Councilmember Rodriguez here. Councilmember waters. Your mayor. You have a quorum. Right.
All right.
Let's go ahead and say the pledge. Paula, do you want to start the pledge for us kick off the year with
a good one? Sure.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of
America, America.
God,
indivisible, with liberty, liberty
and
justice.
For all. Thanks, Paulie.
Alright, quick
reminder, the public anyone wishing to provide public comment during the first call public invited to be heard, must watch the livestream of the meeting, in order to, in order to gain access colors are not able to access the meeting at any other time. So we'll go ahead and throw this up when it's time. And you can go ahead and call in and then you'll be notified by the last three or four numbers of your phone numbers. So just pay attention on the live stream. All right. Can I have a motion to approve December 15 2020? regular session minutes, please. So moved.
Some of
all right. It's been moved by Councilmember waters seconded by Councilmember Christiansen, any debate on this topic, guys. All right, all in favor, say aye.
Aye.
Opposed say nay. All right,
let's go ahead. And we're gonna actually we're gonna go ahead and mix it up a little bit. First of all, any agenda revisions or submission of documents or motions to direct the city manager? Let's go with Councilmember Iago fairy. This is the first one of the year don't blow it, Susie. Okay.
Well, I actually I, I, I have one question. And one, something I want to bring to a future agenda. I'd like to see an update on the work that Karen Rooney and Community Services has been doing in connection with Boulder County around RV services, or just any kind of RV lot. What have they discovered? Um, you know, I'd like to see some kind of I was I guess I was hoping we'd have something before the ordinance came into effect. And it's come into effect, and I haven't seen any progress on what we can do to for the RVs that are parked in the streets that have no place to go.
Right. My understanding, did we table this? I thought we passed it and it goes into effect on the first Yes. Right. So so we can we can have, you know, we can have staff bring something back that kind of lets us know what's going on. What's the result and that kind of stuff, but it's been voted on. But it's already in effect.
Yeah. Bring something just an update as we get more rather than later. And help these folks out.
There's no more second than you say there's no motion, but I'll go ahead and put it on the agenda. But it's been seconded. So let's vote on it has been moved that we actually have an update on this. Harold on RB ordinance and how it's impacting the city specifically where the RV is going. So it was moved, moved by Councilmember Lago fairing and seconded by Councilmember Christiansen any other debate on this, anybody might have come back. Councillor Peck?
Thank you. Um, no, I'm gonna vote for because we do need an update. But I think part of what I'm understanding from Councilwoman Hidalgo firing is are you referring to say flots people who want housing here, okay. Not that how do we house them, but really looking at the solutions aspect of this what we were trying to pass, you know, the ordinance with getting Arby's off the street. Now let's start looking getting on getting an update on the solutions for these folks. Thank you. Yep.
Alright, so you want to put the, why don't you go ahead and make make the motion again, Susie?
So I moved to direct staff to provide us an update on safe lots. And I just, we're at just an update on how the RV solution is progressing.
Second.
All right, so the motion is to have an update on place by city staff on the safe lots program. Uh huh. How the RV ordinance is progressing.
Not necessarily the ordinance, but where do these work and where these folks go,
okay. I'm just, I'm not trying but I'm just trying to restate the motion. I'm not making a motion. I'm just trying All right, so we just need to direct. Harold, you got it. All right. Okay.
Does everybody want to vote on this? Or Harold says he's got it. And as the mayor, I've been going on the agenda. Anybody else? Do we mind just a consensus? Harold says he's got it. I'll bring it back.
I feel consensus.
Okay, good. We're gonna go ahead and just Terrell, can you be on
Tuesday? We'll add it real quick, because we have that.
Perfect. Good job, Susie. What else? Oh, sorry. councilmembers. I'm afraid what else?
You know, I just had a quick earlier I had made the motion to I wanted an update on what what was happening on North Main Street. As far as in the progress with the comp plan and everything that they had planned for the North Main Street corridor. I just wanted to know when was that planning to come back to us
for an update, when as well
as mayor Begley, members of council, Jodie Marsh, assistant city manager. So we did have an information item about the North Main Street plan in your packet about a month ago, to give
you all an update as to where some of those items were. And we were hoping that if you saw some specific items, you would we could have a conversation with you and then bring that back. We currently don't have anything scheduled. But we'll be happy to take a look at them.
Yeah, I just wanted to see what was scheduled as far as
nothing at this time. But I can I can work on
going. So can you go ahead and put that on a future agenda here within the next? No, can you bring it back within the next 45 days old?
Yeah. And I think what would be good is on the information item. And folks can look at that. And that way we can see what is a particular interest, so we can focus on that, too. Okay, that would be great.
Thank you. So I think that was a polite way of saying we have a lot of the information. So read what we got and then come back with questions. Okay. Anything else council members offering? That is it. Thank
you.
All right. Councillor Martin.
Thank you, Mayor Bagley. I'm the Colorado mountain pack is a 501 c three nonprofit that focuses on sustainability regarding the rocky mountain area, and they have prepared a letter which I sent to everybody or had donson to everybody this afternoon. And it's a letter to the Biden transition team, asking that he emphasize a lot of things that are in our policy such as the protection of public lands, the control of emissions from the extraction industry, I'm seeing nods sounds like everybody's seeing it. So I would like to move that Longmont sign this letter as a city to the Biden transition team.
All right. the only the only thing is we can put it on a future agenda. But we don't we only this is a time only to direct staff to do things so we can have it come back. But we can't take action on anything right now. So we can Harold when when is this letter? Do you know? Marsha when that?
Yeah, they want it? They want it by the 13th. So I did not realize that I could not just put a motion make a motion here.
Can we put it on for next next meeting, Harold?
Yeah, that means the packet will go on. I mean, packets gonna go a little late, but that's fine.
That Okay, Marsha, we can vote on Yeah. and sign it.
Yes. Okay.
We'll get that done. Okay. Councilmember pack? I'm sorry. Go ahead. Yeah, Counselor pack.
Okay.
Thank you, Mayor Bagley. I would like to make a motion to have an update on the Early Childhood Education Coalition. I've been attending some of those meetings, and they are doing an incredible job. And I'm very, very impressed with it. Council. Councilman waters also has been at those meetings. But what I'm finding is that there after COVID, there seems to be a move forward on what they where they want to go and their vision etc. And since this is part of our work plan, I think that council should have an update on it. It looks like though from from the from what I've read that it's going to take maybe a couple of months or more for them to get the information together from a survey they're putting out as well as some of the documentation. So I would like to make a motion that when the Early Childhood Education Coalition has finished with the survey and completed their agenda on where they want to go that we have a presentation in an update. Make sure that it goes with our work plan.
Second.
All right, Councillor waters. Thanks very badly for whatever it's worth and do all the things that I want to recognize there was a motion to place early childhood education, progress, Kazmir package, made that motion to have that brought back in the form of a status report was seconded by Councilmember Christiansen. Okay. Sorry, Dr. Waters. So specifically relationship to the motion
parallel to what's going on with the coalition. led EP has as one of their priority areas, talent recruitment, with childcare as being one of the areas
in which to develop a plan to help with talent recruitment. And so I in response to the LDP, and in trying to move the dial for early childhood coalition, I've put together a draft plan. I've had some input from members of the coalition, it's going to be presented to the coalition next Monday. And it isn't all that the coalition's doing. But if the coalition gives it a thumbs up, it would be a set of a couple of goals with a set of objectives with some empty cells that have to be filled in with strategies and activities. But it would be at least would be a mark for what what the work might look like in 2021. And if that would be helpful, I'd be delighted to share that, as part of that update, if anybody is interested in
that would be great. And I was curious as the as to the role of lldp. So thank you very much. I do think council needs to hear that.
I'll talk more about way back in Mayor Bagley. I'll talk more about this when we get into the into the both on Monday. And when we get into this with the council. The intent with the formatting would be not only to serve the coalition and lldp but this by to create a platform from which are off of which we can develop proposals for external funding. There's a fair amount of foundation money that's being made available to support childcare and early childhood initiatives somewhat through the sorts of center impact Center at the University of Utah. And I there is a keen interest I know in the part of of several who involved with the coalition if we get firm this plan up, put it so it it's synchronous it's it's synchronous with Bulwark county early childhood Council of Boulder County, in advance has led PS interest to kind of get behind going after some external funding to support what we are doing as a council and what what how others are investing in childcare in in Longmont and in Boulder County.
Councilmember Christiansen
actually Aaron was
first.
I didn't see Aaron. Yeah. All right, miracle, Tim.
Thank you very badly. And thank you, Councilmember Christiansen for acknowledging because it actually is not necessarily a point of order. But to go back slightly to Councilmember Martin. motion, I believe, which I don't think God second. I would have seconded it. Mayor, are you actually just going to put this on the agenda without a vote? Just for clarification, because I did not catch that. And if so that's fine. But I'd be happy to have it to seconded as well as have a vote on Councilmember Martens.
What was the what was the what
has been marked for the council to sign on to this letter that has a number of issues which a good portion of them I think are directly related to Longmont? some not so much necessarily.
Right. And so what are you saying Councilmember Rodriguez,
that nobody seconded a motion? And I was just asking for clarification. If you're putting this on the future agenda to have assignment to it's coming on Tuesday? via the mayor's prerogative. That's my question. Well, yeah, it's coming on Tuesday, because we didn't vote on anything.
We know the motion was to actually take the vote. The motion was out of order, because we can't vote on something only to direct staff. That's the point of
that. Absolutely. We just didn't have a second or a vote on that.
Right. And then, and then I took that I and then I just told Harold, let's put it on the agenda when he says back on Tuesday.
I just wanted to clarify that that was specifically the mayor's prerogative issue. Yeah,
it is. It will be on the agenda on Tuesday, unless Harold screws up.
Or somebody or
what's going on on Tuesday. You know, I literally, I personally, I mean, anybody want to give me a call and put something on the agenda? Let's just do it. I don't it's not that big of a deal. No worries. I
was just trying to clarify what just happened there.
That's it. Nope. Tuesday. We're gonna vote on it. Okay. All right. Who else wants to say something? Councilmember Christiansen
NLC. The National League of Cities also has a lot of early childhood initiatives. And they have funding available too. So we should definitely look at to getting funding from the National League of Cities for early childhood education and all kinds of education. Thanks.
Alright, the Anything else? Okay, so Carol, you've made a list on all those things get put on agendas.
Um, can we just have a vote on my motion?
What was it? What was your motion?
It was to put the Early Childhood Education Coalition presentation on a future agenda once they have their
Oh, yeah, sure. Yeah. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed say nay. All right, Motion carries unanimously is going on future agenda. All right. Thanks, Joe. Oh, sorry. Counselor Peck. Thank you. All right. Um I just like you guys first name basis. I'm sorry. All right, the let's go on now to let's take it a little bit out of order and do a proclamation recognizing January 5 2021. Is Nino Gallo day, or Nino guy Eau de in Longmont Colorado. Does it mean or does Nino right you know Don you're supposed to me heads up if that was correct.
guide you
are neat Nino okay Nino, Nino,
Nino?
Nino Gallo is how we're pronouncing that is alright, just making sure all right. So I'm going to read this both in Spanish and in English at the request of people asking that I that I issued a proclamation. So let's go ahead and do we're going to do English first and then we'll do Spanish or did I did I say it the other way around?
Mary I think we have the Spanish ready for Oh, Susan switched whichever you like to do.
Let's let's do English first so we know what I'm reading. All right. So it says proclamation recognizing January 5 2021. As Nino Gallo day in Longmont, Colorado, whereas Nino Gallo sir Longmont the Boulder County community for 25 years will be remembered for making those who crossed his path feel welcomed, included and cared for and for his work with community programs, agencies and local governments serving people with low incomes, immigrants and vulnerable at risk community members. And whereas Nino began his work supporting immigrant farmworkers and families that housing as a housing manager for Casa VISTA and Casa de la esperanza, both located in Longmont and continued his immigrant work with community action programs in 2000 by creating the immigrant advocacy, Latino parent leadership and you know your rights campaign. And whereas Nino created the personal individual enterprise program after attending a national Individual Development account conference and partnering with the den named foothills United Way to support education, small business and homeownership goals, with maps savings accounts to which the city has annually contributed funding to benefit Longmont residents. And whereas Nina was a founding partner of the immigrant integration program that provided coordination of immigrants services and advocacy with el comida de Loma and other partner agencies. And whereas Nina was involved in multiple community initiatives including the Longmont housing opportunities team Latino Task Force Latino chamber, and whereas Nino was a member of the Longmont delegation that brought home long lunch first all America city award in 2006, and whereas Nino mentor generations that would follow him by modeling good character, compassion and optimism, and leading with authenticity, kindness and love for humanity. Now, therefore, I bribed you badly Mayor by virtue of the authority vested in me in the City Council, the city of Longmont do hereby recognize today January 5 2021, which is Nino's birthday as Nino gala day in Longmont, encourage friends and residents at Walmart to engage engage in appropriate celebrations and reflections Nino's life and legacy. So and then Lovelock lava Seon direct Manasa Cinco de enero they don't even know como dia de Nino Gallo in Longmont, Colorado. considerando Kino Gala. servio allama Jalla Jalla comunidad de Condado de boulder productivity colonials solarek word our por ser synthetic chaos kisi cruzada su camino Bienvenidos incluidos Yes, the needles can continue to record our pursuit of our hockomock ncac gobiernos vocalists and programs comunitarios pero la personas de barcos ingresos immigrant This enables will Mirabilis de la comunidad II consider on bocchino common salsa Tabasco ye mandorla labradorians agricolas immigrant days yes as soon as possible to su ro como administradores de vv MS and Casa de esta casa de la esperanza armas will be cannabis and long one, you know, Banting meal continuous Tabasco con los programas. De ACCION comunitaria creando programmers can get up immigrant advocacy, Latino parent leadership be companion Konopka or Latino parent leadership. compania conosce gases that I chose you concerned about consider unblocking Nino cradle programmer personnel in the middle while enterprise displays the state I want to competency and as you know, the SOC RC cola cola enhances your mother foothills United Way, but I see up Leon ocasiones us methods that we can use negocios appropriate propietarios viviendas cuentas de oro alaskey la ciudad config we'll confirm those unromantic benefits are or Ben fecr ellos residente is a llama you consider he consider I'm okay Nino for sociol fundador del programa de Internacional para me gratis, okay, proportional coordinates yone de servicios de defensa immigrant is photoscan are committed the long the autonomous or healthiest associates you consider I'm okay Nino participle in loopy place iniciativas communitarians in Toledo el equipo de oportunidad de vivienda de Loma a group of Tabasco Latino illa kamada they commercial Latina you consider I'm okay Nina for me I'm gonna do a delicacy on the long Casey Chabot, a casa a premier premier all American city they long in DOS will say you consider I'm okay you know for him and for the handleless Jonas kilo Segura, kilo si si Geeta Nino Whitman Torah the Himalayas Eunice kilo, Sega Ron, more Rolando pursue one cutter cutter karakter compostion you up to me small unique Lee that um, those
are like my eyes are going he'll either leave the Rondo Khan out 10 out of 10 out of 10 PC that
mobberley that you're more Parliament Amanita por lo tanto yo Brian j Bagley of Kobe in Vertu de la hora de Kissimmee VA, el consejo municipality, the Suba de la Mora presenting the conozco a single day and metal they don't know better, you know, boy, a company is de Nino como el dia de Nino gala in LA LA LA Anto amigos president is the law participant and celebra psionics evil refill Xers are probably Alice de la vida in the Lego Mini. He della gobbled illenium sign the mayor back here. All right,
that was probably the most difficult proclamation I've ever read. But thank you Nina Gallo and Norma will just get us this book imparted to us posaconazole to us those which are calling us up to familiar
marriage. family has would like to say a few words.
Absolutely.
mitsuwa see me to Paragon eternals members la familia Cebu Stan printers who sews cameras
when I started this, when a service to oppose gracias gracias are called a big lake, which has grasses. A Winner Parramatta familia mo do they must perform or would you consider the reconocimiento post to mow again MB in reverse when it here suta lindo, su compromisso is from patea ickiness necesita Ando on servicio professonal sin contraction complainant Raghava Messiah see I can amass Lunas leprosy salon in mahina Mo's por cada moitra Corinne euro Syria. Kill say you're the Nino Gallo in SWAMI de Laval era the singular exito no podemos concebido throbbing neon Audra perception Sindhu the lunar key support the Sarah Carvalho convallaria Palacio de ke diggin in trigo por tanto sanyes su waka Seon the cellular pubblico era estaba cm para para las de masse for Sierra Nevada de tipo de sa cinco Rita is a phoenix in Tonia called lucky represent tava the mass Nino como persona Yaga nos encontramos con una nueva number botheration plan uniwell lo que uno para dnrc lavida tan were known Breda keefer. For Hello internet era killer video porters neck Central, the enormous sacrifices he silencioso Dolores equimat there one more eluga lodo console era so fuutarou avera swosu Nina, Claudia, you haven't so simple are seen that the nurse is injured. So Viva la vida de familia de Akira borisova number a Canada halon seniors so you can blow the surface Elise Sarah fatherly said para todos por si gracias por donde se Paseo either the aka accompanied in silencio estelar Kino sobre esta no political party is the lower they start remain the party that solamente la come back soon they killed reconocimiento de su hente as yet and Lagos no permita no karma Savita mooch aggressive
No thank
thank you, you guys for for having such a wonderful father, a member of your family and for all the many things that he did for our community. One of the one of the best proclamations I've done. So thank you. We were very grateful. Thank you. So anything else? Norma,
do you want to say anything?
Just want to say thank you, I would really appreciate it. Appreciate it
everything to have. I'm Courtney Noy. We looking forward to celebrate his legacy. And today in every single day, thank you on behalf of entire families and community members. Thank you so much.
Thank you very much, which will continue as you said, it's got one min
it I suppose. Okay.
All right. Let's move on now to the code met city manager's report specifically the update on COVID-19. Might be a little lengthy tonight. So we'll be patient.
Yeah, Mayor. So we've had a couple of weeks. still a lot of work going on, in terms of issues related to COVID-19. So we're gonna have a couple of presentations. The first is going to be with Jessica Erickson and lldp in terms of the Five Star program that we've been working on, preparing and to work on with the county. Jessica, are you there?
am
susan, do you have a presentation?
You want to pull that up? Great.
One moment, I got lost in all my screens.
All right, there you are.
Okay, thank you. And Good evening, Mayor Bagley and council members. Thank you for your time this evening. I wanted to provide an update on progress towards Boulder County application. For a five star certification program. We'll talk a little bit about what that is understanding there might be varying levels of familiarity with what a five star certification program is. And then we'll talk about where we're at in the process with Boulder County. And I'm happy to answer any questions as they go along or at the end of the presentation. Susan, if you want to go to the next slide, just briefly talk about what is five star certification. And so back in mid December, I believe it was December 14 or 18th. But right before the Christmas holiday at the governor's office and cdphp announced they were going to provide an opportunity for counties to set up programs through an administrative committee responsible for developing implementing and overseen five star certification programs, which would offer businesses within those counties that have programs the ability to operate at restrictions at a lower level on the dial. So if the county is in orange, those businesses that receive certification would be able to operate basically under an individual business variance allowing them to operate at level yellow. Part of the purpose of the program other than the benefits provided to businesses is to encourage businesses to implement safety measures that are beyond what is required by public health orders in order to help slow the spread of COVID-19. The program is voluntary. Businesses are not required to participate counties are not required to apply for or stand up five star certification program. I will note however, that every Metro Denver county with the exception of Boulder County has now submitted an application for a program and many have been approved. The program per cdphp guidelines cannot be led by public health. However, public health does have to participate on the administrative committee. I know the slide says should but is requirement of the program that a public health official participate on the administrative Committee for the program. Next slide.
So just going into a little bit more detail about the benefits to businesses and eligibility. Counties currently in level blue, yellow orange are eligible to pursue by certification program if the following metrics are met, and the thresholds of their respective levels for seven days including incidence rate, percent positivity and hospitalizations, any county that's currently in red has to meet the additional criteria of a two week sustained decline in incidence. A percent positivity rate under 10% are demonstrably improving over the past two weeks, and under 90% of ICU beds. If we were to ever go into level purple, which is the relatively new level that would include kind of a complete shutdown again, of businesses, there would be no more five star certification programs, there would be no more variance for certified businesses.
Next slide.
If accounting does see, after implementing their five star certification program at the county sees a significant rise in cases or hospitalizations. The program may be suspended either by the administrative committee or by cdphp. suspension of a five star program automatically occurs if the region the county reaches more than 90% of their counties or the retech ICU hospital capacity. So that would result in an automatic suspension of the program. Next slide. So the steps for us to pursue as a county or for Boulder County to pursue a five star certification program are to form an administrative committee. I'll go into more details about that, in a later slide, determine the financial resources to implement the program that do not come from public health cdph. He has been very clear that resources should not be taken away from the important work of public health in distributing vaccines and the other work that they're doing relative to COVID-19. In order to stand up these programs must develop a plan for compliance and enforcement that includes a live inspection at we can use a third party vendor which will be important later in the presentation. We have to develop a plan for applications training inspections tracking, tailored for our county and submit a variance application to CDP. He was supportive letters from commissioners, law enforcement and all of the hospitals within the county. Our proposal to Boulder County and our hopeful application, by the end of this week will be a proposal and an application that includes contracting with a third party vendor h two manufacturing solutions, a local manufacturing consulting firm for the administration of a program and the train the trainer inspector program. Again, I'll go into more detail on a later slide.
Next slide.
So as you mentioned, the first step is to form an administrative committee. So the administrative committee and this has come out of kind of a subgroup that has been working on this from across the county, and over several weeks. The proposed administrative committee that will include it in our application to cdphp would include Corrine Waldo and myself as co chairs. It's primarily primarily because we've been leading the charge to get to the application and doing a lot of work the work that's been required to to create the program and develop the program application. And all of the elements of that will also include a Boulder County Public Health rep who believe will be Layne Drager, of Boulder County Commissioners rep light so summer laws we found out today it will actually be Michelle Prozac representative from the Latino Chamber of Commerce to support our ability to create equitable opportunities across our entire community to access the Five Star program should we get it up and running a representative from our third party vendor HQ manufacturing solutions likely their founder Heidi hostetter. Then we have a number of open seats. We'll have five additional municipal representatives, two representatives from industry or the community at large one representative from one of the hospitals in the county and a law enforcement representative. We're currently taking applications for those open seats on the administrative Committee. The administrative committee will be formed and will meet for the first time on Thursday afternoon, and with the intention to meet weekly for the first three weeks after hopeful application approval, and then every other week once the programs up and running.
Next slide.
So this chart provides just a little bit more detail on the potential benefits for businesses that go through a certification program in Boulder County or anywhere that has a five star certification program. So if we use the example of a county that's currently at level orange, certified businesses would be able to operate at a yellow capacity. So they would go from 25% occupancy allowed to 50% occupancy allowed that would be for restaurants 4% All services would be the same 25 to 50% occupancy as well as indoor event venues. You'll see the note at the bottom that says that businesses can only operate at a higher level if the county's metrics fall within the level for two weeks. For example, even though the government moved, Governor moved counties to orange, the certified businesses cannot operate at yellow until the county's metrics are at the orange level for two weeks. So as of today, if we had a program stood up, we wouldn't certify businesses would not yet be able to operate in yellow until we meet those orange metrics for two weeks as a county. Next slide. Alright, so we'll talk about our proposed solution to standing up a Boulder County FIVE STAR program, which includes contracting much of the work out to a third party vendor h2 manufacturing solutions. Again, they are a long lat based manufacturing consulting firm with expertise in operational improvement consulting services, as well as engineering and technical consulting expertise. So why are we considering using them as a third party vendor for our FIVE STAR program, each to lead the charge to form a Colorado manufacturers COVID taskforce that was established way back in March. So at the very beginning of the pandemic, initially to help identify and fill holes in PvP and testing supply chains for manufacturers across the state and ultimately evolved or pivoted, as we hear a lot lately to helping businesses secure resources to comply with federal, state and local public health guidelines. As a result, they created a product that they call safety systems and certification. And they've been implementing that across the state. Again, I'll provide some more detail in a later slide. And actually, let's go to the next slide. I think that detail is there. It's not I'll have some more detail on their experience to date in safety certification with the product that we'll be using that they'll provide. So the solution with h2 is that the administrative committee would outsource administration of a certification program to h2, including development of business applications, recruiting and training auditors and inspectors overseeing shadowing, administrating quality assurance and control for trained auditors deploying the inspectors issuing certifications reporting to the administrative committee and to cdphp and monitoring and following up on complaints. The anticipated cost for municipalities and accounting is that the administration would be covered by an application fee a nominal what we consider a nominal application fee by businesses, and that the inspectors and would be volunteers donated by municipalities and businesses. So two sources for those inspectors, volunteer inspectors that would be trained one would be underutilized employees or employees that are currently on paid leave either in the public or private sectors that could be repurposed as inspectors volunteer inspectors and auditors for the safety certification program. Next slide.
So here's where it has some more detail about each choose experience and their COVID safety system and certification to train the trainer model. So we will be identifying 40 to 75 volunteers, as I mentioned, and our repurpose paid employees from the public and private sector that he will train, deploy and oversee as trained safety certification auditors as part of our step five Start Program. they'll provide 90 minutes of classroom virtual classroom, we're not going to have a bunch of people in a room virtual classroom instruction followed by virtual shadowing of inspectors when they go out into the field. They'll be responsible for scheduling and deploying trained auditors at business facilities across Boulder County. They also monitor and oversee a command central which is managed by h2 staff. They'll also compile test and process findings and data to ensure acceptable input data and variances. So what we mean when we talk about variance is is across multiple inspectors in a similar environment. What's the variance in the overall rating of a business and h2 currently operates their safety system and certification model at less than a half a percent variance and ratings across again, multiple auditors in the same environment. They also produce a scorecard and an action plan for a business to correct any infractions, and then redeploy the auditor to facility to the facility to ensure infractions have been corrected. They then certify the business and issue a certificate that can be displayed at a facility for eight weeks of another slide that has a chart that compares different programs including the original Mesa county model cdph requirements and e h two programs. And one of the primary differences and, and one of the things that we like about the h2 solution is that it's not in any way a self certification program. So h2 is actually going out to or sending their trained auditors out to a business, providing that business with an action plan to get them from where they're at today to where they need to be to receive certification. The business is then responsible for implementing that action plan. And then each two and their volunteer auditors will go back out and share that that has happened before certification and supply to the business. Okay, here's where I was talking about. Apologies, this was a presentation put together by committee so I'm a little unfamiliar with some of the order of it. But the h2 inspection system is again, a product that was developed by h2 as part of the COVID manufacturing Task Force has been tested in the field for over six months in a variety of facility types including schools, manufacturing facilities, small businesses, etc. Throughout Colorado. The inspection criteria was developed by public health and is built upon federal CDC, state and local public health regulations, and additional Colorado five start requirements and incorporates 75 inspection criteria in the following categories, disinfecting and cleaning signage, furniture, structure and objects occupant behavior and screens. A business must get a five out of five reading on the inspection for certification and follow through with the action plan for correcting any infractions and re inspection before any certification is issued. So far more rigor than what is required by cdphp sending up a five star program.
Next slide.
An additional element of the h2 safety certification program would be to recertify each facility every eight weeks to ensure continued safety compliance with the new service certificate dated certificate issued each time so it's not a one and done and then you can go you know, change all of your habits and behaviors back to prior to certification. There's ongoing monitoring incorporated into the program. html provide weekly reporting to the administrative committee containing the scorecards of each business. The action plans for each business, you originally issued certificate and any subsequently issued certificate so those every eight weeks certificates, they'll additionally provide support and are currently providing support on the development of the Boulder County application to CPAP supporting the development of business application for certification and supporting development of application to solicit volunteers and displaced workers to serve as auditors. I'll also mention that Denver county recently submitted their application and also announced that they've selected to use h2 as their vendor for third party vendor for their certification program as well.
Next slide.
That's just an image of the scorecard and action plan and a page of the action plan that will be provided to businesses as part of the program. Next slide. So why do we think h2 provides the right solution for a Boulder County FIVE STAR program and want to reiterate that they have six months of testing for their COVID safety system and certification program across Colorado, they've conducted over 30 safety systems audits since June of this year, not 2019. Sorry about that. And the safety systems have been conducted in seven different counties in both rural and urban environments, and across multiple sectors, schools, large and small manufacturers, small businesses, places of worship and a variety of others. The system was developed with the help of public health and specifically Boulder County Public Health Lane was on that COVID manufacturing task force as was I and they have endorsed the system and model including having helped determine the appropriate weighting of any infractions within the model. There is minimal out of pocket expense. For businesses, the cost of implementation, and administration of the program would self fund by charging businesses a 75 to $100. application fee for businesses will also have programs in place to mitigate those expenses for businesses that truly can't afford a 75 to $100 application fee will also have programs in place to help mitigate the costs of addressing any infractions that are identified in order for businesses to get certification. So where businesses have the ability to support the funding of the program through an application fee, and they will we will expect them to do that. So but we have will have systems in place to allow for businesses that don't have that ability to still be able to receive their certification. We really see this as an off the shelf proven and affordable model that is rooted in public health and data science at a level of rigor that we don't see in other five star programs that have been stood up thus far.
Next slide.
So he's specifically compared the original Mesa county five star system that the cdph program was based on, as well as the cdphp, FIVE STAR program requirements and the h2 solution. And generally speaking, that's the number of elements of inspection for the certification as well as the rigor with which they provide ongoing support for ensuring ongoing information to businesses about different cdphp CDC and Boulder County Public Health guidelines have also been very impressed by again, that variance number of less than half percent across multiple auditors in the same environment, and also the reissuing of new certificates every eight weeks.
And
the weekly reporting that's very rooted in data and again, public health, rigor that goes above and beyond, certainly the mesa county five star system, but also above and beyond what is actually required by cdphp from a public health perspective.
Next slide.
So the next step for us, as I mentioned, forming that administrative committee will fill those open positions over the next couple of days between now and Thursday afternoon when we'll first convene that committee. And then that committee will review the variants application that we've developed, again, in partnership with h2, in working with the county and working with county public health as well as chambers, other economic development organizations and municipalities across the country. And once that application is signed off on by the administrative committee at we will submit that application to cdphp, but only with support from municipalities, chambers, and iOS, to the county commissioners. And so letters of support are being submitted to the county commissioners, we also are required to have letters of support from all five of the hospitals in the county as well as the the Boulder County Sheriff. Well, almost simultaneously. But certainly immediately, upon submitting that application, we'll start recruitment of volunteers, to be inspectors and to staff the command central working with HQ. We don't know for sure how long application approval would take. But what we've seen so far is that cdph is turning around approval of those applications within a couple of days in most cases. And then providing general support for businesses to apply for five star certification and show public health and safety protocols are in place. So it'll be part of our role to communicate to our business community that this program is available, why they should pursue it and how they can pursue it as well as resources that are available financial resources that are available to support their ability to do so. Excellent.
And
so that's where we're at as far as the Boulder County application for five star certification program. With that, I'm happy to answer any questions.
I've got some concerns, but let's go ahead and go with Councilmember Christiansen.
Hi,
Jessica, I think this is terrific. We've got to do everything we can to get businesses back in, back in the running. But um, so here's a very tiny point. But on, I think number four of what Mesa county provides. They provide certification and a plaque and a window clean, meaning somebody can stick on the window that says we're certified. And none of neither of the other two programs say they provide that. But to me, one of the most useful things for the public is to say, to be able to see right on somebody's front door, that they've gone through certification. So I think that's something you know, at a very minimal cost we could provide so that you know, they could just slap this on the window and then people can be walking down the street and see that they are certified and be assured that they can go in there. So just consider it please.
Mayor Bailey and Councilman Christiansen that is part of certification. A posted certification at the business facility is part of the Boulder County or will be part of the Boulder County FIVE STAR program. One of the things that we were trying to show with that with that chart is that that was kind of the primary thing for the mesa county program. So it was more of a PR program than it was a program that also had or was intended to have the additional benefit of creating improved public health environment related to COVID-19. There will be a certification, there will also be a required posting of how somebody entering that business can file a complaint with cdphp. If they notice something that's happening within the business that doesn't meet certification guidelines.
My point is, though, that just being able to give, give them in return for all their hard work, something they can put on the window that's decorative and not punitive. would be just nice for their, you know, a nice return of Yes, PR, but that's what they need his free PR. So yeah, that will be a part of that.
Thanks, Jessica. I know you put a lot we spoke on the phone a couple days ago. And I sorry. I'll always defer to council before I have might say Go ahead. Councilmember waters. Two quick questions. Jessica. I'm in the in the presentation, you made a reference to kind of there's a bunch of thresholds in here in terms of what we can do. We can't do it. By the way. I want to say, I'll echo Councilmember Christian's comments, I think you've done a lot of there's a lot of work, and it's good work. And and I'm very supportive of what of moving this forward. But the two questions are these one, you made reference to the 90% of ICU beds? being you know, that's a threshold if 90, if you hit the 90% level, then you've got to take a step backwards. But it did it did spark for me some curiosity about how we're doing that calculus. Is that beds within a county? Or is it beds counted the way? Well, county commissioners count beds throughout multiple counties?
in the county as we count them,
all right, very good within this county, and then more generally, my guess is that this is an assumption that there's been some discussion, given the minds that have come together with this and the experience and, and how deeply you've all been involved in this for now, almost 10 months? There's got to be some speculation about the duration, how long do we anticipate needing to take these kinds of work through these kinds of protocols? With this kind of rigor?
Is this something you're imagining throughout all of 2021? Just as a mindset, or is there something short of that or longer than a year? I'll listen,
based on what I'm seeing, I guess, and you look at where we are with the vaccines, and we'll touch on some of that. Probably, my gut tells me late summer fall, in terms of how long we're going to the to still be to be in this mode based on where we're seeing the vaccines could be shorter if we get more out, or be longer if there's less coming in. And, and so, our mind, we're sort of I'm starting to look at that. August, September ish horizon.
So I said, I'd be quiet, I'm gonna make an account. That sounds kind of like we're imagining this as a, like 40 weeks, think of this as giving birth to it to that whatever comes after, after COVID. That's about the timeframe, you're thinking about about nine months of eight week cycles?
Likely, potentially,
it can be shorter, it can definitely be shorter based on how many people get vaccinated in that world.
And also add, we've absolutely the conversation around is it worth the resource for a potentially short period of time, if everybody gets vaccinated, or if things just start to go, really in the right direction really quickly, as far as the different metrics for the different levels on the dial, and we get all the way to green or whatever the best level is. But one of the conversations that we've had is that if we're going to build this infrastructure and invest in something like this, both from a human and financial resource perspective, let's put our minds together and figure out how else it might be put to use in the future. Certainly, in the situation of God forbid a future pandemic, we would have this infrastructure available and ready to stand up such that it would have more of a public health IT from earlier on, than what we hope that it will have now. But then also, are there other I don't know what they are. We haven't gotten that far into that conversation. But are there other implications for building infrastructure like this? All right, so
first of all, Jessica. Yeah, I guess third of all considering that Councilmember Christian city councilor waters had an intelligent comments to say, thanks. And I spoke with you. And in general, I'm in favor of a five star program. And not that anyone cares about my opinion. But let's say it anyway, the I was against the lockdown, you know, adamantly, vehemently, because I didn't think it was gonna do any good. But what triggered my then anger and was, was certain Metro mayors including Mayor Hancock trying to go beyond the governor's leadership meeting, they wanted a more strict and stringent lockdown than what the governor was doing longer, harder. And my point was, you know, in general lockdown is going to hurt people. And it's not going to take care of the Coronavirus. And we're going to be stuck at the end of the eight weeks or whatever it is, with small businesses out of business and no capital, no powder dry, so to speak. And the governor is the person calling the shots, right? Recently, I got upset again with weld County, because you know, I didn't flip flop, I'll just say let's follow the governor don't go rogue, just like you shouldn't walk down, you also shouldn't ignore social distancing, we need to follow the governor, the concern I have with what I heard, if you if you don't need to throw it back up. But Mesa county has a five star program that was very simple. The Colorado Department of Public Health then has some recommendations, what I heard was yet another instance, you know, I told you I'm supportive of this, the Five Star Program, when I'm not supportive of is what appears to be yet another race of let's get the businesses to do even more things to shut them down. The h2 select solutions list. Seems First of all, as a small business owner, I was getting exhausted just reading the list to get a concealed carry permit. You need a letter from the sheriff. They're busy. You know, I mean, it's getting letters from everybody. And going through all I mean, I just I just think it's prohibitive.
No, I don't do letters.
The letters of support are for our APA counties application to cdphp to stand up a program. That's not a requirement of businesses.
Okay, what would so my concern so so when you say that the h2 solution? So I guess, it seems like they're a little a little muddled, if I'm a small business owner to once we get approval of the Five Star program? What do I need to do? Because what I heard was apply every eight weeks pay 75 to $100 every time I apply? So help me understand that. Because what do I need to do as a small business owner in order to go from orange to yellow, red to orange, etc.
So you once the program is stood up, you as an owner would apply one time to so you'd make one application pay one application fee that includes the every eight week recertification for the duration of the program for as long as the program is needed. Certainly, if we're having this conversation a year now there will probably be a retracement of that if that's the suitable on the ongoing basis.
So yeah, I don't care about the 75 to $100. Right. I care about classes, applications, it just seems very burdensome,
you, you complete your application, you pay your application fee. And h2 sends out an inspector, they actually create for you the action plan, which is different than other programs that require you to determine for yourself how to meet the public health requirements that would qualify you for certification. So h2 auditors are actually providing that scorecard an action plan for you, you as a business implement Action Plan, which could be things like, or are likely to be things like EPA approved cleaners versus the ones that you bought at the grocery store. And social distancing and training. everybody wears masks. So for the most part, I'm not very onerous. from a financial perspective things to implement, though, again, we'll have some resources available for businesses that have greater needs to implement in order to meet those certification requirements. Once you've done all of the things that you need to do to get to a level that makes you eligible for certification based on that action plan that's provided for you. You receive your certification, an auditor comes back out every eight weeks and re certifies you assuming that you are continuing to do all the same things that Add, your certification was approved, based on if you're not, you get a new action plan, you implement that action plan, you get your new
certification. So
your answer is, hey, for all you lazy people, he will do it for you invite them out, they come up with an action plan create a scorecard, you do what they say. They send off the application, and they do all that stuff to make sure that everything's kosher. Yes, I'm cool with that,
that the higher level of rigor I will say is in the number of things that they're inspecting, and I'll be quite candid in saying that cdph, he is pretty insistent that an application come from a county, if a county were to choose not to do it than an individual municipality, could make application on their own. But it also requires that a member of the local public health authority and be a part of your administrative committees, ultimately, that local public health authority has to support your program. And anything with any less rigor than what we're presenting with the HQ solution would not have passed muster with Boulder County or Boulder, County Public Health, and we would not be moving forward with so so.
So when you say used when you say it's, it's it's goes above and beyond Mason County, or the Colorado Department of Public Health, what you're talking about is your administrative team and making the initial application right, that traditional stringent, you know, government bureaucracy, wrench that you have to jump through if you're struggling restaurant tour. Right, right.
And in fact, my point before we trapped, we're trying to make it as easy as possible for the business by providing them an action plan to pursue versus, you know, figure it out. And let us know, when you're done, we'll come and check. If you're not there, we'll tell you you're not there. But we're not going to give you an action plan to get there.
Perfect. My concern has been resolved.
A couple of issues on this that I wanted to talk about. So part of it is in terms of how this is staffed. We're looking and you're going to hear repurposing a couple of times tonight, but in this case, staff members, because of the number of people we can have in facilities or some of the folks that we had, when we talked about the 25% reduction in hours at the Rec Center, we're looking at potentially working with those individuals to bring them on and give them the opportunity to be the inspectors in this and we can use cares funding for that. So that helps us deal with some of those issues we have internally. And we're going to be meeting to discuss that issue. There's also other private companies that are willing to repurpose some of their staff. So cities are going to be coming in with some of the folks to be in those inspector positions. And it helps us solve another issue that's in play in this one. To the point we're going to be doing that work. The other piece based on that that I wanted to clarify with counsel is, at least my recommendation is to have Joanie sit on this committee, because it's going to be a pretty in depth working committee. And she's already working on with the economic group on some other things. And so that that's been my recommendation, in terms of one application for at least from a staff perspective, is I'm asked Gemini to apply.
Alright, well, thank
you very much, Jessica. That was That was good. So what do we need to do? Just that would just sit back and wait anxiously? Yeah, I
mean, there's any heartburn? Let us know now because we're moving. Move on.
Get it done. Thank you very much.
Goodbye, or is that Councilmember Peck wanting to say something?
Cuz we're back. Not leaving yet.
So Jessica, I just wanted to voice when everyone else has about what an incredible job you've done. And the frustrating part for me of all of this is that if everybody would just comply with you to begin with,
we wouldn't have to jump, you know, have this circus. So thank you for helping us work it
out. And I agree with you that it does set the stage for what we do the next time This. This happens, because this won't be the last pandemic I'm sure. So thank you again.
Yeah, all of us to that point. All of us that have been working on this over the last number of weeks, agree that we don't want to be in this position. And but here we are, and so we're trying to figure it out.
Definitely.
Amen to that one.
All right.
Thank you very much. Well done. Thanks, Jessica. Thank you.
Our next presentation is are Berto on the wastewater information you all requested it was posted publicly. And so Roberta is going to come on again about 10 slides there. And then I'll take it after Berto and a number of issues I need to update you on so Roberto. Susan, can you bring that up?
Good evening Mayor Bagley members of council I'm Roberto Luna water quality laboratory supervisor with public works and Natural Resources Environmental Services Department. I'll be providing an update on the city's SARS COVID two wastewater monitoring program, specifically on the state health department's public dashboard and on the graphical representation of SARS COVID monitoring data that is provided to city manager Harold Domingo's and Deputy city manager, Dale Rademacher Next slide, please. I want to start with a brief history of the program. In March 2020, we initiated wiki sampling with bio bot in August of 2020. Through an IGA with the state health department, we transition to our participation with a Front Range collaborative, and increase sampling to twice a week with CSU performing the analysis for the virus. In November 2020, we moved to increasing sampling to seven days a week, with the extra samples analyzed by gt molecular as recommended in the IGA. And in 2018, December 2020. The CDP he released a public dashboard. A goal of the collaborative was communication and data sharing with policymakers, local public health agencies and the public through the use of a public dashboard. The first step in this goal was to develop a collaborative dashboard to be used by the partner utilities. Next slide, please. This is the collaborative private dashboard. It was the first step in the creation of a public dashboard. It's a private dashboard for the partner utilities, so that we can review analytical results and supporting data prior to its release to the public dashboard. The dashboard is interactive, it provides census tract data or county data for new cases, and provides analytical results in various units, including copies per leader and loading per day. Once a collaborative dashboard was essentially complete, the state moved to finalize its public facing dashboard. Next slide please. This is a state health department's public facing dashboard. Once the analysis of the sample is complete, that is released to the private dashboard. utilities have two days to review the data before it's released to the public dashboard. The public dashboard shows a graph of the viral concentration in copies per liter. And it has a separate graph with a three day average of COVID-19 cases by onset date, calculated using census tract data. There is an FAQ on the website that provides information regarding the COVID-19 wastewater monitoring project. There is a link provided at the bottom of this slide. That takes you to the public dashboard. Next slide please. So next, I would like to discuss our data evaluation. But before I begin, I would like to state that I'm not an epidemiologist, nor am I a medical expert. As a scientist and a laboratory supervisor I have experienced in reviewing analytical data and providing data analysis on laboratory results. Casey combo and I have performed detailed data analysis on our SARS COVID results, but I want to keep this presentation as simple and as non technical as possible. So what have we done? First, due to compatibility issues, the bio bought data was dropped from any further data analysis. Second, we initiated a collaboration with Boulder County Health Department, they provide the city allama with Longmont specific data and Longmont shares results a data analysis with Boulder County Health Department. Third, we perform statistical analysis of our data and Longmont having and having lamang specific data, and our larger data set helped us with our evaluation process would also want to point out that the collaborative has performed similar statistical analysis of our data and of data from partner utilities. Finally, we provide our data analysis and graphical representation to city manager Harold Domingues, and Deputy city manager Dale Ryder maker and to the Boulder County Health Department. Next slide please. The data that we provide is different from that which is presented in the stat state's public dashboard. There is no doubt that the state's public dashboard provides great information on the Front Range monitoring efforts. But our data is more reflective of the cities
of the city. There are two major differences. We have long one specific case data, and we use the additional gt molecular data. The other differences are the use of a five day averaging of new cases instead of the state's three day average of new cases by onset date. Our statistical analysis indicated that five day averaging work better with Longmont specific data. We also initially began using copies per liter but found that the loading data provided better information. The state statistical evaluation indicates that there really is no difference when using viral copies or viral viral copies per liter or viral copies per day. Next slide please. So, demographic data and biological data is complex and very noisy. But epidemiologists and scientists have statistical methods for dealing with this kind of complexity. This is the up to date graph of the city alarma data for new cases and for viral loading. The square points are gt molecular data, the circular points are CSU data points. The blue lines are the five day running averages of new cases. Boulder County provides the daily count and the five day running average of new cases. And as you can see, the data is indeed complex and noisy. Next slide. But when you apply standard statistical methods, it smooths the data out and it allows you to clearly see patterns in the data and to obtain more information. Next slide. You can then take this data and visually smooth it to make it easier to see trends. Next slide. With this smoothing technique, we can show that viral loading tracks well with a five day average of new cases. Next slide please. Many studies have indicated that results from testing can be used as a leading indicator of new cases. using statistical methods, we looked at last month's data. We looked at whether llamas was indeed a leading indicator. The findings did indicate a very strong correlation as a leading indicator anywhere from three to eight days. Initially, we saw the strongest correlation at seven days. But this has slowly been moving toward less days. The graph above displays this information. But what does it mean? Simply put, it means that today's results are a window of what may happen in about three to seven days. Next slide, please. Finally, this is the latest graphic that contains all the information that we have been sharing with city manager Harold Domingo is deputy city manager Dale rata maker and the Boulder County Health Department. The graphic is a combination of five day averages of new cases, the viral loading, concentrations, and the level of restrictions that have been put in place. Next slide. In this slide, we mark the dates for Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. So what have we learned from this project? First, we can say that viral concentrations do trend with five day averages of new cases, trends are important. Second, we can say that the data can be used as a leading indicator of new cases. And finally, this is an investigation is a study that is ongoing. And as we get more data, and as we add more data, we will refine our findings. And we will have new findings. Next slide. Thank you. If you have any questions I'd be happy to answer.
Thank you just the one question. Mayor Pro Tem Rodriguez.
Thank you very badly. I'm just wondering if there's any conversation at all, because there's been speculation about the new strain of COVID. And when it hit the United States, whether it was not a function of Halloween versus a function of whether it was the new strain that caused the surge in the cases. I'm just curious if there's conversation about that, or how there are reconciling that within the data, considering it's supposed to be much more transmissible.
I have not heard any conversation with regard to going back to Halloween and looking at whether it was caused by the new strain Other Coronavirus?
Yeah, I don't think I think it's hard to say. I think the other thing is part of a lot of the conversations as we all know, virus continually mutate anyway. And so there's a mutation that's occurring with this to your point, at least what you're starting to hear from a luminary perspective is the new strain. They're thinking may be actually more transmissible at a younger age, because of what it looks like. But again, everybody's still saying we need to wait and see, what they are saying is, is that they still do predict that the vaccine will still work on this based on the virology that you're seeing on this. And so it very well could have tested in this because you're using the same RNA components, correct? Roberta?
Yeah, it's the same RNA components, it doesn't change from one mutation to the other. We're still looking at the same at the same genetic code.
I understand. I was wondering if there's conversations looking at whether the surge was actually based off a person to person transmission of the standard strain that we've known about for a while, versus a, an influx of a new strain? That was my question, because as we know, it is new. And so the date has always changed.
so badly, Councilmember Rodriguez, I this is an ongoing study. And I think the more data we collect, this study is going to be important because we're going to look backwards, and then we're going to understand what we were seeing. And that will help with future pandemics, or a future outbreak of this COVID-19. So I think right now we need to look at and maintain this data, continue to collect the data. And then hopefully, the experts will be able to look back and really tell us what we were really truly seeing. And right now, the only two conclusions that we can have really are that it's a leading indicator, and that trends are important. Councilmember water waters,
yep. The waters. Thanks.
Roberto into Dale, and in here. Oh, thanks for bringing this to us. I've been curious kind of where we are. And this is a good update. Um,
I am I am I have a couple of questions. One is, you're going to start to make some inferences based on the data, I understand your look back. But the more the more data, the more evidence there is of this as a reliable leading indicator, you're also going to look forward.
So what are the explanations? Or what are you speculating about possible explanations for a decrease in the number of days between leading indicator and manifestation? Right? or evidence of an outbreak? Or have the implication of infection number one? And number two? What are the Can you give us an example of a decision or two, that you're in real time that you can make or you are making, based on what you've concluded now as a leading indicator? Because of that, we can say X, Y, or Z about what's going to show up? And how do we get in front of that? How do we inform hospitals or healthcare providers? Or, you know, who gets that information? And
what do we do with it?
Is there any relationship between these data and what we heard a bit ago from, from Jessica, and and what our business community should be advised of or looking for? and get ready, right? If they're in the Five Star Program, and to anticipate what might be coming, based on data that shows up tomorrow?
So I'm going to take the decision making process on this and kind of talk about it. So a, we've obviously been through valleys with the date with the copies that we've seen peaks. And we can understand what kind of cases are related to those peaks, to all the information Roberto was going over. So for us, as we talked with the health department, it's here's what we're seeing hospitals, you may need to get ready if if it's something that we see that, you know, if we start seeing something above what we've seen, we're going to start having conversations about it. I think for us, the practical application is when you start seeing this to really inform your public information campaigns in terms of how we need to communicate with businesses, individuals, and really let them know that I mean, it's a point of like have we have had this data ready early on, we could have probably intervene and messaged much differently in October, hopefully then limiting the extent that we saw the peak and and so for me, it's really going to be about that public information piece and messaging based on what we think we're seeing, it's kind of hard to get much more specific. Again, because it's this is an evolving process and Roberto keeps beating me on the head with that. So it's thinking high level on this and going in form hospitals and formed public media strategy. And then have a sense of what we need to get ready for just in terms of our responses in various areas.
Fantastic question Dale. And, Roberto. If I could just just add to that real quickly, Mayor Bagley and Councilmember waters, and then Carol's right that the first and best use is to convey information to the public. We're really starting that tonight with you all. And what I would anticipate is that in the event, we see a significant spike in the loadings that would, I believe, cause us to want to
share that information. And so I think we should have this information available to the public, and certainly to
entity entities, such as the school district or the hospitals or others. What I wouldn't recommend doing is trying to get to fine with it. Because the data is still pretty raw. It's pretty basic. And so
it I do think, though, information is always good for for all people. But I would look at it in the sense of if it is a significant spike, similar to what we were seeing back in the middle of November, if we start to see that continue to climb, for instance, after the New Year's holidays and those kinds of things. It's good information for the people to know because it will eventually impact whether it be the hospitals or potential impact on our businesses to remain open. All right,
thank you very much, Mr. Luna, we really appreciate that. Thank you. Okay,
thank you. All right. Hello.
What's the next one report, right?
I've got I've got a few more. So
let's keep going.
I'm gonna go fast. So the one thing I wanted to talk about is one of the things we're seeing is an organization. And employers are starting to see this more and more, it's fraud alerts related to unemployment claims. And so we've been communicating that with our staff, I was actually one of them. So this Saturday, I got a letter about my unemployment claim. And I got the reply card, in the mail at the same point. And so basically, someone also filed an unemployment claim with me how I got to my address, because they probably put a different one on there. It did. And so what we're seeing as an organization is it's creating a lot of work for us within our human resources department. Because as all of these claims are coming in, we're having to verify them, it wouldn't surprise me if some of you all have not been hit on this. And then one person was I didn't know who, because they come into us. And so then we have to track it down. And so what I wanted to do is to alert everyone, I know that the school district has put information out on this, but basically any employers having to deal with this right now. We're actually now having to go back, because when this first started coming in, we knew that there were temporary staff members. So we know our temporary staff have different positions. And we know some of them were no longer able to work. And we then have realized that they've come back to us and said, No, I didn't file. And so now we're having to go look at all of this at a much deeper level. And so from from the community perspective, what I wanted to do is to make everyone aware that this is going and there are some things that we can do as a community when this happens. And this is what we're telling our staff members. So when this occurs, and we're going to put some information out of this, you can report the incident as a fraud. To you go into the Colorado Department of Labor fraud prevention area, you also go to the Federal Trade Commission, I had to go there and fill it out you then if you get the rely cards, you have to go to US bank on that one. And then many of those require you to file a report with local law enforcement to verify this and then you need to call one of the credit monitoring agencies and let them know that this has occurred. Jason gates, who's our security person is fabulous, by the way on this is really sad that this is not a long one thing. It's not a Colorado thing. It's a national thing that's going on. And what they're starting to see is that in one month period in Colorado, he's estimating that somewhere around I think four 38,000 of the 62,000 claims are fraudulent. And that what they're hearing on the computer side is that criminal organizations are working with hackers. And then they're coming in and filing these complaints. And so a what I wanted to let the community know and let you all know, it's happened to me. As you saw, it's happened to the mayor, you need to be aware of this. And we're going to put this information out so people can do what they need to do to protect themselves. Any questions on that?
Nobody just want to point out who resigned to get paid?
All right.
I've got a lot of people that I'll ask about that later that are on the other end of that stick. But I want people to understand what the possible consequences of ignoring this are. And I'm thinking it probably is that if some time later you need to apply for unemployment, they'll think that you're not doing as much.
Well, it's that it's also chances are they have your social security number so that you know it can impact they can be taking credit out in other ways on you. So that's why you need to let the credit agencies know about this. There's any number of pieces to this that can be problematic for the individual.
But you're not gonna get in trouble if you report the fraud.
No, not at all.
You have yet to happen. I got I got fired from the city and the law firm at the same time. So they're going nuts. Mayor Pro Tem.
Thank you very badly. This is just a question more for folks that are probably or could possibly be dealing with this. What would be the easiest way to find out if you've been a victim of fraud.
So typically, there's two ways that this is coming forward. One, you receive a letter or two, it hits your employer and your employers tracking it down. So we're seeing both of those. We're seeing it from the standpoint of In my case, I got the letter before HR was notified, because it has to go through your employer may have to deal with it. In some cases, HR has seen it before individuals received the letter. Other than that, I guess you would have to look at the Colorado Department of Labor to figure out how you can check this out.
I'm
sorry, I've got
that, that's pretty clear. Can we go on to the next one?
Yep, I'm trying to get my screen out. So I can go over this. And so I can. And I want to talk a little bit about the economic relief update. So a number of changes happened late in the year, as we were hitting the end of the year, and they were getting the the the second stimulus package passed. And they did it the believe the second the last day of the year, what it also did was extend the timeframe on the carrier's funding. So well, everyone's screaming to try to spend the money and time. They then extended it at the last minute and so gave us some options. But I wanted to update you on some information that's going to go out, hopefully tomorrow The day after. So in terms of the business boost grants, we received about 182 applications. And we had about 100 we had 165 eligible applications. Thus far, we've awarded 97 grants, and I say thus far, because we're still looking at some other opportunities in terms of funding on this. Based on what we were trying to spend in the movement of money that I talked about with you all in December, we have put out 1,327,000 and change into our local businesses. The total amount requested was 2.6 million. The grant amounts ranged from 5000 to $15,000. The majority received the maximum. We also have a map that they're going to release that shows the locations because we wanted to make sure that it was really equitably spread throughout the community as we were doing this. Of those that were funded six are personal care service six nonprofits that couldn't fit in other nonprofit categories. We have nine others which includes community centers and childcare, arts and entertainment construction events, and transportation 11 Health and Wellness 11 manufacturing 12 professional services 18 retail and 24 that were in the restaurant bark classification. We also were working on the childcare we have the 700,000 that we were we were moving through a national And what we did in that process, and I'm going to stop here, and because it really started coming into play in childcare, one of the things that we had to do both in the business side and in the childcare side was go through all of the requirements that exist in the federal government. And one of those was duplication of benefits. And that became a pretty significant issue for us because the PPP loan, actually was one of the triggers for the duplication of benefits. So if you receive the forgivable PPP loan, that we couldn't give you money out of the cares funds, because that would have been considered a duplication of benefits. Now what we figured out that what Peter figured out that we could do is actually then take and work with the business to say, give us what your total loss was. And if there was money left over after the PPP loan, then you can allocate that to the grant process. And so there was a lot of work that we had to do with the businesses and with the childcare on the childcare side. But we also started seeing to a little bit on the businesses, this also had a tax implication to it, because they had to claim it as income. And so certain people then were making other decisions based on the tax side of it, obviously, because it was federal dollars. Individuals had to be documented. So that was another piece of the review criteria, criteria on this was significant. They moved through it. In the childcare side, we knew that we probably weren't seeing all of the childcare in it. And so I asked our staff to go back out, and personally call those childcare agencies so that we could reaffirm whether or not they wanted to apply, some did and we came back into the process, we were able to provide grants to 20 childcare providers, in Longmont. And to utilize that 700,000, it's different. I mean, there's more significant differences there based on the size of the childcare providers and their, the losses that they incurred and looking at the duplication of benefits. We're going to send you more specific information on that. But I wanted to give you an update in terms of where we are where we are today. Obviously, as additional stimulus packages continue to come out, hopefully there'll be more money in the future, if that's where we sit today in terms of the boost grants and the childcare grants.
Alright, and my internet, my internet connection reset. So I missed about two minutes, we had to save it. Okay. Anybody have any comments, questions?
All right, great.
Let's keep going.
Um, I don't want to take up, I'll just show you all some slides real quick on the numbers. Because the numbers are continuing to change, Susan, let me share my screen.
We see it. Okay.
So when we look at where we are in the dial, and you look at the to a cumulative incident, right. And this was, as of yesterday, I believe.
This
it was sim as of one it was similar to last week, I did check it and it looks like we went back into red. And so we're right at that CUSP as we're moving back and forth. But one of the things that changed this week was that the governor obviously moved everyone to level orange. And that was something that happened late last week. That was a bit of a surprise to us, as well as some of the changes to the vaccine piece that I'll cover after I go through this. When you look at the cumulative incident rate 4.3. I think it did go up again today. And then when you look at the older county status, seven days of decreasing or stable admissions. We're actually in the red now and I want to pay you want to bring some attention to this. When we look and I asked Dan today, how many people did we have in the hospital, the number was 50. Remember that number was 80. And above when we were in the peak of this and so part of this number that we're talking about, and I'm going to have a conversation with the other administrators is that if you're at 80, and you go to 50, but then you go to 50, up to 60. That counts against you even though you're still below the peak. And so what I want people to know is, yes, we've had more people go into the hospital, but we're still lower than we were at the peak of this based on the information that that we received from Dan today and so we need to really, this is how cdph cdphp captures it. But there's more behind this information. When you look at this and you remember the information, I just provided this, this shows you what's happening in the other counties. So you can see that outside of Gilpin Broomfield and in Boulder tend to be lower Jefferson's close. Lammers now closer, well does it 567 grands at 547. When you look at the two week average and positivity, in terms of the numbers we were seeing on this chart based on when the data was presented, you know, we're still lower there, you can see the hospitalization information here. And so this is where we need to spend some time working on it. But again, Boulder County and Broomfield are still doing better than most of the counties. When we talk about level purple and some of the pieces on the data that you all were discussing in the Five Star Program. Or hospitals are saying they're not approaching crisis standards. No one's using alternative care sides. We have one of the five hospitals, reporting anticipated staff shortages, and regionally 17% of the hospitals are reporting anticipated staff shortages, five of 30, approaching 90% boulder counties and 78% of med surge and 78% of ICU beds. No hospitals are reporting an anticipated ICU beds shortage transfer capability to or per reporting type ICU capability. Again, that's broader ICU. And then none of our regional hospitals report greater than 10% ICU are less than 10%. ICU Bed Availability. So again, that looks pretty good. When we look at the caseload, you can see in this information we have and we continue to decline from the 28th. Through the third, we had six days under 100 cases, one day had over 100, we just added another one on this one as well. 28 with 130, just before the 28th and then 106. So obviously, if you remember, we're doing much better than we were earlier on in the peak. When you look at this, you can also see how it's related to long term care facilities. And the impact there that's gonna I'm gonna touch on that when I talk about vaccines here in a little bit. And then this is what our five day average number of new cases looks like within Boulder County. It's about 83. And it's increased since last Tuesday when we were about 79. So, um, but again, better than than where we were prior to the New Year. Again, what you can see here as you can see boulder Broomfield in the light blue. Some of the other counties are starting to get closer but still as a metro region region, we're doing well. Adams but you're seeing this slight tail here where it's starting to move up. And so those are all things that we're watching.
When we look at Boulder County, I think the big piece is since November one, Longmont has had the highest case rate per 100,000 out of but the other municipalities Lafayette boulder lions, they've also had high case rates since that time frame. In the past seven days 33% of the new cases have been in Boulder and 39 have have resided in Longmont. Again, when you see this just as just more of that information. When you look at the weekly cases boulder had 172 Longmont had 233, Lewisville, Lafayette and superior we have 74 cases and then the other unincorporated area municipality has 80. Again, this shows it by age range. And then when we look at our children zero to 17. The case rates have decreased for every age group over the past few weeks compared to the previous two weeks. And this is showing you by age group here, we did see cases among 25 to 34 year olds increased by 3%. While cases among our oldest and highest risk age groups have increased. And again, this is a percentage on small number 53% in the 65 to 74 year olds, and 12% and 75 plus and if you remember we saw a big increase in assisted living facilities in that data. 75 when we look at the race and ethnicity on this, we can sink continue to see persistent, large disparities among our Hispanic population. One of the things that we are seeing in this when you look at this chart Well, the disparities continue the case numbers and the proportion of cases among Hispanic community members has decreased over the past several weeks. Up until last week, we saw a slight increase in the number of cases, but not in the proportion of it. And then when you look at testing, you can see this is an update based on the other slides. 5.4% is the five day average. A month ago, it was 7.6. This looks at the number of tests that were performing. And the number of positives. The Rolling percentage, you can see where we move down, that also may be a product that we back up, we've had fewer tests being performed, compared to what we've seen earlier. When you look at the hospital, this is also a cumulative data. But when we look at this, I think the big difference is, these are slides provided by Boulder County Health, you see a lot more in green, med search beds are in red, but remember that also can can contains elective procedures. And then the ICU beds are there too. And that may have other people with other medical issues beyond COVID. And this is what the hospitalization for Boulder County looks like. Again, what we're looking at is the trend here. And I think that's part of when you then look at what's happening in the state was the impetus for the governor moving everyone to orange, it's we're in a much different position. Everyone's still, though, cautiously optimistic. And then unfortunately, when you look at the deaths, you can see that we've had some pretty high numbers recently in Boulder County, and I think what you're also seeing is associated with long term care facilities. And you saw that increase that we saw in the number of cases in or long term care facilities. And then when we look at social distancing, statewide were at 48%, compared to 40%. Lastly, 50%. Before that, when we look at Boulder County, we're at 48%. It was 53%. But we're still at a higher social distancing rate than we were in October when we saw the peak occur. So this is all the data that we're starting to to look at. And we're also comparing that to the bile bot information.
We're not doing by a bot anymore.
Well, that's the wastewater testing with the other agent. Just show
I was just showing you that I was paying attention.
All right. Hi, customer, Martin.
Thank you, mira Bagley. I am wondering, since we look pretty good on the dials, except for hospitalization utilization. Is is are these numbers corrected at all for the fact that the hospitals in densely populated areas like us draw from a wider area than just our locality? Both for elective procedures and for very serious COVID cases potentially?
That's the question that I asked today. And we're gonna have to start tracking it down, because that's when I talked about the the anomaly in this and, and so I want to get some more information on that.
Thank you.
So yeah, thank you, Harold.
Thank you very badly. Just a question. I know that I have expressed this via email to Harold at this point. But with the governor's decision to move red to orange, and also seeing some of the data we've just now seen. That seems to be a very good possibility. Not that it's it's guaranteed by any standards that there could be a surge based off of holiday activities. how likely are we to see the governor's decision rescinded and pushing these restaurants for instance, back into outdoor dining only? And as such? Are we as the council and this is to my greater council members here? Are we as a council willing to continue to allow? I know we said we're going to be consistent with the governor. But how much do we want him dictating it seems to be somewhat whimsically at this point. least with this most recent decision, because I just did not see the data, most the time I could defend the data that he was looking at, too. I don't I didn't understand this move. As far as it could be really catastrophic to some of these restaurants to open up, closed down, open up, close down, open up, close down, and flip flop if we could keep looking at this data at a very narrow level. So that's just my question on that I posed to Harold as well as to now my colleagues on Council is, I almost am ready to defend our restaurant tours. Considering what could be a somewhat tumultuous decision making process over the next week or month or so, especially considering the holidays as well as the winter season.
Viking jump in a little bit on the data piece. So I think one of the things and again, this was a bit of a surprise to a lot of us. But I think if you if you look at the data, everybody was anticipating a spike or related to Thanksgiving. And we really didn't see that in terms of the state, we actually were continuing to decline in December. When we look at the wastewater data, and we start seeing what's happening in that three to seven day window, it looks like there may have been a little bump in Christmas. But it didn't Bob to where we were before that, the big thing that I think they were looking at, and I've got to go back to the beginning of this pandemic, where everyone was really talking about it was really the impact on the medical systems in the hospitals. And I think the biggest change that we've seen is the number of hospitalizations, if you remember that graph where we were moving down. So I think that was part of the impetus. And then I think also there was a recognition at the state level. And I think they said this, the press from businesses coming to them where they were literally at a breaking point of not being able to survive. That being said, I think it also corresponds with the Five Star Program. Because the Five Star Program, if you go in and do this in you, and it's moved into red, it still allows them to stay open, which helps with that vacillation of open clothes because we did have a number of restaurants locally that said, we're just going to close until we can ensure that we can stay open because of the amount of money they lose in product and everything they can't use because they're closed in a day. My gut tells me, it was the business pressure in the Dire Straits that summer in it was the Five Star Program. And it was the hospital that led to that decision. And obviously not in the room. I'm just banking on what I've seen in the data. But I think the Five Star Program is going to be the key piece in this. The beginning. That's my thought you all can jump in.
I just want to say real quickly that I am a proponent of the five star system. I have some similar, I guess concerns to the mayor as far as how we're implementing that as well as the way the Boulder County is citing implement that. But regardless of that, I do agree with getting the five stars five star system into place as fast as is humanly possible. So we can at certain points, I guess. And it wouldn't be us anyway, obviously, because we're not the county health. But implementing these kind of variances for the really good actors in the community. And I don't think they should be penalized in any way for people that are not taking it as seriously by any standard. My point is that it's very easy to defend the governor when it's very consistent and data driven. When he starts to make decisions that don't make as much sense based on the data, it becomes much more difficult to toe the line, if you will. And so that's my question is I've also heard, obviously, some rumors about the depletion of certain funding at the state level. And that has also driven some some decisions at the state level. That's hearsay, that's anecdotal. And I'll get out of that now. But I've heard these things. And so I'm just curious as if the metrics change for this decisions at the state level. Can we still as confidently back those same decisions? And that's, again, a hypothetical question to my colleagues on Council. It's not based on what we're hearing right now, because we don't know. We simply don't know at this point.
Alright guys, we're back.
I actually,
uh,
Mayor Pro Tem, I agree with you but to Harold and possibly to Jessica with a five star program is Boulder County looking at as vaccines increase the ability to possibly go beyond the 50% capacity if someone has proof that they have taken the vaccine? And are we looking in, excuse me, in Boulder County, at some kind of a card or a phone app, to show that we have gone above and beyond we've got the vaccine,
still wear a mask. But I would think that the capacity would probably be skewed or change a little bit with that. It is something I think that needs to be addressed.
So at least what we're hearing on the vaccine side right now. And I'm going to talk about this women's council overpack Oh, oh, I think part of it, what we're hearing in terms of the vaccine is even if you get it, you still the masking requirements are still going to be in play. Because what they don't know. And this is the hard part. It's not those that are vaccinated, it's those that are vaccinated. That become the concern because what they don't know right now is whether or not if you're vaccinated, you may still shed the virus and potentially infect other people. So until there's more back, I think that may be something they look at further once they get more people vaccinated in the state. But there's those concert conversations in the mix. But they're still pretty adamant about if you're vaccinated, you still need to wear your mask, because we're not sure that you're you can't potentially infect someone else. Speaking of vaccines, there was another change that occurred late last week. Oh, sorry. There's another question, man.
mute your bandwidth. I said, I
mean, I've been working at the computer all day in my eyes are having a hard time seeing the screen the water, and it's stinking pretty bad. But I saw a bright red movement in Dr. waters that Mayor Pro Tem asked a question I just wanted to respond. Like a lot of people, you and I and others have wondered about the basis for some of the decisions the governor made last week, because the data didn't seem to square with the data. I agree with it. I have to say though, I have two concerns, I share that the aspirations that we do all we can support our local businesses, especially our hospitality industry. However, once once we pull the pin, that we've decided we're going to selectively comply with the mayor, Mayor with the governor, then I think it's a free for all. And we're going to spend a lot of time on Tuesday nights, arguing whose data is going to be the data or the data?
I think that's dangerous. Number one,
I think we made a good decision. When we made the decision. Like it or not, we're gonna we're gonna follow the governor that was that we made together. Once we once we take a step back, I think it's a free for all in the UK has that, you know, makes the best point I guess on a Tuesday night, or we simply don't comply with anything the governor has to say. I think that becomes a concern. The other the other is is we did that? I would I would want to, I would want to be in really close touch with our healthcare providers. Because what I wouldn't want to do is do do to our healthcare, private health care providers or hospitals and others. What I think the well county commissioners have done to theirs, or that other municipalities have done. I mean, if you look at our hospital rates, and I think Hallelujah, we still have capacity. But I just I look at the news reports and the what what is happening to the healthcare system that's about to collapse and the people in it. And we just can't ask much more of them. So, you know, and I don't want to trade off hospital, or I don't want to trade off hospitality industry for health care workers. We're gonna think Had a we got to figure out how to do this in a way that doesn't put those people who are on the front lines of keeping people healthy, to put them over the edge in the interest of trying to keep restaurants open. Even as much as I want to keep restaurants open, I just think we have to take, take a real thoughtful approach if we're gonna not comply with what the governor's orders are. Okay, thank you. Anybody else?
All right. So the last piece is what's going on there. So the vaccine information changed also last week, and we're trying to work with with that. And understand it. So to let you all know what we were doing. Here it is, I'm going to show you the screen. This is from CDP AG, he will see the vaccine screen. Yes, on phase two. So this changed a little bit. And so what you're seeing him in one Bs, the one that changed the most, and so coloradoans, age 70 plus moderate risk health care workers, first responders, frontline essential workers in Kenyan continuity of state government. And so what they're looking at right now, in what they're talking about is one be above the line in terms of those that can be vaccinated. So we are running our firefighters and police through the system. health care workers have been running through that COVID-19 patients home health, hospice pharmacy. Ms is in that, as part of that. There's also other positions that are related to law enforcement, that in some cases are in public safety, but may not be in other organizations that they're including that Rangers is an example of that piece. The interesting thing that we've had to really look at is this COVID-19 response personnel. And so that's really looking at emergency operations, folks, in terms of how we've talked about it. So we're having a lot of conversations, and then people age 70 and older. And that's going to be important, because until they can really tackle that group, what we're hearing today is they're not going to move to the group below the line. And what we're also hearing is that when a provider signs a contract with the state, they're also saying they're going to hit the state guidelines. So there's a lot of conversations regarding this as we continue to move forward. The President put it in perspective for you all, what we're hearing is the state receives about 60,000 doses a week, of which 20,000 is going to healthcare and long term care facilities. So then when you look at the remaining 40,000, and they're really focusing on that 70 above, and some of these other one be above the line. When you said How long does it take, you know, what we're hearing is it could be March before we start moving into one be below the line. And so then obviously, late spring as you're moving into phase two, which is why when we talk about phase three, that's why we're kind of saying in the summer, early fall is what's in at least our mind, as we're starting to consider this. We're we are working with Kaiser, they are a provider. And we are providing you know, we're in conversations now with them on this issue. But what we're all trying to be really focused on is making sure that the individuals that we include are in those categories, so we don't have any issues. We did make a run and saying critical infrastructure workers. Obviously you see some of them below the line and one be potentially most of its going to be probably in two. And we were trying to say we needed him above the line and but they're not there. So what we're doing today is there's a committee working in Boulder County, Dan evens are representative with Shannon McBain, and they're working with a broader group in the county. And they're working through these issues. They had to retool their plan last week because they were going down this road of change and they had to adjust it again. And one thing is that is very clear that I heard on my admin call today. And I said you're going to hear this again about repurposing is we know that the county health department's are going to need assistance when this comes into play. Some of the providers the large providers like Safeway, and Walgreens and CVS may need locations. And so what was made very clear to me in the admin meeting is that cities are going to have to step up to assist and facilitate this as we start moving forward. And we may not have a lot of time. So I wanted to tell you this as these things come up, I may very well have to make a decision that says I need to use Lastly, Street Station to help someone or we may need to use a senior center to help these groups. And but they are saying cities need to be part of that. Just wanted to let you know we're going to be responding to that real time. And Mayor Council, I know this is a long update. It's been a couple of weeks and things have changed dramatically on us. I'm happy to answer any questions. You get
Martin?
Hold on the screens frozen. I don't see it if he gets here. Yep.
There we are.
Thank you, Mayor Bagley. I probably should have asked about this earlier when you were talking about PPP and unemployment. But we do have the new federal law out. And I am hearing a lot of confusion about availability of the different benefits from that law, especially landlord and tenant assistance. And the date of the the end date of the eviction moratorium, which that law extends for at the federal level to January 31.
And that was captured. The state did extend it did
get that okay, I missed that. Okay, so good. Because I've been telling people it would happen, but I wasn't sure.
I found out today, this afternoon. Okay.
All right. So I'm not behind the times, that always makes me feel better. So the Colorado eviction moratorium also goes through January 31. A lot of people are still really nervous about that, because less than 30 days isn't a lot of time to react to that. And what I am hearing, which is going to be exasperate exacerbated by the news about unemployment fraud is that a lot of people aren't applying for assistance, because they are afraid to they're afraid that if that they're committing a crime, or they're going to get in trouble somehow, if they apply for benefits from two different sources. And they're not sure where to go or what the priorities are. And unfortunately, the result of that is that too many people are doing nothing, when in fact? Well, my understanding is that the the federal benefits want you to have sought help locally first. So they're doing it backwards. And so what I want to understand is, is and get out in front of the public is where people go. And I also want, I think, some assurance that if people tell the truth, they're not going to get in trouble.
So
I don't know what
I guess, Harold, I'd like you to say, what people should do and what we're going to do to make it easier for them. So a couple of things to think a if you need assistance he poured into us, and we will find a way to connect you to the appropriate agency. And we have some contact numbers. And actually, Councilmember Martin called me Friday, Thursday from one day, one of those days are about our website. And one of the things that we realized is we have a lot of that information on the COVID piece. But we think what we realized is the further we get away from it, folks aren't going there. And they need to type in housing assistance or rental assistance. And what we work in what we found and what I found based on that question from Councilmember Martin is some of those pages don't have the same information. So we're talking to marayke. And we're gonna work to retool that to make sure that's all over the place. So depending on how you search you get there, because I found some of those dead ends where it said we provide the service. So we're going to clean that up a little bit. The key piece, what I would say is if you think you need help connect to us via those numbers that we have on our website. And the information we put out. It is our job. And when I say our job, it is the program administrators responsibility to work individuals through that process to ensure that there's not a duplication of benefits and and that we are applying the appropriate standards and procedures. If the individual is being honest with us and they're not committing fraud, and we don't do it correctly, then the cities and the state the cities the county and the state are responsible And that's what you hear us say in terms of the clawback provisions actually clawed back from us, not the individual, if we didn't do it, right. And so when we talk about what we were seeing in the business and the childcare piece, it actually was in those conversations where we were having those discussions that Peter and Molly O'Donnell would pour out of it, and then go to the state and ask the questions, and then come back and work with the applicant and, and really we're getting clarity in terms of, Okay, if they receive PPP, PPP, it's not an automatic disqualifier. Do they still have needs beyond that, and that's the work
we have to do.
So I would say come in, and those folks administering it will work them through the process.
Thank you. That's very helpful. I'm writing down the time that you sit with this. Okay, so
that we're now at 915. And we have and we haven't hit public invited to be heard. So I'm going to ask that if there's unless there's something extremely pressing to say that we move on anybody. Okay, so let's go ahead let's move on to first call public invited to be heard. But let's take a five minute break the restroom etc, while we open up blinds, let people queue it. All right, back in five.
Okay, folks, for those that are watching our live stream, now is the time to call in for public invited to be heard, you can do so by calling our toll free number 1-888-788-0099. Again, that's 1888788099. And when prompted, enter the meeting id 87590832677. Again, that meeting ID is 87590832677. You will enter our waiting room and then you will be admitted to our meeting. And when the meeting resumes, we will call on you one at a time by the last three digits of your phone number. So please mute the live stream because there is a delay and listen to us on your telephone. For instructions. Thank you
Hello for all those that have joined the meeting now on your phone, please make sure that you mute the live stream and that you listen for instructions through your phone. I will ask you to unmute by the last three digits of your phone number and you'll be able to state your name and address and you'll have three minutes. We will return to the meeting shortly.
