Agenda 04/28/2020 Item # 2C (BCC Minutes 03/16/2020)04/28/2020
COLLIER COUNTY
Board of County Commissioners
Item Number: 2.C
Item Summary: March 16, 2020 BCC Emergency Meeting Minutes
Meeting Date: 04/28/2020
Prepared by:
Title: Executive Secretary to County Manager – County Manager's Office
Name: MaryJo Brock
03/26/2020 12:16 PM
Submitted by:
Title: County Manager – County Manager's Office
Name: Leo E. Ochs
03/26/2020 12:16 PM
Approved By:
Review:
County Manager's Office MaryJo Brock County Manager Review Completed 03/26/2020 12:16 PM
Board of County Commissioners MaryJo Brock Meeting Pending 04/28/2020 9:00 AM
2.C
Packet Pg. 18
March 16, 2020
Page 1
TRANSCRIPT OF THE MEETING OF THE
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
Naples, Florida, March 16, 20
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 2:00 p.m., in
EMERGENCY SESSION in Building "F" of the Government
Complex, East Naples, Florida, with the following members present:
Chairman: Burt L. Saunders
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
March 16, 2020
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MR. OCHS: Mr. Chairman, you have a live mic.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Thank you, Mr. Ochs.
The meeting of the County Commission will please come to
order. Let's go ahead and do the roll call. We have one
commissioner that's going to be participating via telephone, and then
we'll do the pledge to the flag. Let's do that part of it first.
MR. OCHS: So this will be a motion to allow Commissioner
Fiala to join the meeting by telephone due to extraordinary
circumstances.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: So moved.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Second.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Is Commissioner Fiala on the
phone?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yes.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Great. Welcome. Glad
you could be with us.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Thank you. And thanks for
allowing me to do this.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Certainly. We have a motion and a
second to permit Commissioner Fiala to participate via telephone due
to the circumstances. All in favor, signify by saying aye.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: (No verbal response.)
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Aye.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: That passes unanimously.
Commissioner Taylor, would you lead us in the Pledge.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: I'd be honored. Thank you.
March 16, 2020
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(The Pledge of Allegiance was recited in unison.)
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Thank you. I want to welcome
everybody that's here. We are practicing social distancing here on
the dais as best we can, and we would urge members of the audience
to do the same as well.
Mr. Ochs, if you'll lead us through the agenda. This is an
emergency meeting that has been called to deal with issues
surrounding the coronavirus issue --
MR. OCHS: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: -- and ongoing county operations.
And our goal today is going to do what we can to protect the public
health, safety, and welfare, protect our employees, and protect people
that are doing business with the county.
So with that, Mr. Ochs, if you would lead us through the first
agenda item.
MR. OCHS: Yes, sir. It would be my pleasure.
We'll begin under your Agenda Item 2A this afternoon,
Commissioners, and that would be an update and discussion of
responses to the COVID-19 disease by your public Health
Department director, Stephanie Vick, and your director of Collier
County Bureau of Emergency Services, Mr. Dan Summers.
Dan?
MR. SUMMERS: For the record, good afternoon. Dan
Summers, Director of Collier County Bureau of Emergency Services
and Emergency Management.
We sort of quickly put together a little outline for our presentation for
you today.
Stephanie Vick, our Director of DOH Collier, is going to give
you an update on -- from our health response perspective. I'm going
to give you a quick update on activities associated around our
preparedness strategies and response, and then we'll turn it back over
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to Mr. Ochs to talk about the county operations.
So, Stephanie, if you'll come forward.
MS. VICK: Good afternoon, Commissioners. Stephanie Vick,
Department of Health.
Okay. Current situation right now, in the state of Florida there
are 155 cases, and in Collier County, we have five resident cases and
one additional from out of state case. So we have a total of six cases,
but only five that are chalked up to us as a resident. But you still
have to know that the other one person is here in our county.
So as of, then, today, with that situation, we still do not qualify
and classify as widespread community transmission, which is a good
thing, but it can give you a false sense of security because we're only
testing those that meet the criteria at the highest risk. So there could
be people there with mild, minor symptoms that -- or they don't have
anything at all.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: What is the criteria for being
tested, or is that going to come up in a future slide?
MS. VICK: Wait a minute. It just was revised. So I brought it
along so I could read it to you.
Okay. So right now the screening criteria is persons who have
had a close contact with a laboratory -confirmed COVID-19 case;
persons hospitalized with acute lower respiratory illness or
unknown -- of unknown origin; history of travel to or from an
affected geographic area with widespread community transmission
such as China, Italy, Iran; history in general of international travel or
a cruise; people that are older than 65 that have chronic health
conditions; immunocompromised persons; and then if your clinician
seems to think that still they're uneasy and you might have it, they
still can order a test on you based upon their clinical judgment. But
the clinicians are now being expected to do their own testing as much
as they can and send it to private laboratories.
March 16, 2020
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Okay. So our -- just, also, people often wonder about these
number of cases that we have coming up, and, you know, it keeps
growing and growing and growing. We started with maybe five in
the whole state of Florida. Now we're at 155. But just to bring some
levity to that, yes, there are 155 cases that have tested positive, but
there also are 760 people who have tested negative. So they've had
the test, and they're negative. You see the difference there.
Okay. Also, though -- and this speaks to how overloaded our
system is starting to become. There are 568 tests out there pending
we're waiting for results on. Not just Collier County. That's
statewide.
Okay. The current social behavior guidelines remain about the
same. Individuals should stay six feet apart. Good job,
Commissioners. Good job.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Bad job, you guys.
MS. VICK: Yeah.
Groups -- and this is just to try to give people a standardized
guideline. Groups should be less than 50 people but, I mean, if
you're going to have 49 people, that's still frowned upon. That's the
guideline, okay.
You still want to do frequent washing of your hands with soap
and water, but if that's not available, you still can use hand sanitizer,
if you can find it, with at least 68 percent alcohol in it. If you have a
cough or a sneeze, you should cover your mouth and nose with a
tissue and throw it away immediately, and then you need to wash
your hands or use the hand sanitizer.
If you don't have a tissue, sneeze in the crook what your elbow,
into your sleeve so that you cover your cough and it doesn't go to
anyone else. Okay.
And then avoid shaking hands. No hand shaking. You need to
bump fists, okay, or a slight bow, or you can do elbow bumps. If you
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can get close enough to do that, because you're trying to stay six feet
away, right?
Okay.
MR. OCHS: Don't forget to move your slides as you go.
MS. VICK: Yeah. The people that are most at risk are still
individuals that are over 60. It gets more at risk with each decade
you're talking about. And people with comorbidities, like heart
disease, COPD, kidney disease, or other immunocompromised
conditions.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Let me -- I know we want to kind
of get through the presentation without asking questions, but on this
particular one I feel compelled to ask a question. There is conflicting
information. This says if you're over 60 with a comorbidity, then you
should stay at home. I've seen reports that have said if you're over 60
or if you have immune issues, you should stay at home.
So is -- the general consensus is that if you're over 60 but you're
not -- you don't have a comorbidity that it's -- what's the real
guideline on that? If you're over 60, if you're over 70, what's
recommended?
MS. VICK: Well, hence, the reason that it gets worse each
decade; you're more at risk. So a person that's healthy and 60 years
old probably has less of a concern as someone who's 80 and has heart
disease. But, really, it's people that are 60 and over, and then you
need to take into consideration your health level and stay at home if
you are at risk.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Are -- 60-year-old people that do
not have comorbidities, are they at risk?
MS. VICK: Somewhat. That's why it's 60 and over. They are
somewhat at risk but not as much as a 70-year-old or an 80-year-old.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Okay.
MS. VICK: And not as much as someone who is 60 or even
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someone who is 55 who has diabetes, heart disease, anything else that
would be debilitating to them. Sixty is kind of like the 50 age
group -- or 50 group size. It's a guideline, and it helps most people to
decide who should be at risk, but it's not a hard-and-fast rule. You
can have a 70-year-old who has a heart like a 20-year-old racer and
no other issues going on, and they will probably -- if they got the
disease, will probably do as well as someone in their 20s or 30s. But
60 is the general guideline. Does that help?
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: It does, yes.
MS. VICK: Okay. The plan right now is t o continue testing,
and that's the plan in Collier County, with the help of the hospitals
and our private providers and to continue contact investigation of
those who are testing positive. That's not an easy feat. One positive
person could have at least 20 contacts that we're having to follow up
on, okay.
Our community education, we began where we were going to do
education within specific communities as requested. We have
stopped that. We are going to a virtual format.
We do have challenges right now with this going on. Testing
supplies are running low. Even we as a health department had to
search statewide, because we requested supplies from the state, and
they did not have them to send to us. So we scrounged, and we went
to Pinellas County Health Department who helped us with 25 tests.
I've also put out a request with our private providers that if any
of them have a testing media that they could share with us, you know,
just give us one or two per provider so that we can get through until
deliveries come through, and they are expected to come in later this
week. But we're not the only area that is very short one testing
supplies. The hospitals are as well. So it's something to be aware of.
Personal protective equipment, some things like face shields are
getting low. We still have goggles and face masks and those things,
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but whole face shields with -- which we prefer in some cases, we
have very little left. And those things have also been requested from
the state level and are not yet available.
We continue -- the Health Department -- your Department of
Health continues to receive general referrals from their offices
because they're unable to do the testing. The guidance has just come
out from the Surgeon General, Rivkees, indicating that if you're a
private provider, you need to be able to do your test, but some of
them don't even have the equipment, and then the people come to us.
But with what the hospital's doing -- NCH is doing testing to
help people that have privileges at their hospital, and people have to
have a prescription from those doctors to get that testing done. But
that should help take some of the load off of us, too.
Our contact investigations, as I said, we're beginning to get
overloaded. I'm shifting staff around. We may just go to minimal
service levels so we can pool everyone just to take care of the
COVID-19. We set up a local phone bank for providers and for
people who are ill and need to get tested, but those also are getting
overloaded. So that's another reason why I would probably bring us
down to very minimal service levels.
And rumor --
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Advance.
MS. VICK: Pardon me?
MR. OCHS: Advance your slide.
MS. VICK: Oh. Sorry.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: When you say "they can contact
us," what does that mean?
MS. VICK: Contact our Health Department.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Is that the Health Department.
MS. VICK: Right. Contact the Health Department at our
epidemiology number or our main number during the day, and the
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phone tree will direct them to the right place.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: So if someone calls up and they
say, you know, I've got a cough I'm having a little difficulty
breathing, what do you tell them?
MS. VICK: Well, the first thing we tell them is that they -- have
they checked with their private provider, and have they asked
whether they can be seen at their private provider? Then the
providers will contact us.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: And if they have no provider?
MS. VICK: And if they have no provider, then we will help
them determine who would be able to be a provider, like the
Healthcare Network of Southwest Florida might be an adequate
provider. The Neighborhood Health Clinic. It just depends on the
situation.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: When you mentioned those two
potential providers, are they aware that you're going to be referring
folks to them, and are they all set up for this?
MS. VICK: They are aware that we may be referring people to
them as a provider in the community, yes. We've been doing
community calls with partners for at least four weeks now and so --
discussing some of these issues.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: So people that do call you will find
a way to get some care?
MS. VICK: Yes, if they are symptomatic. If people are just
calling because they're worried, well -- and they just want
information about COVID, we are referring them to the state
information line, which is open seven days a week, 24 hours a day.
Now, we've gotten some reports back from people who say
they've called that number and they've waited for an hour for
someone to get to them. I think, like any other business, there are
peak times where many, many people would call. You know, at their
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lunch break or 4:00 in the afternoon. I think people need to have
some patience and try to call back a little later, okay.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: What is rumor control? Under
the previous slide you talk about rumor control.
MS. VICK: Rumors that there are positive cases in different
facilities, and people should be careful of going there. When we have
positive cases, they are posted. But we do not give the address of
people's homes or facilities to protect confidentiality of our citizens.
Okay.
And I think that's it. Any other questions?
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner McDaniel.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: How do you do, Ms. Steph?
MS. VICK: Good.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I asked you last week about
the tests. And speaking of rumor control, whose -- is Lee County
doing drive-by testing? I had heard, again, a rumor --
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Yes, yes.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: -- that Lee County was setting
up with drive-by testing. Is that a fact or not?
MS. VICK: In one location.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: One location. And so --
MS. VICK: But, again, you also have to have a prescripti on.
You have to have order for that.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: You've got to have a doctor's
order to drive by --
MS. VICK: And an appointment there.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay. So -- and you said last
week that -- because, again -- and, again, we're all trying to apply a
little bit of common sense to this very dynamic circumstance, but
mass testing would assist with the control of the outbreak as it's going
along, the more opportunity we have to test those who think they
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might be -- would be -- would be a huge benefit.
And last week we were hoping to get a lot of tests this -- by the
end of last week, and now we're talking about the end of this week.
Is that -- and I understand. I'm not trying to put you on the spot or
anything. It's just the latest and greatest with regard to t he
availability of the -- those test kits -- the test kits.
MS. VICK: Right. We can only report to you about when the
test kits are here as the Department of Health, at the state level, tells
us, and we can only report to you as to what the CDC and the federal
government have said.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And that will suffice as an
answer. I got it. Thank you.
Commissioner Taylor?
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: How long from the time
someone gets a test today, not yesterday but today, do they get a
result?
MS. VICK: In general, it's within 48 hours.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Okay. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Thank you.
MS. VICK: Anything else?
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: And, Commissioner Fiala, if you
have a question, just shout out at some point.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: No, I don't. Thank you anyway.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Yes, sir.
MR. SUMMERS: Commissioners, Dan Summers. Just to give
you a little rundown from the different county divisions who are
certainly leaning forward with all of this, and I'll just hit
Administrative Services. And you're familiar with all the
departments within that particular division.
Obviously, our administrative actions include documentation
efforts that are associated with the Stafford Act and the Presidential
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National Emergency Declaration. We're learning more information
about that; the virtual and telephonic meetings and being able to work
business remotely; emergency procurement policies. We talked a
little bit about that last week; ongoing public information efforts
including outreach to Spanish-speaking radio outlets. We're working
on that mission today to make sure with the two low-power stations
in Immokalee we're getting some information out. Working through
administrative scheduling workforce activities and flexible
scheduling as well as preventative measures in public areas. So --
and, again, that's overlap from a couple of divisions.
Our Public Services Division, I won't read all of those bullets
there, but through the County Manager's Office directing -- and a lot
of these groups or leagues, if you will, have counseled on their own,
okay, just because that's what they wanted to do if they were a little
league sponsor and those type of things. And I know the Deputy
County Manager's familiar and can add to that.
But they -- our parks and recs folks, those forward-facing
organizations supporting the community or certainly leaning forward
with all of their protective measure. Library programs and presenters
are voluntarily canceling. And senior congregate meals certainly
moved to home delivery activities. And, again, Steve Carnell is here
if you have any additional questions.
Dr. Yilmaz in our Public Utilities Division, as you would
expect, with their continuity of operations planning, quite detailed. I
realize there's an eye chart with a lot of information on it, but they are
in very, very good stead with all of their operations and taking
protective actions, especially at plant operations to make sure that
those activities continue as well as our wastewater and ga rbage
services.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner McDaniel has a
question.
March 16, 2020
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MR. SUMMERS: I'm sorry, sir. Excuse me.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: You are force feeding with a
fire hose, and I want to assure the folks that this information is going
to be online and going to be rebroadcast on a regular basis. So if you
just would say that again for the people that are watching, and the
news, that there's a lot of information here that people need to be
aware of.
MR. SUMMERS: There is. And I think that the short answer
there is that there's no interruption of services, and continuity of
planning -- continuity operational planning is ongoing if needed.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Let me ask you a question in
reference to continuity of services as well. Let's -- just for purpose of
this question, let's assume kind of the worst in terms of, you know,
pretty much everything is shut down. I've always assumed that
services such as water services, sewer, sanitation, garbage pickup,
electricity, those things would be continuing no matter what, that we
don't have to worry -- you see people hoarding, you know, cases of
water. We're not going to have a situation where there's a problem
with electricity, with water and sewer service, and garbage collection;
is that accurate?
MR. OCHS: That's accurate for the utilities that we control, sir.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Right. Understood. Okay.
Commissioner Taylor.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Just -- this is sort of, you know,
a woman's question. But I was reading on the Florida Department of
Health about EPA cleaning supplies. Will you tell me what the
bright line is between what I have underneath my sink and what EPA
cleaning supplies are?
MR. SUMMERS: Let me bring Stephanie up as well. My
understanding is above the 68 percent alcohol is certainly activity
[sic] -- or an option, and then our traditional household clears. I think
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the only difference is how much wait time they need for part of that
disinfecting.
So, Stephanie, if you want to clarify on that. But my
understanding is the majority of your household materials will do that
cleaning, especially if they're bleach related. The difference is the
amount of time necessary to kill the virus. And in most cases, with
over-the-counter or typical retail things that we would buy at home,
your difference is that you want to allow that a little time to soak.
And I'll let Stephanie clarify.
MS. VICK: Really, everything that Dan's been saying is correct.
There is a website that has the approved cleaning materials, and I will
provide that for you so that you can put it online, the public can get.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Right.
MS. VICK: But, everyday Clorox that most people have in their
houses will kill the virus.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Okay. Thank you.
MS. VICK: Okay.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Don't drink it.
MR. SUMMERS: Our Growth Management Division as well is
canceling -- and I'm sure they'll be posting a whole lot more
information on this through all of our social media news releases, but
canceling those neighborhood information meetings, collaborating on
any traffic issues and supporting any of the drive -by testing.
We spoke with the Sheriff's Office this morning. We know that
Naples PD is closely coordinating with NCH downtown and had
already engaged in planning efforts with North Collier, if necessary,
for traffic control.
And, again, we want to stress to individuals, you have to have a
referral to go to that site. Do not drive though. Don't rush the
hospital. You're not going to get seen without a doctor's referral.
And the goal there, of course, is to do this sampling outside of a
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controlled facility.
Social distancing has already been mentioned. Over at the
Growth Management Division with their walk -in traffic as well and,
to the extent possible, continue to move business operations to the
best of their ability.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Quick question in reference to
community development. I know some communities have actually
put up plexiglass and things like that to kind of separate the public
from the people at the counters. And I know at our community
development offices large numbers of people -- I'm not sure how that
would be today, but in the past, anyway, large numbers of people will
be in the waiting room, and there'll be people standing in line, and
they'll go right up to the counter, and there will be almost no
separation between the individual behind the counter. So I want to
make sure that if we do -- I'm assuming that we're going to continue
our building permit applications and those types of plans reviews and
that sort of thing. But I want to make sure that our employees are
protected from the public and the public's protected from our
employees. So is there any effort to put any kind of screening up?
MR. COHEN: We would not say screening at this point,
Mr. Chair, but what we are doing is updating our website so that we
can have more folks do it electronically, and we're also doing drop -
off where we're limiting the contact with individuals.
Facilities has also offered the opportunity for us to do extra
cleaning, so we're doing that every 30 minutes as we cycle through,
so that's enhanced cleaning opportunities. And as you know, when
you come to our desk, it's roughly 30, 36 inches. So we've got a
barrier between ourselves and the applicant to be able to practice that
social distancing.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. So you're comfortable
there's enough separation there?
March 16, 2020
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MR. COHEN: Yes, sir. And we've got hand sanitizer
throughout. The other thing we've done is move our kiosks to the
lobby so that folks are not circulating through the building, and we're
putting up signs that says, "Beyond this point, authorized personnel
only" again, to restrict the number of folks who are coming through.
So we believe between our planned drop-off where you just drop
those off and then we're able to retrieve them, that limits the
interaction. Our kiosk limits the interaction. You're able to hand
sanitize as you touch the kiosk so that limits -- you know, has
transmission, and then we think the separation that we have at our
counter will be sufficient at this point.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right.
MR. COHEN: As well as going electronic. And we've got a list
that we'll be putting up on all of the services that we provide that you
can do electronically.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Okay. And that sort of precaution
should be taken anywhere where we have contact with the public and
our staff to make sure that both sides of that equation are protected.
MR. SUMMERS: Thank you, sir.
On the Emergency Management side of the house, just a quick
refresher. Our Emergency Operations Center partners: Florida
Division of Emergency Management is fully activated around the
clock. We continue to maintain close conversations with them,
literally, around the clock; the state's logistical supply center in
Orlando has been stood up for commodity distribution; we continue
to work closely with DOH and certainly the Sheriff under our
Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan, and we continue to
build.
We have a good framework, but this is certainly fluid. It's a
little bit different, it's a little bit nervous, but we're pulling a lot of our
tactical objectives together.
March 16, 2020
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We had a teleconference this morning with about 60 players
within the community, public safety and local government. Again,
our efforts at the 5,000-foot level include identifying resource
shortfall, doing long-range planning, sharing best practices, and
making sure that we're within the Stafford Act framework moving
forward. And, again, lots of -- and the Stafford Act, as you know, is
the reimbursement grant, and there are a lot of rules and regulations
and business processes that we're waiting on FDEM to flush out in
the meantime.
Just a couple of things that we're working on. We're paying
attention to the concern about extended food service operations for
certain communities if that's needed, and I have a slide to mention
about Collier school's phenomenal support there.
We're addressing ordering of supplies with PPE in what we call
single portal requesting, and that's coming through my office. We'll
make those single portal requests through the state EOC. We
continue to work remotely as I've mentioned and, again, we just
continue to stress that these websites are available to you.
I call it community information. It was referenced as rumor
control before. Walmart, Publix are not shutting down any supply
chains. Florida Division of Emergency Management's been in close
contact with all of our major retail players. They're working jury as
fast as they can. There's no closure and, actually, there have been
waivers given for extended hours and truck tractor operations.
Mosquitoes don't transmit COVID.
I've mentioned already the drive-through discussions at NCH.
And Collier schools will continue food service at 27 sites in a box
lunch, grab-and-go type operation, and Dr. Patton and I have, and her
staff, communicated. We were -- we have continued with an order of
shelf-stable meals to the state to have on standby. We're working
with our Immokalee partners to do that, but right now that school
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site -- and that's not just Immokalee but 27 sites around Collier
County. Right now the intent is to continue -- that breakfast, lunch,
or lunch/dinner box-type lunch environment is extended to go on
with no sunset given at this particular point in time. But we're
ordering some contingency meals as always.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: So that will be -- excuse me. I
didn't mean to interrupt. But -- so when you're giving these box
lunches, a lot of the people in the East Naples area, of cour se, are
salaried people -- are hourly people. And if their businesses close,
they can't get any money to feed their families. Will they be eligible
to do this, then?
MR. SUMMERS: No. This is for schoolchildren. This is my
understanding that it is associated with the school lunch program. So
I do not have any particular information to say other than we have
been in touch with a number of our non-profit food banks, and they
are working. They're very much aware of this particular demand at
this point in time, and they're working very closely to fill those needs.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Okay. So I'll continue then. And
that's interesting because I've been -- I know everybody keeps talking
about closing all the businesses, but you're going to be putting a lot of
people out of the work. And how are we going to feed those people,
as long as you're on that same subject?
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Let me kind of interrupt for just is
a quick second. We're not closing any businesses.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Well, I know. People have been
talking about it. That's what I mean.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: I just want to make sure that the
public doesn't hear that we are closing businesses. We are not
closing private businesses. We're dealing with county services.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: And, you know what, that's great to
have on the record so that people can hear that. That needs to be
March 16, 2020
Page 19
mentioned.
Also, I've got a couple more questions, and one of them is:
Being that it's allergy season, do you have a lot of people come in
who really don't have -- they have the symptoms, but they're of
allergies rather than the virus. Do you have that seeming to be
happening?
MR. SUMMERS: In terms of that trend, let me ask Stephanie
Vick to address that, if she's seen any related trends.
MS. VICK: For sure that is something that has been happening
at the Health Department, people calling with symptoms like that that
they have no other risk factors, and it could possibly be allergy. It
could possibly be flu symptoms. But they have to meet the criteria
that has been set out by the CDC at this point in time in order to
qualify for testing.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Okay. That's -- I understand that.
Have you -- I have been reading -- I don't know that this is true, but I
would love to ask you guys. It says that heat and humidity will kill
this virus. As we get warmer, they figure that these viruses will die
just because of the heat and the humidity that we have down here in
Southwest Florida.
MS. VICK: Well, that is a --
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: My understanding is that there is
no evidence at all at this point in time that heat will have any impact
on this virus. It is too early to make that determination, and to say
otherwise would be simply spreading a rumor that is not correct.
MS. VICK: And you are correct. You did it in a short time, and
I would have taken just a little bit longer to explain that, but --
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Fiala, do you have
any other questions?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: No, that's it for me.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Thank you.
March 16, 2020
Page 20
MS. VICK: Thank you.
MR. SUMMERS: Commissioners, I believe right now the
County Manager would like to bring up his discussion in terms of
some recommendations to the Board regarding operations.
Mr. Ochs.
MR. OCHS: Yes.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: And prior to that, if I might, I
know we have all the constitutional officers in the audience. I don't
know if anyone from the Sheriff's Department or from the Supervisor
of Elections --
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: The Sheriff's here.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Oh, I understand. The Sheriff's
here, the Supervisor of Elections. We have representatives from all
of the constitutional officers, including the Clerk's Office.
Prior to our starting to make recommendations on county operations,
did any of you want to make any requests or presentations, or are you
coordinating with the manager so he has what you need?
MS. EDWARDS: I'm planning to make a presentation.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Come up on. Let's go
ahead and do that, because that's going to be part of the list of things.
MS. EDWARDS: Good afternoon. For the record, my name is
Jennifer Edwards. I am your Supervisor of Elections.
As of right now, there will be an election tomorrow. We have
been in constant communication with the Department of State, the
Division of Elections, the Florida Department of Health, the Florida
Division of Emergency Management, Homeland Security, and our
local Health Department as well as our local Emergency Operations
Center.
Per their recommendations, we have purchased hand sanitizer
for each of our early voting locations, which ended on Saturday, as
well as our election day locations tomorrow, which is 59 locations.
March 16, 2020
Page 21
We also have wipes that will be used by our election workers to wipe
down the equipment and tables and other things in the room.
On March 10 we received notice regarding Executive Order
No. 20-52 that was issued by the Governor, and on March 11th we
received an Emergency Order No. 20-002 that was issued by Director
Moskowitz from the Florida Division of Emergency Management.
As a result, two of our election day polling locations have
withdrawn from the election due to the assisted living facilities being
located within their community. Those locations are Precinct 416,
Moorings Park clubhouse, and Precinct 222, Bentley Village east
clubhouse.
Now, Precinct 416, Moorings Park voters, will vote at Faith
Lutheran Church. That's located at 4150 Goodlette Road, and
Precinct 222, Bentley Village, will vote at Grow Church at 15300
Tamiami Trail North. And we appreciate the help from those two
locations.
Over 80 of our election workers have excused themselves from
working tomorrow, so our staffing will be reduced at all of our
polling locations. So if there are lines, please be patient with us. But
think about it. It's a short ballot, and we think the whole process will
move very quickly.
So that concludes my comments.
Do you have any questions?
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner McDaniel has a
question.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: As a quick reminder, you and
I know, but just remind folks that tomorrow's election requires people
to actually go to their own individual precinct. They can't just go to
one, correct?
MS. EDWARDS: Correct.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: As it was in early voting, so...
March 16, 2020
Page 22
MS. EDWARDS: Right. And they can go to our website,
Colliervotes.com or just call our office at Collier Votes, and we'll be
glad to assist them. We're getting calls today about where they're to
vote. And they need to take a signature and photo identifica tion, and
the list of those also are on our website. And the polls are open from
7:00 in the morning until 7:00 tomorrow night.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. So elections will go on
as normal.
MS. EDWARDS: This is the presidential preference primary
election.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: And a very, very important
election in the City of Naples.
MS. EDWARDS: That's right.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Right. Thank you.
MS. EDWARDS: Okay. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Sheriff Rambosk, I know -- I don't
know if you have anything specific. I do have a couple of questions
for you, if you --
SHERIFF RAMBOSK: Yes. Good afternoon. For the record,
Kevin Rambosk, Collier County Sheriff.
Just as a quick update for you, this is obviously high peak
season for us; all normal activity and responsibilities. We're just
finishing up on spring break, which is added responsibilities for us,
and then add in COVID-19 preparations, planning.
We actually engaged in January to start that process. Since that
time we've not only done policy implementation, purchasing, but
created a task force, which then led into an incident management
team where we create an incident report, action report each and every
period. We started for a week at a time. We're down to, now, four
days at a time. And it involves all of normal operations, the jail, and
March 16, 2020
Page 23
the court system.
So -- but some of the information you might be interested in is
that any day at this time or period of the season we're between 11-
and 1200 calls for service per day. We are at the high end of that, as
we speak, this last five to seven days.
We have had a total of 229 cases of disturbances. There has
been a significant increase in the last few days at stores throughout
the county. We have also had requests from many of our stores in the
county to provide off-duty detail deputies at those locations, which
we're trying to do if it fits in with our staffing plan.
We're also working, as Dan said, with the hospital and the City
of Naples and their drive-through operations. We're looking at
working with the school system. I've been in constant
communication with Kam Patton relative to how do we keep our kids
safe in the next extended period of time and week.
I won't get into it, but we're looking specifically at online safety,
because as we ask our young people to not get together, they're going
to be using more online opportunities. So we're actually putting
together a release to go out with the school system to address not
only general safety for our kids, but also some of the online safeties.
We have had a 20 percent increase in medical calls over the last
week and a half. That's not that abnormal for high peak season. That
ebbs and flows, but something that you might be wanting to be aware
of.
The last thing is, we're getting a lot of visitation from the East
Coast as they're closing down beaches on the East Coast. This
morning we have been talking to a lot of people on the beach, and
there are a lot of people from out of county who beli eve it is safer
here to recreate than it is where they have come from. So we're
trying to deal with that right now, and we'll be working with your
city -- your County Manager's Office to ensure how we go ahead and
March 16, 2020
Page 24
move forward with that. Even trying to get, you know, social
distancing, not working today on the beaches. That I can tell you.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Taylor?
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Sheriff Rambosk, so they closed
the beaches on the East Coast?
SHERIFF RAMBOSK: Yeah, South Beach particularly, and I
guess they're looking at more. That's what we've been told.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: In Broward? In Broward?
SHERIFF RAMBOSK: I haven't heard from Broward yet.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Wow. That's the center.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Solis?
Are you finished, Commissioner Taylor?
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Yes.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Solis.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: That was going to be my questions,
but I've got some other questions for staff.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: So do I.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Fiala, you have
some questions for Sheriff Rambosk?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yes, just one, actually. Have you
been contacted by the City of Marco Island or people on Marco
Island who want to close off Marco Island?
SHERIFF RAMBOSK: We've not been contacted by people
who want to close off Marco Island, but I can tell you that the City of
Naples police and fire, Marco Island police and fire, all fire districts
we have been in constant communication with for the last several
weeks.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Okay. Thank you very much.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: And, Sheriff Rambosk, in terms of
assistance from the county, is there anything you need from us? I
know you've got your operations well in hand, but is there -- I know
March 16, 2020
Page 25
you're working with the County Manager. Is there anything that you
need from the County Commission in particular?
SHERIFF RAMBOSK: No, sir, not at this time. We are in
constant communication with everybody at every level, and the state.
So when we have a question, we ask, and we're all working together
to make it work.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Great. Thank you.
Are there other constitutional officers here? And anybody have
any --
THE CLERK: Thank you, Commissioner. Crystal Kinzel,
Clerk of Courts. Right now the courts are operating, but we are not
holding jury trials until March 27th under administrative court order.
Recover at home. Hopefully come back healthy in April. But the
courts are open, our satellites are open, and our office is open right
now.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: In terms of the judicial process,
County Commission has no involvement in that.
THE CLERK: Correct. That was mostly for the public's
awareness, so...
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Anything else?
MR. OCHS: Mr. Ray is here. I don't know if he's got anything
from the Tax Collector.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Come on up.
MR. RAY: Larry Ray, the Tax Collector.
We don't have very much. We're working as we normally do,
but they have extended -- the Governor extended driver's license for
30 days. If your license expires, you get 30 more days to do it. So
that will -- should keep people away from the offices for a month,
hopefully. We're trying to get -- and we've posted that on our
website. They're trying to drive people to online stuff, which would
be a good idea.
March 16, 2020
Page 26
We've got things posted, the latest DHSMV notifications posted
on the doors of all of our offices.
The state still runs a few driver's license offices over in the East
Coast, and they suspended driver's tests in their state offices. So I
took that as an indication maybe that's a good idea. So I've
extended -- so I have suspended driver's testing in an automobile
through 15 April right now, because you've got two people in a close
environment that don't know each other and doesn't know where each
other's been, and there's a lot of -- a lot of uneasiness amongst our
people, so we've just done that. And we'll post anything we hear.
DOR's meeting to talk about do we -- you know, the good news
is 95.6 percent of the property tax has been collected. Do we extend
the delinquency date? I don't know. We'll see. They're meeting at
3:00. If they do, we will. I'll let you know.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. And you do not need
anything from us?
MR. RAY: I do not need anything from you that I'm aware of.
I'll let you know if I do.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Commissioner Taylor,
did you have another question?
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Not with our Tax Collector.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: I don't see -- do we have any
registered speakers?
MR. MILLER: I do not have any registered speaker slips, no,
sir.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: And I have one more addition,
which is from the Naples Senior Center, if we could put that letter on
the visualizer. And if I may just --
MR. MILLER: I don't know if it's on, Leo.
March 16, 2020
Page 27
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: I'll just start reading it. If I may
read this. May I read this?
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: I tell you, it's a -- we all have it. I
don't know if you want to read the entire letter.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Just to allow the public to know,
number one, that they are the central address for senior services, but
right now there's no dementia or respite programs. On-site
socialization has been canceled for two weeks. They will deliver
food to seniors. They also have a pantry that's open for younger
families, so -- by appointment. So it's -- so there are those services
out there.
Also, they -- they are calling the seniors that are registered with
their center daily to check in because depression; isolation can really
take a toll on seniors. They will visit if they need to. And then
they're doing conference calls and social media to promote activities
and contact.
They are available for the government and for the public. It
doesn't always have to be the folks that are registered with them. So
it's just to let them know that they are ready and waiting to serve the
seniors in our community.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. And for the public, is
there a telephone number?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I asked the County Manager
to adjust it. It's right across the top there.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: 325-4444.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Correct. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Thank you.
Anything else?
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: That's it. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Mr. Ochs?
MR. OCHS: Yes, sir. Thank you, Mr. Chairman --
March 16, 2020
Page 28
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: What we're -- kind of an
introduction to this part of this meeting. Part of the purpose of this
meeting, not only to inform the public as to what's going on but, more
significantly, I think, in terms of this meeting is to determine how
we're going to go forward over the next 60 to 90 days and perhaps
even beyond that. So we're going to be making some decisions today
that will affect County Commission operations going forward.
MR. OCHS: Thank you, sir. And on that note, and based on the
information available to us at the current time from federal, state, and
local agencies, I'm going ask the Board to consider taking a few
actions here today that we can go over starting with the two that are
on your slide right now.
The first would be for the Board to consider authorizing the
County Manager to continue with maintenance of normal county
government operations to the greatest extent practical, and also, of
course, while fully adhering to all CDC, state, and local Department
of Health directives and guidance -- and this would include, if need
be, canceling, postponing, limiting events of 50 or more people on
government properties for the next eight weeks. That's consistent
with the most recent guidance that we've received from the CDC.
And then also to consider delegating to me the authority to order
closures of what we would deem high-risk public facilities. For
example, gymnasium, fitness centers, maybe community centers, if
need be. So I'm asking for the Board to consider that delegation as
we move forward here.
The next would be to authorize the Manager's Office to take
necessary actions to cancel, postpone, or limit public meetings of the
Board and other quasi-judicial boards and commissions, other
advisory boards and committees for the next 30 days. The thinking
there is that I would work with Chairman Saunders to go through that
calendar of meetings and make determinations, you know, based on
March 16, 2020
Page 29
his recommendations and input from staff on which one of those -- or
which ones of those we could deem nonessential and then, you know,
either postpone or cancel outright if need be.
Dan, can you move that next slide for me. Thank you.
Just two more. The next one would be authorizing the manager
to take whatever actions are necessary to maintain the continuity of
county operations including the authority to enter into all contracts
for goods and services until further directed by the Board.
As you know, we're limited as a staff under your procurement
policy to authorizing contracts through a specified dollar threshold.
This would provide additional latitude to enter into those agreements
under the circumstances that we're facing today in order to maintain
continuity of operations.
And finally, Commissioners, just authorizing my office to take
whatever measures are necessary to continue to protect the health,
safety, and welfare of our county workforce, and this would include
any actions that we would need to take to keep our employees in
what I call full-pay status due to the need to modify work schedules
and approve absences as they relate to the COVID-19 situation.
So those are my preliminary recommendations, Commissioners,
for your consideration.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Thank you. You had four items
there. Why don't we just go through each one , one at a time.
MR. OCHS: Okay.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: And we do have a proposed
resolution that, I think, captures --
MR. OCHS: Yes.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: -- most of that, if not all of it.
MR. OCHS: I think so, too, sir. I just wanted to point them out
individually. And you're right, I think with the few modifications
that the County Attorney's going to talk to you about on the
March 16, 2020
Page 30
resolution, we could capture and codify all of this into the resolution.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Let's talk about No. 1.
Commissioner Solis.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Just to understand a little better
what closing the facilities, gymnasiums, and things like that means.
In light of what I heard from the Sheriff about closing the beaches on
the East Coast and that causing an influx of beachgoers here, that
seems to me to be a pretty big concern, especially if they're coming
from Broward and Dade where the numbers seem to be picking up
speed.
What-all is that going to cover specifically in terms of the North
Regional Park? Just -- can you explain a little bit better what we're
doing?
MR. OCHS: Well, sir, the thought process there was that if we
had areas of what we're deeming high risk for contagion or public
exposure to the virus, working with Stephanie Vick's office, try to
make some specific recommendations on shutting some of those
things down.
I know fitness centers --
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Right. Obviously --
MR. OCHS: -- is an area that's kind of known for that. So we
operate probably half a dozen of those in our various community
centers and parks, so that would be something we'd want to evaluate.
I'm not saying I would close them all down tomorrow, but I -- I
would like to have the latitude to do that in consultation with
Stephanie and Dan and Steve Carnell and his Parks and Recreation
staff if we think it's appropriate.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: What's the status of, say, Little
League, Pop Warner? Have all of those organizations already
voluntarily suspended their --
MR. OCHS: To my knowledge, sir, most of them have, yes.
March 16, 2020
Page 31
I'm not aware of any, frankly, that haven't voluntarily canceled at this
point. I'll ask Steve to come up and speak to that directly. But most
of them have canceled on their own. You know, the parks
themselves are still open, and anybody that wants to come and kick a
ball in the field or something, certainly, we're open for that.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: But no organized functions of any
kind, I would hope?
MR. OCHS: Steve?
MR. CARNELL: Steve Carnell, for the record.
Just to clarify the County Manager's statement, we have almost
30 leagues that we are in contract with at one or more parks. And
we've not heard from every single one of them to his answer, but
everyone we've heard from so far is canceling or awaiting direction
from us.
So right now we're going to -- we're pretty much expecting all
league play will be shut down here in a few days barring a change in
direction. And the parks themselves will remain open for general
public use.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: I mean, I would -- I would think it
would be a good idea to go ahead and notify them that they need to
do that today.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Let's see if there's a consensus of
the Board. These are some difficult decisions. The direction you're
looking for is to -- in terms of organized sporting activities, Little
League and all, that --
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Yeah.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: -- our parks are not going to be
open for that until further notice, that --
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: That's correct.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Does everyone agree with that?
Commissioner McDaniel, what's your thought on that? You
March 16, 2020
Page 32
know, let me -- as you're thinking, because --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I think I'm trying -- well, I'm
trying to gather my words. I mean, if you have something to say, go
ahead. I mean, I'll reserve my time.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Okay. I was going to give you a
little respite there in terms of making your thoughts. None of these
decisions that we're going to make today are going to be easy ones.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Right.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: And I think the issue from my
perspective is I'd rather be wrong on the side of being a little ove rly
restrictive than being wrong on the side of not being restrictive
enough.
I hate to say to a Little League team you can't play a Little
League game here. On the other hand, it does bring a lot of kids
together and their parents and grandparents, and I think I agree with
Commissioner Solis that we need to not have any organized play like
that. Parks can be open for families to go out and, as was said, kick a
ball. But I'd rather be -- I'd rather err on the side of being overly
conservative than the other way. So that was my comment that I just
wanted to make as you were thinking in terms of your position there.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And, you know, there again --
and I appreciate you allowing me that respite. It's certainly
untrodden turf for all of us, and I would prefer that we error [sic] on
the side of being conservative, but on the same token, it's -- there's an
overreaching and almost contradictory -- I'd like to talk a little bit
about this language just from postponing of all government -owned
properties. The specification of "government" is the question that I
have. Where are we with regard to that? I mean, this is an
eight-week closure and that's -- people view us as all as one. And so,
I mean, does this include the school districts?
MR. OCHS: No. I'm sorry. I should have put Board of County
March 16, 2020
Page 33
Commissioners' facilities or properties.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Right. And so -- and so that
language, specifically, is on government properties for the next eight
weeks, and that's where -- and, again, I haven't had an opportunity to
read the actual written ordinance that we're going to vote on.
MR. OCHS: No, it's a good catch.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: That is a good catch. We're talking
about only county facilities and county programs. We're not talking
about --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: We're not talking about
private --
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: -- private businesses.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: -- sectors or private
businesses, restaurants, or anything along those lines.
MR. OCHS: No.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: So it's just the government's
way of extending cautious efforts.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Telling families and kids to stay at
home as much as possible.
Commissioner Fiala?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yes. See, I'm -- only a little bit of
puzzlement for me. Again, I've been reading, and they say that for
some phenomenon that kids don't seem to be getting this virus but, of
course, parents could, but definitely the elderly do, and that might
play into whatever decision we're going to be making.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Yeah. I think that -- and our
Health Department, Stephanie Vick, is going to talk here in a second.
But kids do get the virus, and they don't get symptoms from it,
necessarily, and if they do get symptoms, they're extremely mild, but
they do transmit it to people that are around them.
MS. VICK: Why do you need me?
March 16, 2020
Page 34
Well, that -- to reinforce what he's saying, yes, kids do get it.
You might not even know they have it, but who knows who they go
home to? Are their grandparents taking care of them? Are they
staying with their grandparents for a short period of time? They
can -- even though they don't have real symptoms, a lot of them, they
can transmit.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: And, Commissioner Fiala, there
is -- apparently, some of the newer evidence at this point is that this is
not just old people and older sick people that get this disease and
suffer from it. Healthy people in their 40s are getting it and suffering
from it.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Oh, I know that, yes.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: So the issue becomes do we
basically require the social distancing that we've been talking about.
So we need to make kind of a decision on how we proceed with those
types of activities.
Commissioner Taylor? Did you have something else,
Commissioner Taylor?
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Yeah. We're talking about
organized children's sports, and I'm really betwixt and between
because school is out. There's no school, but at the same time I think
I would support that. But I think the elephant in the room is the
beaches.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Is what, please?
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: The beaches. I think that's my --
when I listened to what our sheriff said about Miami-Dade coming
over here to use our beaches, and social distancing isn't part of their
conduct, I am very concerned about that. So I'll leave that for a
moment, and we'll come back to that.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Let's just see what the
consensus is. Commissioner Fiala, have you arrived at a conclusion
March 16, 2020
Page 35
as to how you feel about that particular issue? The county parks, not
the beaches. Nothing dealing with private businesses, but just how
we proceed with our county parks.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Okay. And I just have one little
question there. Does that mean that county-sponsored groups there
or any groups that generally go to our parks and pay us to use them?
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: My understanding, it would be any
groups that use our parks.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Both.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Both.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Commissioner Solis, did you have
something else?
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Not on this issue.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Let's get through this one.
Commissioner McDaniel.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yeah. Just a question on the
actual language. So it's going to -- we're going to adjust the language
just to actually specify parks -- parks and the parks systems with
regard to this --
MR. KLATZKOW: No. You're going to make a motion
whether or not we're shutting down the parks to these activities.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: But the language per what's
here --
MR. KLATZKOW: This is separate.
MR. OCHS: No. It's --
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: We're only dealing with --
MR. OCHS: It's public facilities. I'm talking about public
facilities where people would congregate in a building of 50 or more
people.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: We're only talking about county
buildings and county --
March 16, 2020
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MR. OCHS: Yes.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: We're not talking about anything
private. So let's just see what the consensus is.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I'm just trying to --
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: No. You're absolutely right. We
need to be clear on that, but that's what it is. It's just the county
programs and county facilities.
I think we have a consensus. Commissioner Fiala, you -- I
mean, Commissioner Taylor, you agree?
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: I would agree, yes.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. We have a consensus.
Commissioner Fiala, I don't know what your position is, but we have
four up here that agree.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: You closed the county -- let's see.
Just say it one more time.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: The proposal is we're not closing
our county parks.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Okay.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: What we're doing is we're not
permitting any of the league type of play there, whether it be a
county-sanctioned league or whatever. We're not going to have Little
League and that sort of thing there.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: The kids are still allowed to go in
the park and play?
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Yes, yes.
MR. OCHS: Absolutely.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Yes,
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Okay.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. So we have a consensus
on that, which I think is a very important issue. I'm glad that you
raised it the way you did, Commissioner Solis.
March 16, 2020
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MR. OCHS: Commissioners, the next item is intended to try to
limit, again, public meetings, particularly those that would draw
potentially larger crowds. So I'm asking for the ability to work
individually with Chairman Saunders to go through the upcoming
schedule of these various advisory boards and quasi-judicial boards
and, if the Commission agrees, even look at your regular commission
meeting schedule to see what we could do to either streamline that or,
you know, limit the scheduling of those meetings for the immediate
future.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Solis?
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: I agree. I think we need to consider
that today and try to make a decision at least for the next 30 days.
Maybe in 30 days we'll have a better idea of, you know, what the
future holds. I think we've got, what, one meeting left in March?
MR. OCHS: Next week.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: I haven't looked at what's in the --
going to be in the agenda yet, but is there a reason that we wouldn't
continue that meeting just because, you know -- if we're -- it seems
inconsistent to be telling everyone that we need to practice social
distancing and then hold a public meeting where everybody's going
to come and sit next to each other.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Let's just do this, if we might.
Let's ignore next week's meeting. Let's deal with -- and we'll deal
with that issue, but let's deal with the more global situation right now,
and that is going forward, not counting next Tuesday. Do we -- my
view is we do not have any advisory board meetings.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Right.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: We do not have a planning board
meeting. We do not have neighborhood information meetings until
further notice. And then in terms of commission meetings, let's kind
of separate that.
March 16, 2020
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COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Okay. I agree completely, and I
would make that motion.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: No workshops.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: No workshops. Nothing that's
unnecessary.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Nonessential.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Fiala, do you have
any comment on that?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Nope, I agree.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: So we're clear on that. In terms of
advisory boards, neighborhood information meetings, workshops,
things of that nature, we're going to cancel those, and then I'll work
with the manager as to when we restart those, and we'll get back to
the Board on that. So it may be 30 days. It may be 90 days. But we
don't have to come back to make a decision as to continuing that.
Let's talk about the County Commission meetings then. At the
last meeting I had suggested that we eliminate anything that's
unnecessary in our meetings, which would be, you know,
proclamations and things of that nature. I know that I've gotten a
couple phone calls. I know we have Mr. Pickworth sitting in the
audience here. I know he's got something dealing with financing.
We may need to have that meeting. Let folks know that it's
going to be short, it's going to subject to specific subjects, and then
we're -- you know, we're not going to be dealing with public
comment on a whole lot of variety of issues and that sort of thing. So
I think -- that's why I wanted to kind of separate that. We may have
to deal differently.
But let's talk about how we're going to go forward after next
Tuesday's meeting.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Well, if we're postponing
indefinitely, I have a birthday the day after, and I'll be happy to put
March 16, 2020
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that off indefinitely.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. You'll stay 38 until we --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes, correct.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. How do you want to
handle commission meetings going forward? One suggestion would
be I could meet with the manager, make a determination if there's
something that's absolutely critical, and if it's critical, we can have a
quick meeting, but --
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: That's what I would be in favor of.
If it's a time-sensitive issue, a closing or a bond approval or
something like that that needs to absolutely be done, then I would
agree that we could have a limited meeting just to address those and
adjourn.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Would it be acceptable to the
Board that I work with the County Manager in making these
determinations as to whether we need to meet or not?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Absolutely. I'm okay with
that. I think as long as communication -- I mean, with the technology
that's available today, communications are what they are. I don't
think it's imprudent to set this forth for the 30 days that we currently
have here and reevaluate as we go based upon new information.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. In terms of the
reevaluation, what I'm trying to avoid is having to have a meeting to
reevaluate.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Correct.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: But the manager will be in contact
with all five commissioners to keep everybody updated on what's
going on and whether we need to have a meeting or not. I will work
with the manager in helping to facilitate that determination.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And we will have the 24th
meeting for now, it will be short and sweet, and then we'll go forth
March 16, 2020
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from there.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Fiala?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yes. Yes, that's fine with me, also.
I do want to ask one question, but I won't ask it now. I'll wait till
we're done with this topic.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Then it looks like we
have a consensus in terms of our -- Commissioner Taylor.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Just, legally, are we -- are we
required to have a set number of meetings per year?
MR. KLATZKOW: No. You have certain times you have to
have a meeting, such as your budget process, but there's nothing that
says you have to have five or 10 or 15 meetings.
MR. OCHS: You have a public-meetings ordinance, but it's
your ordinance, and I'm sure Jeff would advise you could modify that
as the need requires.
I have one issue I want to raise on this subject, and I'm really
looking at Mr. Klatzkow for some help. Your consent agenda
typically is chockful of what we otherwise would think are mundane
items like final plat acceptances and releases of performance bonds.
They might seem mundane to us, but for the people that are waiting
for those approvals, it's business and it's time and it's money. So as
long as we can find a way to get --
MR. KLATZKOW: I think you delegated that [sic]. That's --
MR. OCHS: See. And that's what was my concern,
Commissioners.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: I'm sorry. We can delegate that or
we can't?
MR. KLATZKOW: You cannot delegate certain functions.
You can certainly delegate functions such as contracts but, like, plats
must be approved by the Board of County Commissioners. I would
note that you do take a summer recess, and somehow the world
March 16, 2020
Page 41
doesn't fall apart, however. So you don't have to meet every two
weeks for plats and releases.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. So we can make a
determination. We'll take all of those consent-agenda items, have a
determination that maybe we need a meeting --
MR. KLATZKOW: Once a month.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: -- to approve those, and we'll do
that on a case-by-case basis. But you'll accumulate those for a period
of time.
Commissioner McDaniel.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Just -- you brought up the
60-day break, and you -- and the world doesn't fall apart. What do --
what do we do in that 60-day break? Do we --
MR. KLATZKOW: We hear a lot of complaints from
developers while you're gone.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: And then we ratify everything
afterwards.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Well, but -- I mean, we can
approve them and then ratify after the fact. It has to be done by us.
So we just postpone them until we come back, so --
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: But -- but remember, we don't --
this is a fluid situation.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Absolutely.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: It's not like our break in the
summer where we know we're back at a certain time.
MR. KLATZKOW: And I'm going to tell you, your
circumstances two weeks from now might be very different from
today anyway.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Amen. Going to be.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: So I think we have a consensus on
March 16, 2020
Page 42
that issue. Is that --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Sure.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Taylor, did you
have some else?
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: I do, I do. And it would require
Ms. Vick to come back to the podium.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: She's not listening.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Yeah. I need you to come back.
I need to understand what the Florida Department of Health indi cates
in terms of an epidemic that is increasing or we have turned the
corner, or is there such a bright line?
MS. VICK: You want to know where we are right now?
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: No. I want to know, is there a
way to judge whether we're over the hump or not, so to speak, that
we are -- turned the corner. Because I'm listening to the news, and
they're talking that in some countries, because the cases are going
down, they feel that they have, you know, conquered the disease, so
to speak, as much as possible. And that's the wrong word.
"Conquered" is the wrong word.
MS. VICK: But that would occur after there would be
widespread testing --
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Okay.
MS. VICK: -- and we have not even gotten to the point where
we have enough tests to test yet.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Thank you. That's what I
needed to know. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Mr. Ochs, did we take
care of all of the items you had on your list?
MR. OCHS: No. These are the next two, sir.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Okay.
MR. OCHS: This next one involves delegating additional
March 16, 2020
Page 43
authority to me to enter into contracts for goods and services until
further directed by the Board, again, in keeping with trying to limit
the number of Board meetings.
There's a number of items that you routinely approve that are
competitively-bid contract awards, but they exceed the thresholds
that you have set for administrative approval. So those come, right
now, only to the Board for approval. If you enact this action -- and I
believe Mr. Klatzkow has referenced this in the resolution as well --
we could move forward without having to bring those back.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: I would support that.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: So moved.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Second.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: I want to also urge the County
Manager to work very closely with our clerk, because we are going to
be foregoing some of those public types of --
MR. OCHS: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: -- issues, but I want to make sure
that we're following our internal procedures on all those types of
contracts.
But we're doing this now -- we don't have a limitation on that.
We're just simply saying the manager can enter into these contracts
going forward until we say he can't do it anymore. Everybody agree
with that?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I think it's fine.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: And, Commissioner Fiala?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: It's okay.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right.
MR. OCHS: And this last one, Commissioners, I don't really
need any additional delegation. I have that available in our human
resources practices and procedures. But this was more just to
confirm Board intent that we will do everything in our power to keep
March 16, 2020
Page 44
our workforce and, you know, their full regular pay status even if the
circumstances in the short-term require them to modify work
schedules or hours, and we're doing all the things that other agencies
are doing with regard to work-at-home programs and telecommuting.
But there may be circumstances where we have an individual that has
to be off and is limited in the amount of lead time available, and we
just -- we'll work with those people on a case-by-case basis if you
give me the authority to go ahead and do that.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: And just a point of clarity. Have
to be off, perhaps, because, you know, their children are at home and
they need some kind of supervision. Is that included?
MR. OCHS: Yes, ma'am. As I say here, absences related to the
COVID-19, and that would include those kinds of circumstances.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Thank you for that clarity.
MR. OCHS: So those are the four issues.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: On that one you don't need any
particular --
MR. OCHS: No, just an expression of --
(Simultaneous crosstalk.)
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Yeah, I think we need to at least
acknowledge it first.
Ms. Kinzel?
THE CLERK: Yes. I just had some questions Leo, because,
obviously, consistency across the board of payroll and pay actions, it
impacts all of our offices, and it impacts our budgets, and some of
our budgets may not have some consistent authority.
We were trying to maintain use of sick leave. If they are, in
fact, sick, they would qualify for family medical leave, obviously.
But I become a little bit concerned on paying when they have no
leave time. We may need some particular codes if you're looking for
reimbursement from the feds or people on those issues. So I just
March 16, 2020
Page 45
want to work with payroll, and I would like it consistent across all of
the constitutionals. I think that there could be quite a disparity if
we're -- if one agency is paying whether you're here or not and paying
full pay, and then other people are required to work and not receiving
double pay or -- you see how complicated -- and it isn't as easy as just
say, well, let's keep everyone full pay. We need to go over the
nuances of that, and then I would recommend --
MR. KLATZKOW: We're talking about our agency.
MR. OCHS: Yes, but I think Ms. Kinzel is saying she's looking
for some consistency in how this is applied. Obviously, we can't
control what the constitutionals do, but I would be very happy to
share all the specific details of our plan with all the constitutionals.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Let's have on our next agenda a
decision between the constitutional officers and the manager on how
we're going to handle that particular issue.
In terms of our workforce, we're good to go?
MR. OCHS: Yes.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: But we need a report back, and
then we need to make a determination as to how we want to handle
all the other agencies, and we can do that next Tuesday after you've
had an opportunity to kind of review all that.
MR. OCHS: Yes, sir. And just a final word on this, just so
there's no confusion. Of course, it's not really a matter of budget,
because all of you have budgeted for the salaries for the year anyway.
It's a matter of which leave category's going to get deducted and all of
the right things that the Clerk just pointed out. So, yeah, we'll be
happy to work that.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: I think I can say for certainly for
myself, but I think probably for the rest of the Board, we want to be
fair with everybody, and we want to be consistent.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Yes.
March 16, 2020
Page 46
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Right.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: We're all county employees that
are in this all together.
MR. OCHS: Got it.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: So give us something that we can
make a decision on next Tuesday.
MR. OCHS: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: And just in case -- don't forget I
still have a question waiting.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Anything else that you
need from us?
MR. OCHS: Oh, yes, sir. We'd want to move on to Item 2B,
which is the actual decision and adoption, if the Board would like, of
the local state of emergency.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: I wanted to bring up, before we
move on to that, if you would please -- can you hear me okay?
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Sure.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Pickleball. I wanted to clarify how
we're going to handle Pickleball.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Very good question.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: The folks that organize and run
the US Pickleball Open have canceled it. It's not going to go
forward. Now, my concern is the East Naples Community Park, that
those tournaments there are drastically cut back. They can't go on.
It's part of that policy. It's not just little kids. It's adults, too. And
then we do have an issue of making sure that everyone understand
that 6-foot rule.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Let me see if understood what you
just said. You said that Pickleball National has canceled the US
Open?
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: This morning, yes, ma'am.
March 16, 2020
Page 47
COMMISSIONER FIALA: I see. I'm sorry. I did not get that
message. Okay. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. And, Commissioner
Taylor, you had another question that you wanted to ask as well, or
are you --
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: No. I think that's a very good
thing to -- at our next agenda, sir. I just was complimenting you. I
think that's really good to get it very clear for our employees.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. We have a resolution in
front of us.
Mr. Klatzkow, based on our conversation and our decisions,
does this need to be amended in any way, and --
MR. KLATZKOW: No, I think all your discussions fall within
the parameters of the declaration. What we're doing is giving the
County Manager some guidance within that time frame.
I'll just note that I've slightly modified it to -- just to make clear
that we're already operating under a declaration of emergency from
the Governor, and the Governor's given you all these powers. So
you've got the state emergency, and now you're declaring a loca l
emergency.
The Clerk pointed out earlier, County Manager, that your local
emergency lasts for seven days. The state emergency, however, is
indefinite. So what you're doing -- I've modified it so that your
actions are both under the local as well as the state so it's indefinite.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: We don't have to come back every
seven days to renew this?
MR. KLATZKOW: Yes.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Solis.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: A couple of other questions. One
is: Have we heard anything from the fair?
MR. CASALANGUIDA: We've heard they're going to close
March 16, 2020
Page 48
effective -- well, they closed effectively Sunday night, and they're
talking about re-opening some other events that are there, and I
think --
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: I mean, in light of the l owering of
the numbers of people that should be in a gathering --
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: They estimated --
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: -- have they responded?
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: I think they estimated there would
be 300 people at different auctions.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: I know.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: We don't have any real control
over the fair board, but we can certainly tell them what our thoughts
are.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: I've expressed mine.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: I think we have. I think all of us
have.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: So have I.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: I mean, I cannot express what a bad
decision I think it would be to continue with those events.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: I agree.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: I'll just say that.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Let's -- I tell you what --
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Is there anybody here from the fair?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Taylor, you had
something on the --
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Well, my concerns aren't the
fair, but I would agree, I think -- I understand the sweetness of this. I
understand the importance of these animals to these children, and
it's -- the sale is, perhaps, money in the bank, but I would like to see
if we could draft a letter asking them if they could postpone this.
March 16, 2020
Page 49
These are all local animals. Why can't we postpone it to a 30-day
postponement on this until we understand what's going on and then to
reevaluate it?
But I'm not -- I don't -- sir, I'm looking at you because you
understand it better than most.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes, I do.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: So --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And I think it's important that
we say out loud that even though it is called the Collier Fair, they
have re-branded; not the Collier County Fair as I've known it for a
hundred years.
We -- the county owns the land, but they are leaseholders and
tenants on county land. And so their decisions are, in fact, going to
be theirs. You should have been there on Friday night before I did
the ribbon cutting meeting with the board. You should have been
there for the phone conversations that have transpired subsequent to
their decision to basically mirror Disney World --
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Yeah.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: -- with regard to the closure of
their facilities. And when I say "mirror Disney World," it was they
are going -- they have voluntarily closed as of today with a decision
based upon this extremely fluid circumstance on Thursday, coming
up, with the auctions. They have an emergency plan between us. In
the event that circumstances deteriorate, they have an emergency plan
to be able to help with the auction and the -- and the -- the removal of
the kid's animals so that they don't have to have an auction. But
they're not making -- they haven't made any decisions until this
coming Thursday as to what their operations are, in fact, going to be
for the upcoming weekend.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: And I think the folks at the fair
know what our personal views are, and so I think that they're on
March 16, 2020
Page 50
notice that we have some concern. And it sounds like they are going
to be addressing those, maybe not to our satisfaction, but -- we have a
resolution that we need a motion and a second to approve.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: And just one more thing.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Taylor.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: What -- I know I keep -- I don't
mean to harp on it, but what are we going to do about our beaches?
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Well, let's talk about that -- let's
pass the resolution, and then let's talk about that.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Okay.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: We need a motion and a second on
the resolution.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: So moved.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Second.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Second.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: We have a motion and a second.
Commissioner Fiala, do you have any comment on the motion?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: No, I don't.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. All in favor, 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.
Now we'll talk about the beaches.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Well, how many, 17 beach
access -- so how many beach accesses do we have?
March 16, 2020
Page 51
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Public or private?
MR. OCHS: Public?
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Public.
MR. OCHS: You've got at least a dozen, maybe 15 countywide,
yeah.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Including the City of Naples,
right?
MR. OCHS: No, that's not including the City of Naples. That's
Marco Island and unincorporated Collier County.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: I get it. I don't know. I'm
very -- I'm concerned about this. I mean, we're --
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Solis?
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Yeah. Is -- has the state taken any
position in terms of Wiggins Pass State Park? Have they changed
anything?
MR. OCHS: Stephanie?
MS. VICK: No.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: They have not? Okay.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Mr. Carnell.
MR. OCHS: We're essentially following --
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: You know, there's a couple of
different issues in this discussion because, one, I can see that going to
the beach could facilitate social distancing on the one hand. On the
other hand, you know, our facilities is a place where people have to
do the opposite, the bathrooms, you know, those kind of facilities.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: One way of looking at it is it's no
different than our county parks. We don't have any organized
activities there, but if people want to come to our parks --
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: True.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Our beaches are open to the public.
Our roads are open to the public. It's a free country. We can't tell
March 16, 2020
Page 52
somebody from the East Coast you can't come over here.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: They did on the East Coast.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Thanks for saying that.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: How did they do that on the East
Coast?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And just because -- just
because what they do over on the East Coast is what they do on the
East Coast doesn't make it right.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: No, no. But I'm just -- how
could they -- that's the curious part of this.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Right.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Public parking, public asset, ma'am.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Okay.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: It's --
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: It's outdoor activity and --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: What Commissioner Saunders
said is perfect.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: That's true.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Anything else?
Commissioner Fiala, anything else from your perspective?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Nothing else, sir. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Solis?
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: One last question. I'm just curious
if there's anyone here from NCH or one of the hospitals. I just
remember last year flu season me taking my mother to the hospital,
people in the hallways, including her, just because, you know, the
system was stretched just because it was season and flu season, and
now we're presented with this situation that could be worse than that.
And I'm wondering, is there -- is anybody planning anything
differently than just a regular, normal flu season in terms of capacity?
And that may not be a question for Ms. Vick. I don't know.
March 16, 2020
Page 53
MS. VICK: There have been a number of discussions with the
hospitals as far as what happens if we get overloaded. Do we have
alternate treatment sites and how to triage people before they come
into the hospital? Fortunately, we have not had to do that yet. The
testing that NCH implemented this morning they ran for four hours.
It closed at noon. They'll do it again tomorrow. But as you say, it's a
fluid situation. We have been in discussion, but we're not there yet.
We're not there yet.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Well -- and I hadn't heard that, you
know, prior to the COVID situation that the flu season was kind of
overwhelming the hospital. Like -- I don't know if it was last year or
the year before, but there was a year where the flu was a big thing,
and there was a lot of people that were going to the hospital because
of the flu, mainly the elderly. And so the system was kind of taxed
just from it being flu season. So -- but I hadn't heard that, so I'm
hoping that we're not under that situation and we'll have some
capacity.
MS. VICK: Well, that's precisely why we're doing what we're
doing with the social distancing and closing down groups and trying
to -- even if COVID would spread, trying to flatten that spread so it
doesn't happen all at once.
And one other thing I wanted to say, we have focused a lot on
people, you know, that are over 60 years old and with comorbid
conditions. But, you know, we can have a 10-year-old that has an
immunocompromised system, and they're just as vulnerable, okay.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Well, that's good, and I'm glad you
shared that, because the conversations with the hospital is because I
think -- unless we explain to people that all of this is going on behind
the scenes all the time, you know, I think sometimes people think
there's nothing going on because they don't hear about it. So thank
you for sharing that.
March 16, 2020
Page 54
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: One other quick comment. So at
our next meeting, we're going to eliminate the ceremonial aspect.
We're going to deal with issues that have to be dealt with, and we'll
do that pretty expeditiously.
I want to thank the Commission. I think we've made some good
decisions today in terms of protecting our staff as well as the public.
And with that, we are adjourned.
*****
There being no further business for the good of the County, the
meeting was adjourned by order of the Chair at 3:34 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
__________________________________
These minutes approved by the Board on ____________, as
presented ______________ or as corrected _____________.