing to actually have to do. And it's certainly -- to quote my colleague on my right here, I'm not afflicted with the mental illness called a law degree. But as I'm reading through this, I'm having a difficult time ascertaining enforceability. The -- the enforceability -- it's -- with the language that it's, in fact -- as it's written, I'm having a difficult time understanding how we're going to enforce this. Have you got any comments -- that's my first question. I have several, Mr. Chair. So if you'll indulge. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Sure. Absolutely. MR. KLATZKOW: Enforcing -- enforcing would be either by the Sheriff or by your code enforcement officers. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay. There have been some representations about the constitutionality of this action at all. Do you have an opinion with regard to that? MR. KLATZKOW: I do. And I've been talking to a number of my fellow county attorneys across the state. And this is a very difficult type of order for us to write, all right. And understand that there have been a number of counties who have enacted an order like this. Alachua enacted it, Hillsborough, Orange County, Osceola, Pinellas, Gadsden. They've all enacted these. So their county attorneys believe it's lawful. You have home rule power as a political subdivision of the state of Florida. Your home rule power allows you to institute orders/ordinances within Collier County and Collier County alone. And you can do so so long as the order that you have is not inconsistent with federal law or state law. Often we call that preemption. There's nothing in the state law that preempts you. March 27, 2020 Page 49 As far as the constitutionality goes, quite frankly, the last time this happened was 1917, all right. I have no law case I can give you to say that we have the power. There was no home rule power in 1917. Counties were operating under Dillon's rule. Dillon's rule basically said that a county could only act under the powers expressly granted by the legislature, all right. We got rid of Dillon, many, many years but, unfortunately, it was well past 1917. I could just tell you that at the end of the day, my concern is that -- and it's kind of curious, my concern. If this pandemic turns out to be much less than we fear and an order like this is enacted, you may get litigation. If this pandemic is much worse than we fear, all right, well, nobody's going to be questioning this. It comes down to body bags. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: We've already decided that there's no good answer for the ultimate question -- (Simultaneous crosstalk.) MR. KLATZKOW: There is no good answer. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And, again, when I started out by thanking you for having the unenviable job of preparing this ordinance, it was with -- it was heartfelt, my gratitude for what you're having to do. My last question is maybe a little bit easier and it's -- there was a discussion, I believe, on Tuesday when we granted Commissioner Saunders to go speak with the Chairman of the Board of Lee County. Is there a requisite that governors sign off on this stay-at-home order? MR. KLATZKOW: No, there's not. And, quite frankly, one of the purposes of all these stay-at-home orders that I've gleaned from conversations is to hopefully compel the governor to do this statewide. It would be everybody's desire, from the world that I live in, that the governor do this stay-at-home -- COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Yeah. March 27, 2020 Page 50 MR. KLATZKOW: -- and make it statewide rather than leaving it to the -- to local government to do this. It would be much easier for everybody and much more consistent throughout the state. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Thank you very much. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: And, Commissioner McDaniel, just so you know, I did speak with Chairman Hamman on Tuesday, and I expressed to him a concern dealing with our medical facilities and potential for overwhelming them. And I asked him to speak with Dr. Larry Antonucci at Lee Health, which he did. And the Lee County Commission had an emergency meeting, I believe, on Wednesday at which time Dr. Antonucci and some of his staff testified and talked about different models for social distancing and concluded that in Lee County, based on models -- and, you know, to me, that's kind of voodoo. I don't know anything about how his models work. But based on his models, that social distancing accomplishments in Lee County were around 30 percent, and they needed to get those numbers up higher to around 50 percent and preferably around 60 percent to avoid a massive spike in medical problems that would overwhelm the hospital. Lee -- the Lee Board of County Commissioners didn't take any action at that time, but they agreed to have another emergency meeting on Monday morning. So they're having that same conversation with their medical providers that we are, and they're dealing with -- they're going to be dealing with can they increase social distancing as requested but Lee Health. So we're in a similar situation as to where they are in terms of dealing with increasing or considering increasing social distancing. I won't try to predict what Lee County will do, but that's where they are. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yeah. And thank you, Commissioner Saunders. I was able to watch that actual hearing and saw that deliberation. So I appreciate you sharing that, though. March 27, 2020 Page 51 CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Let's see if there are any other questions. Commissioner Taylor? COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: No questions right now, but I'd like to reserve for later. Thank you. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Oh, absolutely. Commissioner Solis. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Yes. I'm -- a couple of things have become clear to me. One is does the exception swallow the rule? I'm trying to figure out -- if the goal is to increase the social distancing and that's the purpose of the order, then I'm trying to get my arms around what businesses would this actually prevent. MR. KLATZKOW: And it was drafted broadly as far as the exemptions go because it's easier to take out than to put in. So if any of these exemptions you deem to be nonessential as a board, then they should come out. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Well -- and that's -- I'm trying to figure out what -- we define what -- we state that only essential services and essential businesses will be allowed to operate, nonessential ones will not except for a list. And I've -- I'm trying to think of a business that is actually going to be impacted by this that doesn't fall into an exception. MR. KLATZKOW: Well, Bealls, for example. I mean, they've voluntarily closed, but a Bealls type of store. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Right. So a retail -- MR. KLATZKOW: Your retail stores are nonessential other than for, like, food and that type of retail. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: The restaurants under this order can continue doing what they're doing as long as they're complying with the governor's order -- MR. KLATZKOW: Yes. March 27, 2020 Page 52 COMMISSIONER SOLIS: -- i.e., they can do takeout and that sort of thing. MR. KLATZKOW: Takeout. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: So the restaurants are going to be where they are now? MR. KLATZKOW: Yes. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Bars will remain closed pursuant to the governor's order. MR. KLATZKOW: Yes, sir. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Gyms will remain closed pursuant to the governor's order. I think that included movie theaters. All those things that are already closed this really doesn't have any impact on because they're closed by the governor's order. So other than the retail establishments, I'm just -- and most of those -- I'm going out on a limb and saying "most." But it seems to me that a lot of them are already closed, and the season is, unfortunately, already lost. I'm just -- I'm trying to figure out, does this -- will this accomplish what we wanted it to accomplish and, if so, how? And I haven't been able to get my arms around that. There are a number -- and I know we've all gotten them, at least 2,500 emails in the last two days at least; maybe 3,000 emails in the last 24 hours. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And phone calls. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: And phone calls, but also suggested revisions to the ordinance. And I've gotten them from -- from our senator, Kathleen Passidomo, to, you know, engineers, accountants, and not just letters of opposition or things like that, but actual revisions. You know, there's -- there's a lot of things in here that I think are going to merit, from my perspective, a little more thought. For example, title companies. I mean, closings are tied to financial institutions, and if the banks are open, and we can't -- but the title March 27, 2020 Page 53 companies aren't allowed to be open because people would come in to have closings. There's -- there's issues surrounding ILSA, the Interstate Land Sales Act, and surveyors and closings and when construction projects start, that if they didn't, then there's penalties and things. I'm a little concerned that there's so much of that that I haven't even been able to read, because of the 3,000 emails, that I don't know how we do anything to this ordinance on the fly without running the risk of some -- of either not addressing things that we need to address or creating a situation that we didn't intend to create. That's just -- and I'll add to that that as we heard from the Chairman, Lee County is having another meeting on Monday to decide what they're going to do. I think our experience was with the closure of the beaches that this is -- and this is -- I'm going to steal this from our County Manager. It's like squeezing a balloon. You squeeze it at one end and it goes this way, and you squeeze it the other way and it goes the other way; that unless we tackle this -- if we're going to do this, unless we do this on a regional basis, we're squeezing the balloon. If we do this, I know whatever people cannot do at least in my district, they're going to go to Bonita, right? And if it's the other way around, the people in South Lee County, Estero, Bonita, if whatever they need that is actually impacted by whatever ordinance they adopt in Lee County, they're coming to Collier County to get that. So I don't feel comfortable doing this on the fly because there's so many -- there's been so much information provided that there's no way that I could have read it all and be prepared to make suggestions here today. I also think that given the fact that Lee County is going to reconsider this -- and I'll tell you, the thing that really shocked me today was the increase to 81, which is a significant increase from the March 27, 2020 Page 54 last count, which was 65, and that we've exceeded -- the number of community transmissions has now exceeded travel-related ones. I think that's a really big deal, because that means it's not that these people have come back from Italy two weeks ago and it's -- you know, it's something they caught in Italy. This means that people are catching it here. So I think that -- and this is going to be my suggestion, Mr. Chair, that we've gotten these new numbers. Lee County is going to revisit this on Monday, and I would like to suggest -- mainly for the benefit of the business community, because I know the business community needs some certainty. I mean, the biggest problem I think the business community has, at least that I've heard, is the lack of certainty as to what we're going to do. So to provide some certainty that whether it's Monday or Tuesday, we will make a decision one way or the other as to whether or not we're going to follow what the governor and the Department of Health are doing, or we're going to enact an ordinance. I mean, that, in and of itself, is more certainty than any of the business community has right now. So we will do something on -- whether it's Monday or Tuesday. I wasn't aware of any conversations with Lee County, and I would like to know more about what that was. And if there's more that can be done -- because, again, doing this one on -- if one of the counties does this on their own, I just -- I think it's -- in some certain respects, we could be making it worse. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Solis, I think your comments are well taken. And in terms of the communication with Lee County in trying to go together, I will speak again with Chairman Hammond, and we'll kind of get an understanding of where they are. But I will let them know, if it's permissible from the Board, that we are concerned and March 27, 2020 Page 55 we're very serious about trying to do things we can do to enhance social distancing, and if it means going together, then so be it. That would be the best way to go. I agree with you that it is like squeezing a balloon. They are meeting on Monday, and we can certainly reconvene or Monday or Tuesday. We do have a significant number of people that have come to this meeting to speak. I'd like to go through all of that so we have their comments so they don't have to come back, if that's permissible with the Commission. Perhaps at this time we'll go to the public comment, get through that, and then have some additional discussion on how to go forward. Would that be acceptable to the Commission? MR. OCHS: Mr. Chairman, this is the manager. Before you get that response from the Board, I have to remind you and the Board that our court reporter is transcribing the meeting remotely, and she's due for a court reporter break. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Good point. With not seeing her in the room, it's hard to keep remembering that she's there. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And Commissioner Fiala is not in the room either, Mr. Chair. You have gone through three of us and not yourself or her. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Yes. Well, why don't we go ahead and take a break, because it has been about an hour and 45 minutes. We'll come back at five minutes to 3:00, if I'm saying that -- yeah, if I'm saying that right. That would be 2:55. Is that acceptable for everybody? MR. OCHS: Yes, sir. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. We'll be back in 11 minutes. Thank you. (A brief recess was had from 2:45 p.m. to 2:55 p.m.) MR. OCHS: Ladies and gentlemen, if you'd please take your March 27, 2020 Page 56 seats. Come to order. Mr. Chairman, are you on? CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Yes, sir, I am. Are we ready to proceed? MR. OCHS: Yes. Commissioner Fiala, are you on? COMMISSIONER FIALA: I am. MR. OCHS: Thank you, ma'am. We're ready to go, Mr. Chairman. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. The meeting will please come back to order. Before we get into the public comment section, are there any other questions or comments from the Commission? COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yes. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: And there will be plenty of opportunity after the public comment as well. So this is not, you know, the last opportunity. But, Commissioner Fiala. COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yes, thank you very much. Regarding the RSW Airport, we've -- we're talking about ways to stop the spread of this stuff, yet we're allowing people to come in from states that are already having a problem, and here the governor has stopped five locations from not having planes coming in from New York or from New Jersey, Connecticut, but he didn't close RSW to those same standards, and I think that should be something we talk about. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: I can comment on that. None of the airports are closed to flights coming in from that three-state area. There are folks that are testing for temperature, and then they are requiring them to be quarantined for 14 days, and now that testing is occurring at RSW as well. It was not occurring up until yesterday, I believe. March 27, 2020 Page 57 COMMISSIONER FIALA: Good. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: So people are flying in into all the airports in Florida. That's not been restricted. COMMISSIONER FIALA: Oh, good. Oh, I'm glad to hear that, because I did not read that. Okay. The second thing is about businesses. I know someone who owns some beauty shops. And she said, I don't know. We're just so scared. We're so scared. And I said, you own the shop, right? She said, yes. I said, then close it. If you don't want to keep your business open, you don't have to. It's your business, and you don't have to stay open. And I'm figuring same with people. If they feel that they don't want to be on the streets or going to different businesses, well, then stay home. We're all doing a lot of that anyway, staying out of harm's way, and we have plenty of control over what we do. And so people can just stay at home rather than go out and travel for a while. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Any other questions before we go to the -- or comments before we go to the public hearing? COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Yes, Mr. Chair. Commissioner Taylor here. I would like to show on the visualizer a photograph that was taken at noon today. This is Fifth Avenue South, ladies and gentlemen. This is noon. This was sent in to us just before our meeting. I think we all got this. It's amazing to me. This is not even in August. This is worse than August. Worse meaning for the businesses, but the businesses -- there's no one there because the businesses are closed. Waterside is closed. Thank you. March 27, 2020 Page 58 CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Anything else? COMMISSIONER FIALA: Commissioner, just one more addition. I got a call from the Veterinarian Society, and they said that is something that's essential, because they take care of sick dogs and so forth, and they would want you to add them to the list of corporations that are allowed to stay open. Veterinarians. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Yeah. They're already on that list. COMMISSIONER FIALA: Oh, I didn't see them. I'm sorry. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Yes. Okay. If there's nothing else -- COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Mr. Chair. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: -- then I'm going to turn the gavel over to Mr. Solis to conduct the public hearing. Commissioner -- Mr. Chairman Solis, will you take over at this point? COMMISSIONER SOLIS: I will, thank you. Although we're not going to -- are we swearing witnesses? This isn't a public hearing for an ordinance? CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: No, no. This is public comment. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Okay. Well, thank you. And now that I have the gavel, I guess I'll say something else, and that is, there's a lot of people here, obviously, that want to speak to the ordinance. I would just caution that if we're going to take some time to look at this some more, it may not be the document that you are actually going to be speaking about by Monday or Tuesday, if we get to that. So I'm just trying to get my -- the rest of the commissioners' temperature on how we proceed, because I think there's going to have to be some substantial revisions -- not substantial, but some significant revisions for specific industries and things that maybe aren't expressly enumerated in there. March 27, 2020 Page 59 CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Yeah. Let me make a suggestion, if I might. We've got a lot of people that have come. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Okay. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: We don't want them to have to come back. And so I think, let's let everyone speak that wants to speak, even though there may be a change to the order. They will have that order that they can look at and come back if necessary but, perhaps, by having their piece and saying what they want to say, that would eliminate the necessity of them coming back. That's the concern I have is having too many meetings with, you know, people -- COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Sure. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: -- people congregating. That's a problem in and of itself. So that's my suggestion -- COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Sure. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: -- going forward. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: And a point well taken. I was just going to say that if anybody would like to reserve their comments, you might want to, because I think there's going to be some changes to it. So with that said, are we ready for public speakers? COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Yeah. And maybe we could find out how many public speakers we have. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: How many do we have? MR. MILLER: Thirty-one. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Thirty-one. MR. MILLER: Yes. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Very good. MR. MILLER: And, Mr. Chair, Commissioners, I'm going to call -- I usually call off two names. I'm going to call off three, potentially four, because in order to practice safe social distancing, March 27, 2020 Page 60 we have speakers spread out on several floors here in the building. So your first speaker will be Patricia Drow. She will be followed by Crystal Gabbard, who will be followed by Alfie Oakes, and then Steve Bracci. Ms. Drow, either podium, and if Ms. Gabbard can come up to the other podium. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: And I'll just ask if -- for anyone -- if there's somebody that has said what you've said, please feel free to join in what the prior speaker had said. We don't need to prolong it any more than we need to. Thank you. MR. MILLER: Ms. Drow. MS. DROW: I'm Patricia Drow. I'm just an ordinary citizen representing myself. I have lived in the state of Florida for 36 years, however. Full-time permanent resident and resident for many years of Collier County. Statistics, as we've all heard this afternoon, can be ad nauseam, and they can be used for whichever side you are on. So I'm pleading on my own behalf to vote no for this order, and I believe that common sense should prevail. Yes, overkill is overkill. My own particular situation is that I, like a lot of others, love to exercise. It's a healthy outlet for -- you get endorphins physically, mentally. I, unfortunately, have a chronic systemic autoimmune disease which precludes me from being in the sunshine. I cannot tolerate the heat. Therefore, when the Y closed, I have started walking at Coastland Mall each day. Each day I noticed more and more stores have chosen to close. Currently, Dillard's is still remaining open along with two very, very small sports athletic shops. The rest, 95 percent, are closed. The mall is totally void of anybody. It's deserted. And as a plea to people who cannot go out and exercise outside March 27, 2020 Page 61 in this heatwave -- because it is going to be 93 degrees today -- I'm pleading that we -- that whoever the owners of the mall are, Coastland Mall, have chosen to -- for that mall to remain open. I think if they were going to close it, it would have been done along with Edison and Coconut Point. So, therefore, it is a refuge not only for my physical well-being but for my mental and emotional health. So I'm pleading for that exception. I notice on my daily walks, half a dozen people throughout the whole space of the mall. That's social distancing. So, again, it would preserve the few jobs that are there and the businesses that have chosen to remain open and help people like me that cannot enjoy the outdoors and the outside as I would like to to be able to have one positive outlet of enjoyment or joy, which also helps me maintain my physical health. Thank you. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Thank you. MS. DROW: Thanks for listening. I am adding -- would like to add Coastland Mall as an exception that it remain open as long as the owners of that mall do. MR. MILLER: Your next speaker is Crystal Gabbard, followed by Alfie Oakes, then Steve Bracci, then Sam Saad. Ms. Gabbard. MS. GABBARD: Thank you, Commissioners. For this opportunity. I'm here on behalf of our local 40 Days for Life chapter to offer information in response to 8A, specifically reproductive healthcare providers as an essential service, specifically regarding the elective service of abortion, which is outside the scope of the Executive Order 20-72 issued by Governor DeSantis. It states, all office surgery centers and practitioners' offices in the state were prohibited from providing surgery which, if delayed, March 27, 2020 Page 62 does not place the patient's immediate health at risk or will, if delayed, not contribute to the worsening of a serious or life-threatening medical condition. They were to immediately cease performing these elective surgeries. We know that abortion is a choice; therefore, an elective procedure. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Can you just slow down a little bit? We have a court reporter that's trying to follow you. MS. GABBARD: Oh, I'm so, so, so sorry. I'm sorry -- meaning one that was scheduled in advance because it does not involve a medical emergency. And the importance of canceling essential procedures is crucial, as you heard earlier by our local medical professionals. The American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists noted in a recent press release, continuing to perform elective abortions during a pandemic is medically irresponsible. They use up much-needed resources, masks, gloves, and other personal protective equipment, and approximately 5 percent of women who undergo medical, not surgical, abortions will require evaluations in the hospital, most commonly from hemorrhage. Our nation is facing a blood shortage at this time. We cannot afford to potentially generate more patients to be seen in an already overburdened emergency room. There is no threat to the patient's life if an abortion is not performed at this time. There is also no added risk to pregnant women who contract COVID-19 that we know of, according to CDC. Those at greater risk we know are older than 65 with underlying medical conditions. There have been no cases in maternal deaths reported. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Slow down. MS. GABBARD: Women infected with the coronavirus during pregnancy deliver live babies, according to studies in China. There is no known threat to the child. There have been no known deaths from March 27, 2020 Page 63 coronavirus in newborns to date, according to the CDC. There is no evidence that coronavirus is transferred from mother to baby during pregnancy, unlike the Zika and Ebola. In fact, I would suggest that the safest place for a human might be in the womb of its mother at this time. As you can see, as pro-lifers, we base our information on research and scientific facts. With that, we know that abortion hurts women; however, during this pandemic, it can also hurt our country, neighbors, and families, those we know and love, do life with. I'm asking you to recognize abortion as a nonessential procedure because it is in conflict with the Executive Order 20-72 and, as such, should be deemed inapplicable and severed from this order according to Paragraph 16. I also implore you, for the safety of our local healthcare providers on the front line, to consider urging such providers to donate PPE as they have no emergent need to perform procedures. Thank you. MR. MILLER: Your next speaker is Alfie Oakes. He's been ceded three additional minutes from Jeremy Giles and will be followed by Steve Bracci, Sam Saad, and then Chris Riching. Mr. Oakes, six minutes. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Mr. Giles is here? MR. MILLER: Yes. He's right there, sir. MR. OAKES: Thank you for taking the time to hear me today. I'd like to say -- one thing is I'm not here in any way to try to save my own skin. My business does very well. Right now we're doing about 50 percent more business than usual. So I'm not up here for a personal agenda. I'm here as a patriot because I think this is tremendous government overreach what's going on here. You know, the -- I'm going to talk most of the time I'm here about facts. There's a lot of opinions here. I heard the good doctor March 27, 2020 Page 64 here that comes from the left-wing organization, Collier Medical Society. So while we're talking about opinions, my opinion is that maybe some of the things he said were for different reasons other than maybe our -- what's our best health interest, and after that we'll get on to the facts. But the simple facts just do not warrant any type of a government shutdown when we really look at the factual numbers. And I know that they're saying, oh, we're not going to compare this to the flu early on, and back, you know, when I talked to Governor Rick Scott two weeks, he gave me some compelling arguments of why we should shut down the government and our businesses and things like that. But what we've seen in the last couple weeks does not really reflect of the fear that we originally had. Right now if we look at the total amount of deaths in Dade and Broward County, it's six. The total amount of fatalities in Lee and Collier County combined, it's four. So we have 10 people with fatalities out of 6.2 million people. That's very minimal. And believe me, every life is very important to me. But we can't close down our whole economy based on a very minimal amount of lost lives. Right now there's nine people in the Collier County hospitals with corona. It's very minimal. Obviously, we're afraid that it could get much worse, but the signs aren't showing us. Right now -- last night at the White House, Dr. Birx came out and said that this is trending to be more of a one-tenth of a percent like -- normal to, like, a normal flu virus versus the 3-and-a-half to 5 percent that they originally, you know, were talking about from the World Health Organization and the CDC. And while these people, I'm sure, have great intentions from those organizations, it's the same -- same people that told us there was going to be 10 -- a million cases of Ebola that ended up only March 27, 2020 Page 65 being 30,000. So they're always erring on the side of caution. You know, the truth is we have 1,380 people that have died in this country so far from the COVID-19. A normal flu season -- this is not my records. This is CDC. We know that 61,000 people died from March to October [sic] with the normal flu season, and there wasn't a word about it. Nothing shut down. So if we're going to take this stance that we're so worried about every human life -- and believe me, we are -- that means that we should just shut our whole Collier County -- you know, businesses all down every flu season. Between the 15th of October till the 15th of March, we just need to shut it all down because we're so worried about every human life that -- and if that's the stance we're going to take, then let's start closing every business from that time. We'll just shut it all down. But at some point you have to look at the long-term consequences of, you know -- besides economic consequences, there's -- the suicide rate has doubled. There's a lot of really bad thing that are happening as a result of the economic tragedy. You know, if we want to keep -- if we wanted to keep, you know, going where we're worried so much about lives, there's 2,500 people per day that die of heart disease. So if we're going to take that stance, then we would say, you know, maybe the government should decide that it should enact something to close down every fast food restaurant because that's causing a lot of heart disease. I mean, at what point does the government overreach take away our civil liberties to the point where we no longer can make decisions? We have the choice in this country to make good and bad decisions. If you eat Big Macs every day, you're probably going to end up with heart disease, but is that -- you know, at what point does the overreach, you know, make it to where we no longer have any liberties left? And that's where I feel like we're going. March 27, 2020 Page 66 I've never felt in my life a time -- you know, when I was growing up as a young teenager, the first time I ever really started thinking about how in Nazi Germany could Hitler have persuaded everybody to do the things he's done? And up until the last two weeks, it was always kind of mysterious to me how it could happen. But right now, I kind of can see how it all happened. The government kind of comes in, and everybody conforms, and it's really scary. These are scary times for me. Thank you for listening. MR. MILLER: Your next speaker -- COMMISSIONER SOLIS: I've got a question. I mean, if -- I just have a question for Mr. Oakes. If the numbers aren't enough to warrant this kind of overreach, tell me what number would be. MR. OAKES: Maybe a number that got up close to the normal flu season that we never talk about. So let's say that right now we're at 13,800, or maybe I would say, probably -- if we're going to really shut down all the businesses, I would say it would probably be double the amount of a normal flu season. So if we got up to 120,000 deaths, then that number would be somewhat alarming, maybe double a normal flu season, and you might start thinking about closing. You know, right now we're not really seeing any conclusive proof that it's going to be worse. It could be. I mean, it could be -- COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Thank you. MR. OAKES: Yeah, thank you. MR. MILLER: Your next speaker is Steve Bracci, followed by Sam Saad, Chris Riching, and then Lauren Melo. MR. BRACCI: Good afternoon, Board. Steve Bracci, Collier County resident. To pick up where -- that question from Commissioner Solis just asked, perhaps the correct number of people would be the number of March 27, 2020 Page 67 people that is balanced against the other interests, which I'm not seeing much of today. I see we brought up the physicians, who, incidentally, are not epidemiologists. They're out of their lane when they're talking about some of this stuff. They're physicians. But, you know, we had Sheriff Rambosk here today. Why did we not ask Sheriff Rambosk if there's been an uptick of mental health issues, such as suicide, domestic violence? We didn't hear that today. We just heard from the physicians. Anyway, I want to get back to my prepared remarks. Like most Americans, I'm stating the obvious when I say that I'm an advocate of personal liberty. And we do not like to see it watered down under the justification of some kind of emergency. We gave up all of our liberties after 9/11, and 15 years later it manifested itself in some of the worst abuses by federal government that we've ever seen in this country. We need to be careful here. Our Collier County community should generally oppose any type of mass closing of our local economy, and to Commissioner Taylor's earlier point, particularly a resolution such as the one in front of you that seems as watered down as it is with so many exemptions and caveats that, effectively, it nullifies any real benefit that it may have to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Given the magnitude of this extraordinary proposed resolution and the adverse exponential and mental health consequences it could have on our citizenry, I would think that there would be a careful legal review conducted by the county on this proposed resolution. And to that end, this morning I asked the County Attorney to provide me with any memorandum that had been prepared. He informed me that there's been none. That's concerning. This is a big enough issue for us that we should not be relying on the Gadsden County or the Alachua County Attorney. We don't March 27, 2020 Page 68 know how much due diligence those guys did when they prepared theirs. We should have our own. There should be a formal legal memorandum on these points. What type of things should we be considering? Well, number one, what is the limits of authority when the governor has already declared a state of emergency on these same points and has implemented his own executive orders? Number two, you know, we're getting into the area of temporary takings with closing businesses and, yet, this is so arbitrary as to which businesses are staying open and which are not. Commissioner Taylor pointed out, there's 37 enumerated exceptions here. You know, are we at the risk of not having a rational basis? Are we at the risk of experiencing civil rights and equal protection lawsuits for the way this is drafted? How about vagueness? I, as an attorney, can practice law to the extent necessary to legally -- implement legally mandated activity. What is legally mandate activity? What if I'm doing nothing? Is that mandated? I mean, what does it mean to be legally mandated? It's internally conflict -- internal conflicts. Clothing stores, realtors. I mean, if -- government folks -- if the landscaper -- COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Thank you. MR. BRACCI: All right. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And I just -- I want to make a point of clarification. And you might have been out of the room, but when Sheriff Rambosk spoke to us earlier, I didn't put him on the spot for updated information today, but on Tuesday he did report that in the first two weeks of what we have brought forward, specifically over -- I think he -- to be specific, over the weekend, he did -- he did report a 30 percent increase in domestic violence calls that came to the Sheriff. And I wasn't sure -- you mentioned that earlier. I did ask March 27, 2020 Page 69 that -- I didn't ask him for update -- I mean, that's only -- today's Friday. I didn't ask for new news. He did say there had been a leveling off since then, and there was an increase over the weekend. But I wanted you to hear that. MR. BRACCI: Thank you. I did step out. I had to take call. Thank you. MR. MILLER: Your next speaker is Sam Saad, followed by Chris Riching, Lauren Melo, and then commissioner -- Planning Commissioner Patrick Dearborn. MR. SAAD: Good afternoon. My name is Sam Saad, III. My address is 1363 14th Avenue North, Naples, 34102. I'm here today to ask you to reconsider your emergency order to clearly include real estate agents and settlement service providers as essential businesses. Collectively, this industry employs nearly 10,000 people in Collier County, all of whom can do their work safely and remotely without interacting with the general public through the use of modern technology. Please consider real estate transactions and title recordings to be declared an essential business which should remain active with steps taken in order to minimize risks to workers. These businesses provide services that are legally mandated by contract, and they work with the financial industry in processing escrow payments. Furthermore, the federal government considers financial services essential. I have from -- this came from Wells Fargo this morning. Wells Fargo is part of the financial service sector identified as critical infrastructure sector by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Per their bulletin dated March 19th, 2020, the essential critical infrastructure workforce for the financial sector includes workers who are needed to process and maintain systems for processing financial transactions including settlement services and key third-party providers who deliver core services to provide March 27, 2020 Page 70 consumers with access to banking and lending services. I'll add that 90 percent of the work we do is from home or offices without interacting with the public. With regard to certain interactions, such as taking pictures in particular units, this could be done in a safe manner using social distancing. We can take steps to ensure safety, including permitting -- permitted recording of documents, only submitting things online and through electronic platforms or by email or, if they have to be in person, by appointment with appropriate safeguards for the duration of the crisis. I'll remind you that in the absence of a functioning real estate economy and contracts progress would not -- contracts in progress would not close. Real estate is the single most important leg of our local economy, and low interest rates are allowing refinances that are going to be essential for keeping people in their homes as we weather this crisis. Thank you. MR. MILLER: Your next speaker is Chris Riching, followed by Lauren Melo -- COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: I'm sorry. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: I believe Commissioner Taylor has a question. COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Just a quick question. Hi, neighbor. MR. SAAD: Hi, neighbor. COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: So, right now you say in your firm, right, or 90 percent of your workers. How are you operating now? Are they without -- without anything mandated? MR. SAAD: We have taken -- unfortunately, our industry is in a state of flux. The state passed remote online notary effective January 1, but the technology is not entirely there to complete that process. So, where possible, we are having zero interaction with the March 27, 2020 Page 71 public. Where we are required to bring a person into our office, we have put cleaning procedures in place. They don't meet with anyone but me. I stay away from everybody else. We wipe everything with Lysol and Clorox, and are just processing the closing transactions as best as possible. I will say that it's been a -- it's been a bit of a challenge, but we are keeping what I consider an essential part, the financial sector, moving. I mean, there are people who are desperate to get into homes. There are people who are desperate to get out of their homes. It's been a challenge, but we're keeping it moving, and we're keeping everything clean and away from the public. COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: And a majority of your transactions right now today are in the office, or do you -- MR. SAAD: No, they're online. COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: They're online. MR. SAAD: Yeah. So the -- some of my employees are working -- can work from home because they have the ability -- they have the computers at home, and everything is online. Some of the employees are in the office. But the ones that are in the office are not interacting with the public, and the only public that comes in are, like I said, required to, like, sign a mortgage. So if you are a cash buyer, for example, it's entirely an online process. If you are a seller, the statute requires two witnesses, the notary, and the notary has to be either in person or complying with these remote online procedures, and we're just limiting the ability of people to interact with each other as much as possible. And we have found it to be very effective. COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Thank you. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Thank you. MR. MILLER: Your next speaker is Chris Riching followed by Lauren Melo, Planning Commissioner Dearborn, and then State March 27, 2020 Page 72 Representative Byron Donalds. MR. RICHING: Good afternoon. My name is Chris Riching. I'm the executive vice president of Bill Smith, Incorporated, and I'm here on behalf of ownership of the company to discuss not so much the initiation of a stay-at-home order but to discussing specifics, the order itself, and specifically Section 8.i. And under Section 8.i, appliance repair is an essential business established as an essential business; however, what's absent from this order is appliance sales. And I can tell you that as we have an incredibly large market share across the Southwest Florida footprint, we are seeing an increased demand in certain types of products. Those products are those things that we need for food preservation, medications to be preserved in refrigeration, foods, of course, cleaning equipment, laundry, dishwashers, those things. Obviously they're dominating our purchase experience at this time. Our market share is significant, was significant before and is greater today as we watch Best Buy nationally closing stores. They are not allowing customers in the store. While they do allow virtual purchases, they will not bring the product into the home. And no one in this room is probably capable of taking a refrigerator off the doorstep and bringing it into the house; other than you. So due to the fact that we possessed a greater than 15 percent market share already placing over 1,000 refrigerators this month alone into the market, over 1,200 laundry units into the homes this month alone during this crisis, also well over 700 dishwashers and countless other products people rely upon, we're a self-servicing dealer, so we see both sides of this. The service is a small part of the demand that we're seeing. And please keep in mind, service is a long horizon for a solution. We have to get to you first. You have to be the next in line. That can take a few days. We have to diagnose, order parts, return again, March 27, 2020 Page 73 waiting a few days; easily a seven to 10-day window to get something. Too often it's too old. It's not worth it money-wise to perform that repair. We would like to point to Governor Newsom's California order, Executive Order N-33-20, which specifically called out appliance retailers as essential, and the entire state of California's operating under that premise. Our data, with Best Buy shut down, with Ferguson's shut down, with Monark shut down, with Design by Raymond shut down, and Fuse all shut down, five of our appliance competitors are now closed, leaves basically Home Depot, Lowe's, Bill Smith, Incorporated. Home Depot and Lowe's cannot meet the needs of our this, and if we are not established as an essential business, this community will go out -- without its vital products and services, which we provide. We feel it is imperative that Section 8.i include appliance retail sales. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: No, I'm good. Thank you very much. MR. MILLER: Your next speaker is Laurie Melo, followed by Planning Commissioner Dearborn, State Representative Byron Donalds, and then Tom Conroy. MS. MELO: Good afternoon. For the record, my name is Lauren Melo. I am the president of the Naples Area Board of Realtors. I understand your intent to keep citizens safe and essential services in place. This involves tough decisions concerning businesses and professional services that contribute to our local economy. That said, on behalf of our 7,000 members, I am before you today to respectfully request that real estate and settlement services, including residential leasing, be considered essential businesses. The housing market has a trickle-down effect into other areas of March 27, 2020 Page 74 our community. And though we are asking for special consideration, it comes with my board and our members' dedication to acting responsible and not put ourselves and those we work with in harm's way. I recognize that your consideration of this request is dependent on details regarding the health and safety of our buyers, sellers, and the professionals involved at every level of the real estate process. We understand that everyday function will need to be modified. Please know that our board, out of an abundance of caution, has already taken substantial steps to keep our members and those they work with safe. We have quickly responded and provide updates and information to our members on how they can conduct business safely with precaution and without putting either themselves or others in harm's way. We have suspended public showings in our MLS system, and we are urging members to follow CDC guidelines and strongly encouraging members to continue virtual operations. This means virtual open houses, virtual showings and, of course, our e-closing, as Sam Saad referred to. I would also like to mention, as Sam pointed out, that Sanibel has just announced that they are not supporting the stay-at-home and -- on the island of Sanibel. I would like to thank you for your time and consideration. MR. MILLER: Your next speaker is Planning Commissioner Patrick Dearborn, followed by Representative Byron Donalds, Tom Conroy, and then Keith Flaugh. MR. DEARBORN: Afternoon, Commissioners. Thank you guys for this task you've got before you. All county employees. Leo, all you guys. It's a tough, tough spot to be in, but I know you guys will see this thing through. Based on the comments I've heard already -- I've heard some March 27, 2020 Page 75 great points, especially by Alfie Oakes and our NABOR president, Sam Saad, et cetera. I want to reserve my right to speak based on I feel like we're going to be coming back here again next week to say how some things play out, which I think's a great idea, and postpone this vote today. So I'll reserve my right and time for then. And just one last thought is, thoughts and prayers go out for everybody affected by this. I don't think anybody in this room is trying to downplay the effect this is having. I think we're here to talk about the picture of this ordinance and the need that we don't -- that this should not be passed as it is. Thank you. MR. MILLER: Your next speaker, Representative Byron Donalds, followed by Tom Conroy, then Keith Flaugh, and Rich Yovanovich. REPRESENTATIVE DONALDS: Commissioners, how you guys doing? First of all, let me just tell you, I know exactly what you're having to go through, being a member of the legislature. Every now and again we are faced with questions about legislation we're going to put through for the entire state of Florida in times of crisis. So my comments here really are coming from a place where I know exactly the decision that's in front of you, and I hope that you take my words in that vein. The first thing I would say, having got a chance to read this ordinance, there are many issues with it. The first one is, is I simply don't think -- and I think the County Attorney alluded to that, that you don't have the authority to issue a stay-at-home order for citizens of Collier County. It is my opinion that such an order should come from the governor. And if local government is going to take that action -- I know there are several local governments in the state of Florida who March 27, 2020 Page 76 have taken this action. I believe they've taken it without proper authority from the legislature and from the governor. Point two, I think Section 10 of the ordinance causes major issues. It puts your County Manager in a bad situation where he is -- he is going to be the arbiter of what is an unessential business that's allowed to operate under this order, and it puts a time constraint on him because your order expires on April 17th. So how is he or his designee going to be -- have the time to vet what's essential -- what nonessential business is allowed to operate? That part of your ordinance is very problematic. But, Commissioners, the largest thing is really the duty that you hold. It has been said in this room, and rightfully so, that you have a duty to protect the health, the safety, and the welfare of the citizens of Collier County. I have that same duty as well. But you also have another duty, and that is protect the Constitution of the United States and to uphold the civil liberties of all the citizens of Collier County. I share that same duty. And in times like this where we have major issues of crisis, the Constitution must stand firm, and you have to -- you have to show the necessary restraint to make sure that we do the things necessary to protect our citizens, to protect their welfare, and protect their health, but at the same time their constitutionally protective rights cannot be eroded in the face of the crisis that we are seeing around us. My heart goes out to everybody that's having to deal with this crisis. It is something that we're going to have to work through, and I think a lot of citizens are already taking the necessary steps in order to social distance, the picture which was shown about what's happening on Fifth Avenue right now, today. But, Commissioners, take great care in what your next steps are. I know you're going to probably do some additional revisions. I will tell you that I know that it was said that you might not want to see March 27, 2020 Page 77 everybody have to come back and repeat what they're going to say, but I think it's critical that people do come back and repeat what they have to say, because this affects the everyday lives of the citizens of Collier County. And I would urge you to either, A, postpone this vote or vote no today, and I would actually urge you to vote no in the future. Thank you. MR. MILLER: Your next speaker is Tom Conroy, followed by Keith Flaugh, Rich Yovanovich, and then Roberts Weeks. MR. CONROY: Good afternoon. My name is Tom Conroy. I've been a citizen, a resident of Collier County since 1963. I live at 85 Caribbean Road. I would like to speak against the ordinance. It's my belief that your duty should be to examine how our social distancing techniques are working presently before we make a decision to further lock down this community. Dr. Mark Prysi, who's a physician here in town, indicated to me today that the Medical Society, the gentleman who spoke earlier today, did not take any vote, did not send any emails, did not contact any physicians on a general basis as to their position on this issue. Dr. Mark Prysi and his colleagues, who he keeps in contact with, indicates that they are against this lockdown ordinance, and they're not in favor of it. You also heard something from one of the physicians who spoke in favor of this that South Korea had some type of a quarantine and, as best that I understand, South Korea did not have a quarantine. They, in fact, had aggressive testing. They tested over 255,000 people and then quarantined those who tested positive. So even the physician who spoke about trying to quarantine our community did not understand the South Korea quarantine in the fact that there was none. The CEO of the hospital indicated that our hospital is healthy, March 27, 2020 Page 78 that there are beds available, and that he believes that we're -- he said the hospital is healthy. I guess he didn't go as far as to say he thinks we'll be able to manage it. But he said the hospital is healthy. Beds are available right now. Sheriff Rambosk indicated that social distancing seems to be working. We saw a picture of Fifth Avenue. No one's there. I believe this social distancing is going to work. It's going to be effective at lowering our incident rate and flattening or curve. I believe that Commissioner Solis' question of will this lockdown reduce the transmission rate is not the proper question, with all due respect. Of course it will reduce the transmission rate. The question is, what is the cost of that additional reduction? I believe that we need to have an analysis of how our present social distancing is going to work, and we need to recognize the costs that we're already experiencing is immense. I'm a real estate attorney here in Naples. Already landlords are calling me and telling me that businesses are not paying their rents. They can't afford to pay their mortgages. We all know people. If they're not employed, they're not going to pay their mortgages. We've got severe problems that are upcoming. I don't believe that locking us down and creating more businesses that can't pay their rent and more landlords that can't pay their mortgages is the way that we need to proceed. So I'd like to encourage a balance. Make sure that our existing social distancing is not working before we adopt any draconian lockdown in Collier County. Thank you. MR. MILLER: Your next speaker is Keith Flaugh, followed by Rich Yovanovich, then Robert Weeks, and then Corey -- I'm having trouble reading this. Craven? Craven maybe? Mr. Flaugh? MR. FLAUGH: Good afternoon, Commissioners. I'm here to March 27, 2020 Page 79 speak to you to urge you to vote no today. It seems to be a foregone conclusion you're going to do something, and we have to come back. You've heard some very good arguments. I thought the one from our state representative on the constitutionality was extremely valid. But I do think there's a history lesson here that we can all learn from. I'm reminded of a World War II story for the Battle of Bastogne. When surrounded by insurmountable odds and overwhelming German forces, U.S. General McAuliffe responded to a German demand to surrender his forces, what did he say? Nuts. Nuts. I usually try to stay calm and very balanced during these types of discussions, but if you authorize the shutdown ordering -- that you're ordering, you are surrendering out of fear and destroying our economic ability to fight this virus. You have a responsibility to not do that. I urge you not to contribute to the destruction of our economy. I also would reinforce the question on constitutionality. Our constitution makes it very clear; your single role is to protect the life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness of all of us, and if you persist with this, you are failing in that responsibility. MR. MILLER: Your next speaker is Rich Yovanovich, followed by Robert Weeks, Corey Cragman. Sorry, I cannot read your last name, Corey, and then Thomas Turner. MR. YOVANOVICH: Good afternoon. Rich Yovanovich. Much of what I going to say has already been said, but I do want to emphasize a couple of points regarding how important construction obviously is to Collier County from its economic base. We experienced it not too long ago when construction did, in fact, stop for other reasons. Jeff has, I think, an impossible task in writing an order that truly addresses all of the situations regarding what should be allowed, what March 27, 2020 Page 80 shouldn't be allowed as an essential service. For instance, there's ambiguities in the ordinance, and I didn't catch all of them when I sent my draft to you on the redline. There's more I need to make. But with regard to -- there's one place in your ordinance you say construction can continue but then in another place it says only engineering and architectural services can continue for what's currently in place, which would imply that you can't continue to pull permits for new houses. So there's some ambiguity there that needs to be taken care of. I'm glad to see we're going to hopefully take care of residential closings, or all closings, to make sure that that can all happen, but you don't even list the ability for people to move into those houses as an allowed use under this ordinance. So you don't have moving companies as an essential service here. People are going to buy their house or close, and they want to move in. There's a lot of things that are missing in this ordinance. What I really want to stress, though, is the construction industry has, in fact, taken this illness very seriously. They are practicing social distancing on their construction sites. They are mandating that if people are not feeling well, do not come to work. Keep your distance. They're doing smaller crews at these different sites to make sure that they can accommodate social distancing. My feeling is, I know my own company has been practicing social distancing. We've got almost 50 employees. I don't meet the small business exemption of five, but we're practicing social distancing. I think it's been effective. It's not perfect, but I do think it's been effective. The construction industry's doing that. I know the real estate industry is doing that. A lot of people are doing what is necessary to make sure we don't get our family members sick. But we do need to recognize that business needs to go on, and it needs to March 27, 2020 Page 81 go on in a safe way. I think everybody in this room is committed to continuing business operations in a safe way. I know that the clients that I represent that are asking that construction be allowed to continue will continue to do business in a safe way and so will the realtor companies that we represent and the closing agents that we represent. I think you need -- you've got -- everybody's -- you've got everybody's attention, which I think was one of your goals. You need to mandate social distancing is in place, and it's serious business. I don't know that you can craft a stay-at-home order that will meet every situation. Thank you. MR. MILLER: Your next speaker is Robert Weeks, followed by Corey, last name begins with a C, and then Thomas Turner, and then Jacob Winge. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: I know Representative Rommel's here, and I don't know where he -- MR. MILLER: He gave me slip very late, sir. Do you want me to call him now? COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Yeah. Why don't we just hear from -- MR. MILLER: Representative Rommel. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Get it out of the way. REPRESENTATIVE ROMMEL: Thank you, Commissioner. I thought Priscilla filled out my slip for me. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Are we going to dock her pay? REPRESENTATIVE ROMMEL: Well, let's hope not, because she doesn't get paid enough as it is. But first of all, you know, I want to thank you guys for taking this serious, and on a state level we are taking it, you know, very serious. And, I think because of the actions of the governor, we have March 27, 2020 Page 82 the results that we have. We have a very small percentage of the population that has been infected already. If you compare to, you know, New York or Washington, much higher percentages. And in the state of Florida, most of the infected come from two counties on the East Coast. We've basically shut down the state of Florida, you know. Commissioner Taylor, that was a great visual there. As a business owner, you know, not for myself, but Collier County is shut down. The only people that are going out are people that are going to the grocery stores. And if we want to have an honest conversation, when you go to the grocery store, there are people standing within six feet of each other, especially when they're checking out. The doctors talked before about the need for PPEs and collection tests. Yesterday, with one phone call I found 5,000 collection tests that will get results within 24 hours. So there are supplies out there. PPEs are definitely a problem because we have to get that on a much faster pace. I know the County Attorney talked about in your resolution that it would be just a mere fine. But I looked up Florida Statute 252-50. It's a second-degree misdemeanor. So I don't know what due process that we're going to do to actually charge people with misdemeanors here. I don't know, you know, what we're going to do. You know, the county is doing you a great job. You know, the county actually has some of the lowest numbers in the states, the county, when you've based it on the size of the population we have. People are already leaving. People are social distancing, because we're leaving the county. I mean, people are going back home. They want to be closer to their families. Whatever's going to happen's going to happen. But we can't just decide what business can stay open when we know that the businesses that are open, like Alfie's market, there's thousands of people there every single day. March 27, 2020 Page 83 If we're -- if we truly believe this is going to stop the spread, sorry, Alfie, we're going to have to close your business, too. And, you know, somehow the National Guard's going to have to distribute food. And what about the folks that work at Walgreens? You think that by closing -- you decide what businesses can stay open or close, the workers at Walgreens that make 10, 12, $15 an hour, they're going to feel good about going to work? They're going to be afraid. We can't instill panic. I know one of the provisions you had in there, the governor just has an order that we're going -- that he's going to suspend new vacation rentals for the next 14 days, so we can take that out of the provision there. But we can't -- we can't decide that we're going to take away due process. We're going to stomp on individual civil liberties because we think we're going to save, you know, people's lives, and -- you know, we have to do what we can, but, you know, people are going out. People are doing a better job washing. You know, people are -- we have -- I think Commissioner Fiala said it best, too, when she was talking about her hair salon. We need to let businesses decide if it's best for them to close down, if it's best for their families to close down, but we can't, as a business -- as a government decide, you know, we're going to allow -- architects are going to stay open. I mean, has the county government decided to furlough all its nonessential employees yet. We can't do that. We can't take away people's rights. We're doing a great job in the state, and I know in the county we're doing a really good job, but, you know, please don't impose any more, you know. Thank you. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I have a question. March 27, 2020 Page 84 COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Question. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And I may have misunderstood. Did you say you know where there's an availability of tests and/or PPEs? REPRESENTATIVE ROMMEL: Yes, sir, I do, and I talked to Jamie Cunningham yesterday. I talked to the CEO of -- COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: You don't have to say it today. I mean, you can if you wish. But I just -- I would like to make a proclamation or a statement that if anybody knows where there's an availability of any additional test kits and/or PPEs, please get that information to the officials, your county commission. I'm sure we'll all accept that information and pass it on, so -- REPRESENTATIVE ROMMEL: We gave -- I gave that information yesterday to both of them. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Perfect. Thank you very much. I just -- you brought it up, and I was like, oomph. I want to make sure that there isn't somebody else sitting out there with a stockpile somewhere. REPRESENTATIVE ROMMEL: Thanks. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Thank you. MR. MILLER: Your next speaker is Robert Weeks, followed by Corey C-r-a, last name starts. Don't see him either. I do see Thomas Turner. Come up on, Mr. Turner. He's been ceded three additional minutes from Nick Turner, and because of the rare nature of the day, we just confirmed that the other Mr. Turner was here when we took the speaker slips. He's probably just in another room. So you'll have six minutes. And you'll be followed by Jacob Winge. MR. TURNER: It won't take me long. Hey, thank the Board. I March 27, 2020 Page 85 appreciate all you-all. I know it's busy. It's hectic. It's hectic for everybody. People are definitely nervous about the virus. I want to thank you-all for letting us continue on with the construction. I would ask that the county and the city continue on with the permitting process and being able to let their employees come and continue evaluating the plans and get them out and get them done. We did our first virtual inspection yesterday with the city. It went well. And it has put a lot of pressure on a lot of people, and I know that people are really concerned about this virus. Coronavirus has been around for centuries. I don't have to tell you like a doctor, but if you read on the back of these things, it says corona, and it didn't get on there yesterday. It's been around for a while. This is a different strand. I know that 300 million people died from smallpox. I'm a little bit older than some of you in here but not as old as some. I'm been around about 65 years, and I've lived all my life right here in Naples. And I have went and got every vaccine that has been available that was done, and my mom dragged me down there, whether it was ones to get a shot or it was taken by mouth vaccine. I know that there is -- a lot of the younger people don't believe in these vaccines. They believe they're detrimental to their children or hurt them or they get a situation where they don't develop correctly mentally or physically, but it outweighs not getting it. I'm standing here today, and I know that without these vaccines, a lot of you would be not here either today and dying. And so people need to get the vaccine, and hopefully they'll have one for this. It's bad. I don't know the man that stood up here and said that, you know, two-million-plus people were going to die. That would be 800 people a day going to start falling to get to two million by the end of the year, and we've already been three months into this. March 27, 2020 Page 86 And most of this virus and stuff, yeah, it's airborne. It's transmitted by the air, because if it started in China, it didn't jump in Naples, Florida, by virtually getting in the air and getting here. People transported themselves to different countries and different aspects. People have family lives. Chinese people have family lives. They've been traveling back and forth. This heavy virus that has hit Italy over there. That's the Northern District of Italy that Chinese decided to buy out to get into this clothing line and to different fabrics, and they bought the mills and stuff. They brought 370,000 people, and they come from that district of Wu [sic] that you're talking about. Because we've studied all this to figure out how a lot of this is. So them people went back and forth since October. So they flew back and forth to their country. And they're no different than us as Americans. We love our families. We like to have them ties. We like to communicate with them. That's how a lot of this virus has got here to the U.S. I think that if a lot of the flying stopped today -- and I know it can't, but if it did, people would stay into the districts that they are and the counties that they're in. The county that you talked about in Albany, Georgia, that's where my uncle, which was Charlie Brown -- they was in the U.S. Air Force. That's a military area. And you know what happens when military people travel. Them people there do not too good at distancing. But with the military, you're going to end up traveling, and people are going to get exposed. Two -- a couple of Navy sailors got off over in Vietnam, young and probably immature. Went into town and ended up picking this virus up, brought it back to the carrier. They've since took them off. Thank goodness. You infect 5,000 people on one carrier. But we need to be careful. And you don't -- you know, I know March 27, 2020 Page 87 that we love to be -- as Americans we love to go and get together, but I think that distancing is a criteria for it. But I think that -- I don't know that shutting all of the counties down, whether it be Collier or Lee, is going to help. I think that it's only going to be left up to the physicians and our scientists to find something of a vaccine that would help. But you're going to see much more people die. I mean, they're already infected. If you do the math, you do 15 today, and you get to the 14th day and he goes over here and another guy hits him, there is nothing that says that he won't get it 15 more days later. Then he's got to go into that. He comes out of it, walks out of the hospital, bumps into his buddy that's come to see his buddy, talks to him, has communication, 15 more days. We're 45 days in for one person. They haven't said whether that's going to go away. You know -- and people are wearing masks, but when people are speaking, a lot of times there is a certain amount of moisture coming from your mouth that gets into your eye, and your eye's the most susceptible place on your body to get stuff and is really contagious. But thank you for all that you're doing. I'd say right now that I would relook at all of this before I did a vote, and -- because there's a lot of people going to get left out, and there's going to be a lot of lawsuits, you know, and the courthouse will be full of them from just what we've been told today from people's rights. Thank you-all for what you-all been doing. MR. MILLER: Your next speaker is Jacob Winge. He'll be followed by Daniel Wassermann, then Carolyn Johnson, and Terri Caspersen. MR. WINGE: Good afternoon. For the record, Jacob Winge. Thank you, Commissioners, for allowing time to speak today. I'll be brief, as I think there's going to be a re-convenience on this issue, and I hope that some of the issues that the people have brought March 27, 2020 Page 88 up with the ordinance, if you do choose to pass it, that those are included. The one thing that I would just ask is that you try to balance the need to protect those most vulnerable, continue to provide resources to our healthcare providers, those that are out there, whether it's medical supply companies trying to get supplies here, logistics and so forth, while also balancing the need to protect the backbone of our economy and small businesses. In a large fashion, if we take more steps than are necessary too early at a time, I think that we're going to see consequences economically in our community that are going to be very hard to repair and step back from. So thank you again for the time to speak today. MR. MILLER: Your next speaker is Daniel Wassermann, followed by Carolyn Johnson, followed by Terri Caspersen. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Maybe you better go out on more than four. MR. MILLER: I'm saving some of these names that haven't responded. We'll go over them again at the end. Shea duPont. COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Oh, here's somebody. MR. MILLER: Are you Ms. Caspersen? Pardon me? Oh, Carolyn Johnson? COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: There she is. Yes. MR. MILLER: Come right on up. Yes, ma'am. And if David R. Forward is in the house, you would be on deck, sir. MS. JOHNSON: Good afternoon. For the record, I am Carolyn Johnson with Goodwill Industries of Southwest Florida. Thank you-all for hearing all of our comments today. I'm here on behalf of Goodwill Industries also to say that for 53 years we have been serving the five-county area of Southwest Florida, and Collier County, of course, being a very important and March 27, 2020 Page 89 big part of our mission services. So just letting you-all know that we are here as we've always been in emergency situations and any type of situation as a community partner, and we support any decision that you come and you come to a conclusion with, we're here as a community partner to help you. But to bring to light that we do have areas, we do have store locations where our parking lot, where our drive-through centers could lend in help of distribution centers in case of emergencies. Something to think about down the line as we progress through this situation. So I just wanted to put that out there that we could help in that way as an emergency partner should you come to that conclusion. The other thing that I wanted to let you-all know is that our CEO, John Nadeau, has been on calls on a regular basis every day with CEOs across the country, other Goodwill CEOs across the country. And so we've been on the front lines to see what happens when people shelter in place, when our stores close, our donation centers close, and it's really not a pretty site. So I'm here to bring to light that we have 25 locations in the Southwest Florida area. We have eight in Collier County. And we want you to consider that as an essential service that we be able to stay open and manage those donations. We get about a thousand donations a day coming in to Collier County. And what happens is that people do drop things off, and if it's not managed and attended, you've got a looting problem. You've got stealing. You've got critters that come in and about. So we really want to be good stewards. We want to be able to keep our community safe and be able to manage those donations through this crisis. So we ask for your consideration as an essential service to keep our donation centers open for Collier County. March 27, 2020 Page 90 Thank you. MR. MILLER: Your next speaker is Terri Caspersen, followed by Shea duPont, David Forward, and then Dean Sarns. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: I'm sorry. If any of those individuals are here, if they could -- the next person could come up to the microphone so we could -- MR. MILLER: And I've got them trying to bring people down from the other viewing areas as we have some seats opening up. Yeah. MS. CASPERSEN: I'm Terri Caspersen, and as you heard from the doctors, they recommend overreacting. And my concern is they talked about two weeks will not end this. How long will it take for it to end? And my question to you is, how are the commissioners going to address the needs of the people that cannot afford their medications, lifesaving medications? In my situation, my son is a Type 1 diabetic. And you all know that insulin has gone up exponentially, and people have been rationing insulin for -- all across the country. So if we have people that can't afford it now, what will happen if people go in lockdown and they can't afford their medications? So I'm just wondering how you're going to address that. I have a couple other concerns as well, and I will mention they talked about shutting down pawn shops. The people that use pawn shops are the people that need that money. And are you going to require the pawn shops to let the people that have their items there get it? Because they have their items there because they're trying to buy food. I mean, yeah, I'm sure they're trying to buy other things, too, but a lot of people are in economic hard times as well, and if the -- you know, the whole tourism industry has affected our servers, you know, our bartenders. March 27, 2020 Page 91 I'm a dental hygienist. I'm not working now because we're trying to save the PPEs. But I tried to apply for unemployment. It took me three days. And I still have to get ahold of unemployment to confirm my Social Security or my identity. I have not been able to get through. And you only have a certain amount of time or they're going to drop your application. So there's a lot of things that need to be considered here for our working class here in town as well. So that's what I had to say. Thank you. MR. MILLER: Your next speaker is Shea duPont. David R. Forward. I've been told we have no more people upstairs. They're all either here or in the hallway. So I'm thinking some of these people might have left. Dean Sarns. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: He's here. MR. MILLER: Mr. Sarns will be followed by Derek Verderamo, am I saying that right, sir? MR. SARNS: Thank you for caring about the community. I'm Dean Sarns. I moved here in '79. I have made medical tools for many years. And you would not believe the tool misuse I have seen. Industrial hygienists are the expert, not doctors. The doctor that testified today had a beard. A beard makes a PPE ineffective. N95 masks are no good for medical use. If they were, we would not hear of sick healthcare workers. They trap 95 percent of the viruses, letting 5 percent through. If a condom leaked 5 percent, would you call that birth control? A mask leaking 5 percent viruses will get you sick. Physicians need P100 filters. If needed, get gas masks from the military. These 95 masks and face shields are filling the landfills. In the 1970s, Venezuela recleaned and reused tubing sets for open heart surgery in IV bags. Our hospitals can clean and reuse face March 27, 2020 Page 92 shields that never touch the patient. The N95 masks need to be used by citizens. Doctors need to use PARR [sic] battery-powered respirators. It's a helmet with an integral face shield. And please require people to have some covering over their mouth in public. I mean, this could be a bandanna that they could cough through. And the open businesses, just have them check people's temperature and don't allow people with fevers in the businesses, and maybe even consider a roadblock, a roving type roadblock. And, you know, tips for people like, take vitamin C, deep breathing. They don't stress this enough because people aren't breathing deep enough, and your body can't clean these out. So thank you. MR. MILLER: Next, Derek Verderamo. Sir, I want to make sure I understand your wishes. Are -- the other three people under the list after you, they want to cede time to you, or do they all want to speak? MR. VERDERAMO: They want to speak briefly. I'm going to be very brief. MR. MILLER: Okay. So you will be followed by John Dalia, then Jose Nunez. MR. VERDERAMO: Yes, and then Eric Solomon would be the other one. MR. MILLER: Yes, please. MR. VERDERAMO: My name is Derek Verderamo. MR. MILLER: On mic, please. MR. OCHS: Pull that mic a little closer. MR. VERDERAMO: My name is Derek Verderamo. I'm an attorney in town. I'm here on behalf of First Pawn Jewelry and Loan, as well as Pine Ridge Pawn. I understand that there may be some changes to the proposed March 27, 2020 Page 93 order that's in place. But I'm here to talk specifically about Paragraph 8.g, which excludes pawn shops, and to point out -- and I've sent emails of those 2,500 emails that you guys have. All commissioners have emails from me, which will include my exhibits that I'm going to address. Specifically, Broward County and Miami-Dade County initially ordered that pawn shops should be excluded from the order, then they subsequently, a few days later, excluded -- excuse me -- prohibited changing the language allowing pawn shops to actually be an essential business. And the basis was -- and I've included -- Mayor Carlos Giminez from Miami-Dade indicated that under the Patriot Act they are considered financial institutions. And, specifically, under Paragraph 16, it would be in direct conflict of what a federal statutes enables, which is Statute 31, U.S.C., 5312, which is going to be in your emails. And by doing so, this order would be in direct conflict of the federal act. Also draw attention to Commissioner Solis' analogy of the balloon. Pawn shops are open in Broward County. They're open in Miami-Dade County. Someone would drive across the Alley, go pledge an item, come right back. Circumvents the purpose of the order. I'm going to have Mr. Solomon as well as Mr. Dalia come up and speak to you. Specifically, they're the owners of the establishments and the purpose and what there entails and what they intend to do. There are three owners in town, and two of them are here present today. Thank you. MR. MILLER: Your next speaker is John Dalia, followed by Jose Nunez, then Eric Solomon. MR. DALIA: Hi. John Dalia. I've been a pawn shop owner for 20 years. Been here through many of hurricanes and helped people March 27, 2020 Page 94 after that. With the kind of unemployment we're going to see -- and I know the government's working on getting them people money, but people are going to fall through the cracks, and we're there for those people. And hopefully, sooner than later, they'll get a cure for this, and people are going to need money for that as well. And you can't walk into BB&T and say I need $50 to get a prescription. They'll laugh at you. But that's what we provide. We provide that quick loan service for the unbanked people and the unemployed people and people a lot of times that get forgotten. Thank you. MR. MILLER: Your next speaker is Jose Nunez, followed by Eric Solomon, and then Michelle Kelly. MR. NUNEZ: Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for being here today. First, I want to say to the county commissioners, none of this is your fault, as we all know, and I know that you're all trying to do something about it. I think everyone who's here -- sometimes people take the position of you're trying to shut down Collier County and, obviously, you-all are the least interested in doing that. So, thank you for holding this -- this forum today. I think that this order is, we've established, and I think all of you, just by looking at your faces for the last couple hours, I think agree it's premature, and it's entirely up in the air in the sense that we're going to create more problems than we are going to solve. I never would have thought that there was going to be someone here advocating here on behalf of appliance stores and, sure enough, several valid concerns. I think that if the enforcement tool the county's going to use is a $500 ordinance violation, Alfie Oakes is going to keep all of his employees open -- I'm sorry -- all of his stores open. He's going to March 27, 2020 Page 95 pay all of his employees, and he's just going to pay the county $500 a day. There's no teeth to this, and I don't think also that, even if there were, this is necessarily the right way to go about it. I find it to be arbitrary. Pawn stores, for example -- and the reason that I'm here, as a member of my firm stated, pawn stores provide an essential service. The County Attorney referred to it as retail. Walmart's retail. Pawn stores aren't retail. They may be retail in the sense that if I bring a TV because I need money to get gas, somebody might come in after me and get a deal on that TV. But if we put as many people out of business as we're talking about putting out of business, pawn stores are going to be an essential part of keeping this community running. And might I add, it's not public -- it's not a public assistance program. If I go into First Florida Integrity Bank and I see my banker, Bill Growel, and I say, here's my Rolex. Can I have $1,000? Bill's going to say no. Meanwhile, people who need financial assistance and have items of value need an outlet in which to sell them. So I think what we're doing here today is pouring water on a grease fire. I think we're going to create more problems than we're solving. With that said, I do believe absolutely that something has to be done. My mom is a cancer survivor. She has a compromised immune system. She hasn't left the house in a few weeks. Something has to be done, whether it's limiting the number of people who go into businesses or other such requirements. I don't know how we decide that it's fair for a dry cleaner to operate as an essential business but a pawn store isn't, or why we need pet stores and Walmart. I don't know how you decide one way or another, and it sounds like Mr. Ochs is going to be that person to March 27, 2020 Page 96 have to make those decisions and effectively put people out of business. And I submit to you that it would be entirely arbitrary what's essential and what isn't, because to every business owner in this town, their business is essential. Thank you. MR. MILLER: Your next speaker is Eric Solomon, followed by Michelle Kelly, and then Tom Henning. MR. SOLOMON: Good afternoon. My name is Eric Solomon. I live here in Naples. Have for about 15 years. I own and operate First Pawn Jewelry and Loan. We're open 9:00 to 8:00. We service about 250 people a day. Most actually come in for a loan. Come to shop, look around a little bit, but we're not as retail as maybe it was made out to be earlier that the representative there stated. Most of what we see are 200 to $300 tickets that are property that was pledged on behalf of that. When they come back, they pay a small fee. We have started setting up a number of things to build a barrier that would probably be similar to the barriers that Walmart are setting up. That will help with some of the CDC type regulations and so forth. Our industry services a clientele base that maybe you don't see every day, or maybe you do and you don't look their way. They're your neighbor, quite frankly. I see a lot of people that maybe have really good jobs, maybe don't have jobs at all. I just implore you to consider keeping us open. We'd appreciate your opportunities there. MR. MILLER: Your next speaker is Michelle Kelly followed by Tom Henning. Ms. Kelly? (No response.) March 27, 2020 Page 97 MR. MILLER: Mr. Henning, please come up. And after him, Mr. Chair or Vice Chair, if you don't mind, I'll call these names again just to make sure, but I do believe they're gone. Mr. Henning. MR. HENNING: Good afternoon, Commissioners. Tom Henning. I find it quite interesting your last direction was -- and you all agreed to it -- is to see what Lee County's going to do as a regional basis for trying to prohibit social distancing -- or create more social distancing, and you came back as a single county resolution prohibiting some businesses. I don't understand how that happens. But it does include the municipalities, and I don't see City Council from Everglades or Naples here to weigh in on this. Your county attorney stated he does not know in this resolution is enforceable. He's still not going to know, if you partnership with Lee County, if it's legally enforceable. You're exposing the taxpayers of Collier County, because you know you can't limit rentals, and in this ordinance, short-term rentals are in there as limiting it. You just heard that pawn shops is an essential business, but it's in this ordinance. What else is in this -- not in this ordinance besides retail businesses? So what I implore you to do today is vote no not only on this resolution -- excuse me, not ordinance, resolution -- but let the governor decide what is in the best interest of all the residents in the great state of Florida. He has my interest, and he has your interest in this, everybody's interest. So that's what I really would like you to do. Let me tell you that -- I have a friend of mine, single mom, two kids, takes care of her 82-year-old father. She's a hairdresser. She doesn't work. She's out of a job. And you know what, in the downturn of the economy, that was the time that she can afford a March 27, 2020 Page 98 house. She has her own house. How long is she going to keep this -- her own house if she's not working? She's going to get some money from the federal government. Now, she's going to pawn off her motorcycle, I'm sure. I don't know whether it's going to be in Dade County or not. The girl that cuts my hair is the girl that I went to school with. I talked to her today and asked her if she had any supplies that I could provide to her to keep her safe? Her shop closed down Tuesday. So we are already social distancing from each other and through businesses, so it's working. Please, I implore you, let the governor make that decision. Thank you. MR. MILLER: Mr. Antonio Dumornay? MR. DUMORNAY: Good morning, everybody. Good morning -- afternoon, everybody. I've been following this whole thing. I've been at work. I'm here to speak on behalf of a lot of employees. No disrespect to the business community, but a lot of people are really freaking out right now. I'm not going to discredit anyone and whatever they had to say about regular flu seasons and so forth and things like that. What we're seeing right now is that a lot of people are out of work. They're freaking out because they went two weeks without pay. They're waiting for government to deliver a check of $1,200. By that time it will be long gone before they're even able to keep up with anything that they have. So for the employees, I urge that commissioners here, you should try to find a way to try to suspend mortgage or rent payments. A lot of companies and businesses can forward to keep open and operate while a lot of people who are home, that's employees, they cannot. March 27, 2020 Page 99 So we have to come to the table with some type of agreement that can benefit the business company -- the business industry and small businesses along with employees as well. I hear a lot of talk about businesses, but I hear so little talk for the employees that's out of the work right now. It's really freaking a lot of people out. We see a lot of top officials talk about this COVID-19 at a very high level, and I feel like we should take, you know, dramatic measures on assuring people that they, you know, still can live in their homes. And if any real estate company or agency tries to put anybody out at this moment would be a shame on the -- on the part of the county. And also, I truly don't believe in the shutdown. Why? Because the governor hasn't done it. Everybody is out here uncoordinated doing their own thing. How do we look if we shut down and Fort Myers doesn't? How do we look if we shut down and Key West doesn't? Everything continues to still move and still spread. Nobody's in here, not really a doctor or an epidemiologist, so what are we to do? We look crazy. So I just wanted to make sure that you guys know on the behalf of employees that we should focus on suspending rent and mortgage payments, and also come to an agreeable platform where we can help businesses and employees at the same time. Thank you. MR. MILLER: Mr. Chairman, I do believe that's all the speakers we have here. I'd like to call these one more time. Michelle Kelly? (No response.) MR. MILLER: Daniel Wassermann? (No response.) MR. MILLER: Robert Weeks? (No response.) March 27, 2020 Page 100 MR. MILLER: And Corey, last name begins C-r-a. (No response.) MR. MILLER: And we don't have any people in any other rooms, so I do believe they've left, sir. And that would conclude our speakers. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Okay. Thank you. Sir, if you're in the back and you want to speak, you have to fill out a slip, and I would -- you can find that out later. Thank you. Okay. Commissioner Saunders, I will turn the gavel back to you. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Thank you, Commissioner Solis. We're at the stage at this point on deciding what is our next step, if any, quite frankly, in going forward. I really wanted to have this hearing so that we could at least begin the process, even if we don't take action on something today, that we would at least hear what the issues are and be in a position to make some decisions rather rapidly if it becomes necessary to do so. And I'll give you an example. My nephew is -- works at Lee Health, and he just sent me a text. A 39-year-old man just died, one of his patients, and there's a nurse, a 34-year-old nurse, who's on a ventilator because of this disease. And my concern, and I've stated this many times, is we have to flatten that curve and protect the people that are out there protecting us. And this proposed order, I agree there are all kinds of issues with it, and we can fix that, potentially, if there's an appetite on the Board to move forward with something next week. I can meet with and speak with Chairman Hamman before and after his meeting next week to see what they're going to do. But I'd like to convey to them what our concerns are and where we are on this. So, you know, I want to get to everyone's comments and then get to a suggestion as to what we do going forward, whether it be a continuance, and have another meeting next week. March 27, 2020 Page 101 So I'm going to open it up to the commissioners for your comments and your thoughts and suggestions. And I'll start off with Commissioner Fiala and just go down the list again as we have in the past and just see how -- what your thoughts are. COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yes. I do not agree with this at all, and I think that we -- the seniors -- people were concerned with seniors. The seniors are so afraid of this. They're very conscientious. I think that they're going to stay in if they don't feel right about going out. I think that there are too many downsides to this, so I would not want to vote for this at all. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Okay. And what about in terms of potential considerations after we hear from Lee County; is that something you would be interested in pursuing or not? COMMISSIONER FIALA: What kind of considerations? CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Well, again, at our last conversation about this on Tuesday I had suggested the possibility of a regional approach. I don't know that Lee County will have an interest in that, and I don't know that Collier County has an interest in that, but that's my question. Should we continue to pursue those conversations? Obviously, nothing is done until both boards meet and make their independent decisions. But my question is, do you feel that I should continue to have those conversations with Lee County? COMMISSIONER FIALA: I feel very confident in our own home rule, and I prefer not to depend on some other county to make decisions for us. So, no, I don't agree. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Okay. Commissioner Solis. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Just for everyone's information, I'm on the Canvassing Board, and today is the last meeting for the primary, the presidential preference primary, so I have to leave at 5:00. Hopefully we'll be done by then. March 27, 2020 Page 102 Again, as I said last Tuesday, I think that being in communication with Lee County is the right thing to do. We experienced it with the beach closures, that when Lee County closed their beaches and the City of Naples closed their beaches, a lot of people went to Vanderbilt and -- because it was the only thing that was open. If we -- if something happens that we're not aware of, we will be caught flatfooted. That's not something that I think we can take the risk of because of what's at stake. I think that, yes, I would like the Chairman to continue conversations with Lee County, see what's -- what they're thinking. If they're -- if it's imminent and it looks like it's going to happen, at least we will know about it. I don't know what we'll do about it, but we will be aware that something's going to happen to the north of us that is going to impact us. I think the business community needs some certainty one way or the other, and we need to, I think, today -- and I'll make this a motion, that we -- we continue this until Monday or Tuesday -- and I'm open to either one -- but make the commitment that on Monday or Tuesday we will decide whether or not we are just going to follow the governor's lead on how we're dealing with this and what the governor's executive orders require or we're not, because I think the uncertainty of we may, we may not, it's -- that is creating damage to the economy locally in and of itself. So I would make that a motion that we continue this. We can all look at all of the testimony that was here today, everything, the 3,000 emails we received, make our suggestions, but -- and my final comment will be -- so that's my motion, that we do that, and we make that decision next week once and for all. If there's some drastic change, obviously, we can always revisit things, but I think by next week we will have a better idea with what the numbers are. God willing and the creeks don't rise, the numbers March 27, 2020 Page 103 will not keep going up, and at least we can have some certainty as to where we're headed, and business owners can start planning that it's going to happen or it's not going to happen, and all they need to do is follow the governor. I -- that's my motion. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. We have a motion. Commissioner Taylor, your comments and thoughts as well. COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: I'm going to second that motion for discussion, okay. I just -- I don't want this to die because there's a lack of a second, because there's a lot of good -- CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: We were going to -- believe me, we weren't going to let the motion die. I just want to give everybody time. COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Because there's a lot of very good points in what you're saying. I really think going forward we have to give the business community certainty. There's no question. If I've heard that over the last 24 hours, I heard it again. Please, just do -- just give us -- give us dates. I am very reluctant -- first of all, let me repeat. My number-one job is the safety of everybody that lives in Collier County. There is no question the health, safety, and welfare, that is what's in the forefront of my mind every day, and this epidemic has made it even more critical to me and more aware of the decisions we make up here and what could happen. But for the -- I just don't understand how when you exempt 35 business types -- and rightly so. We've heard the importance of other businesses that will support our people here -- how is this going to protect our people? I don't understand it. Social distancing is extremely important. I am deemed essential by the County Attorney. I called him before this meeting, because I wasn't going to show up. I'm -- look, I'm 70 years old. I'm one of March 27, 2020 Page 104 those people at risk. And he said I was essential. And I -- I made a decision to be here because I think it's very important to face the people to say, yes, there's tremendous fear right now. There is. But we will get through this. And I think -- for me, I think we need to follow the governor's lead on this. I don't think -- and if it means what we make a decision, we meet next week, we have to. Now, clearly, we closed the beaches -- and I was one of the people that really wanted to close those beaches because they were closing them in Miami-Dade, and we knew what was going to happen and, sure enough, it did. So that was a very important reason, and I agree with the analogy of the balloon. So we do have to become cognizant of what our neighbors are doing. But for those who are worried about closing our roads and closing our airports because New York and Miami-Dade aren't here, I probably would ask you to take a look at the license plates driving around. Be that as it may, we have to, in this time of crisis, have to have numbers and directions we depend on. It just can't be -- we can't make these decisions in a vacuum. And I would urge that we do follow the governor's lead, that whatever the -- and the CDC, what the CDC says about social distancing, what they're saying about the numbers, look at the data every day and make decisions, but not to -- and, again, I would say for your motion, Commissioner Solis, I think that we -- I think it's a good motion, and I think that the idea of giving businesses certainty -- but I also would like to say that I think we need to follow the governor and the CDC's guidelines to help us through there. They're the experts. We're not. Thank you. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Okay. Commissioner McDaniel? COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes, thank you. March 27, 2020 Page 105 I concur with you, Commissioner Taylor. I'm not sure I'm in support of continuing this. I am not in favor of approving it, certainly, today. I've already expressed my concerns with regard to the constitutionality, the legality with regard to this. I again -- I'm not the lawyer in the bunch of lawyers, as the case may be, but I can see contradictions and ambiguities. I can see -- I can see where it's quite arbitrary as to who we're allowing to pick or not. I can see that there are issues with regard to the capacity, and it's putting our county manager in an unenviable position with regard to the discussion of who can apply out of and not with regard to whether you're not an essential service or business. I would like to offer all of residents some certainty. I would like to -- if our board -- and I concur with Commissioner Fiala. I'm not. I care about Lee County, but I don't want to base our decisions on what's going on, but I do think our chairman and our county manager ought to continue to talk with Lee County, because what have I asked for since the beginning of time? Since we became aware of this silent enemy, I have asked for data. When's mass testing going to be available? When's mass testing going to be available? We need to have additional data in order to make our decisions. Certainly -- so I can't -- I can't support the ordinance. I would rather -- it would -- if it were up to me that we continue this indefinitely, I would rather that -- and we've already proven today, Mr. Chairman, that we can whip up a meeting pretty quickly if the data that's coming at us changes. I would rather that we continue to follow the CDC's guidelines and the governor of our state with those -- with those executive orders to practice social distancing. I would rather we continue to educate our population on the value of those social distancing practices and increases in our sanitations and such. March 27, 2020 Page 106 I think it's incumbent upon the government to do that, not dictate, not pick and choose winners and losers. I think it's our responsibility. I think from an offering of solidity to our business community and our residents -- and this is something that's so important. The humanity that is being dealt with right now is unfathomable to me. I spoke to some folks this morning. I'm not personally in the higher-risk category. I certainly -- I can't even begin to imagine the level of fear that folks are experiencing that are. But I think an ordinance like this -- I even said it today. Lee County's suggestion of a voluntary closure of nonessential businesses creates divisiveness. It allows for personal choice and personal judgment of morality to be imposed upon me because of what you -- I'm pointing to you; you're sitting there -- because of what you perceive as moral with regard to my conduct and potential exposure to you. And so with that, if we were feeling the need to do something, one of the things that I have thought about for quite some time would be to protect that most -- statistically, the one dataset that no one can necessarily argue with is there is a percentage of our population who is highest at risk, and I believe that's our responsibility to protect those people. And if -- we should -- it should be incumbent upon us to reach in and protect our most vulnerable population. And if our board were interested in doing anything today, I would support a stay-at-home order for those of the highest-risk category of our population, if that was even necessary. It's imperative to me, I believe, that we continue on with our efforts to educate our population. I got a lot of notes here. I also -- I also want to say this. I heard -- I can't recall her name right now, but she's on the task force, and she talked about the personal responsibility of the individual to impose isolation upon March 27, 2020 Page 107 themselves should you become symptomatic. It's incumbent upon the individual, when you become symptomatic, to remove yourself from your loved ones and your workplace. Don't go visit Grandpa and Grandma. We know for a fact there are people that can carry the virus that are asymptomatic. And until mass testing is, in fact, available, you can't necessarily tell whether you're carrying it or not. So it would be my vote today to continue this item. I'll vote for the continuance till Monday till Tuesday, but I think we're just kicking the can down the road. I would rather we continue this indefinitely, and as data continues to flow in, then we make our decisions accordingly based upon -- based upon fact, based upon data. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: I just have a question for Commissioner McDaniel so I understand what he's getting at. So if the data comes in, we make the decision to do what? To do an ordinance or -- because it sounds to me like the -- we have an ordinance. It's got a lot of issues, in my opinion, as well. It's an exception -- I mean, it's a rule that's swallowed by the exceptions. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Right. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: So are you saying if the data comes back, we reconsider this, or are we just going to say that we're going to follow the governor's lead? And on that point, I -- one of the things I'd like some clarification on -- and maybe this can -- I don't know who can help me with this, but I vaguely remember the governor saying that what he didn't want to do was a one-size-fits-all kind of an order from the governor's office for each county. That's different than saying the county shouldn't be doing any of it. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I didn't say that. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: No, no. I'm not saying you said that. This is a question that I have suddenly when I'm thinking about March 27, 2020 Page 108 this. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: For me or with regard to what I was saying? Because you went down a different -- COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Right. I'm sorry. I'm trying to get it all in, because I've got to run, and I want to get to this vote. No. But I'm trying understand if you're saying if the data comes back we reconsider this order, or do we just put any kind of stay-at-home order to bed? COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And I would say if I had to vote today, I would rather do that. If we had to do -- I would rather put this to bed now and not have a stay-at-home order put in place. I believe there's enough -- I believe there are enough protections that are, in fact, in place with the continued education and the enforcement -- the ramping up of the law enforcement with regard to asking people to curtail their activities and the like, we have sufficiently covered what we need to do. I would prefer that. Now -- but on the same token, data's everything. I mean, while we've been sitting here, information's been flowing at me with regard to decisions that are being made all over this country. Yesterday, Governor Cuomo came out and admitted that he's not quite sure that it was such a great idea to shut down the state, Commissioner Solis. And so -- COMMISSIONER SOLIS: So let me just -- maybe I can cut this off then. I will amend my motion to just say that we are not going to consider this stay-at-home order, and we're going to follow the governor's recommendations. That's what we're doing today. And if something changes drastically next week, we'll come back here on an emergency basis. COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: If you would -- I would second that if you would amend it also by saying the governor's and the March 27, 2020 Page 109 CDC's. Include the CDC. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: And the CDC's as well. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Third. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Let me interrupt for just a second. So we have a motion and a second to not move forward with a stay-at-home order or -- in the material that has been presented. And what I would suggest is that in terms of a future meeting, that any member of the County Commission can call for an emergency meeting. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Correct. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: And so I'm going to rely on the four of you. If there is an emergency that comes up and you feel that we have to have a meeting, then I want you to free to call that meeting, and I will feel free to do the same, because I felt free to do -- to call this meeting. In terms of meeting with Lee County officials, Mr. Solis, I assume that you would still want me to do that to just keep in touch with what's going on. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Yes. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: And I can do that. If that's the position of the Board, I have no problem. I don't need that as part of the motion. I'm assuming that that's not going to be a problem for anybody for me to continue communicating. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I think that was part of our motion on Tuesday, Mr. Chair. I don't mean to interrupt, but we gave you that authority on Tuesday, and I don't remember discontinuing it. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. And, you know, I don't want to bring everybody back on this issue until there's a change in position on some of the commissioners' parts. And so I recognize that this ordinance -- this order was very mushy, and -- but I felt that this conversation was necessary, that we needed to at least consider March 27, 2020 Page 110 what, if anything, we were going to do. And I'm proud of this commission for the conduct of the hearing. I'm proud of the people that came to this meeting and presented their position. I do personally believe that we need to do more, but at the same time I recognize that that is a very, very slippery slope and a very difficult thing to do. And so I would encourage all of you to keep up with the data, think about what, if anything, we should or could do down the road if necessary so that if there is another meeting, you know, we'll be more prepared to do that. Unless there are other comments, then I'm going to call for the vote. Are there any other comments before we vote? COMMISSIONER SOLIS: One more comment from me -- COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: And one from me. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: -- and I promise that this will be the last one. I've changed my motion. And this not coming back here to consider an order in my opinion's going to depend upon everybody in Collier County taking responsibility for doing everything each one of us can to go by the social distancing requirements from the CDC -- CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Good point. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: -- and what the governor has -- otherwise, we could be back. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Amen. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Taylor? COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: And just one thing, sir. When you -- when you -- if you could give us a brief, a written brief -- and I don't expect you to write, you know, chapters on what -- just keep us up to date in writing on what's going on in Lee County based on your conversations up there, that would be very helpful. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Okay. I will communicate with March 27, 2020 Page 111 Mr. Ochs and make sure that there's an email sent out -- COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Great. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: -- to everybody. I will know more about what Lee County's going to do, I think, at 9:00 on Monday morning. So we will all see that. I'm going to support this motion because I want there to be a united front from our commission, but I think it's important. I'm glad we had this hearing. There are thousands of people that are watching and are very nervous, and we've gotten some good information out, and the public knows that if necessary any one of us can call another meeting at a moment's notice, and Commissioner Solis' comments about social distancing, if we start to see a peak and we have to take more drastic measures, then we can revisit all of this. So with that, all in favor of the motion, signify by saying aye. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Aye. COMMISSIONER FIALA: Aye. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Aye. COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Aye. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All opposed? (No response.) CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: That passes unanimously. Everyone be safe, and thank you for your service, and we'll be talking, I'm sure, about this for many, many weeks to come. Unless there's something else for the good of the order -- COMMISSIONER FIALA: I just want to say I'm so pleased with the way we came out. That was good. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. If there's nothing else, then this meeting is adjourned. Thank you. March 27, 2020 ***** There being no further business for the good of the County, the meeting was adjourned by order of the Chair at 4:43 p.m. BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS/EX OFFICIO GOVERNING BOARD(S) OF SPECIAL DISTRICTS UNDER ITS CONTROL BURT SAUNDERS, CHAIRMAN ATTEST CRYSTAL K. KINZEL, CLERK QC -%.N.Qck- • a-...OM1 st as to:Cpa n sig`ire only These minutes approved by the Board on Li lao la-&o, as presented or as corrected TRANSCRIPT PREPARED ON BEHALF OF FORT MYERS COURT REPORTING BY TERRI LEWIS, FPR, COURT REPORTER AND NOTARY PUBLIC. Page 112