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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCalled Commission Meeting April 6, 2020 CALLED MEETING COMMISSION CHAMBER April 6, 2020 Augusta Richmond County Commission convened at 2:00 p.m., Monday, April 6, 2020, the Honorable Hardie Davis, Jr., Mayor, presiding. PRESENT: Hons. B. Williams, Garrett, Sias, Fennoy, Frantom, M. Williams, Davis, D. Williams, Hasan and Clarke, members of Augusta Richmond County Commission. The Mayor called the meeting to order. An invocation and the Pledge of Allegiance were recited. A roll call of attendance was recited with all members of the Commission present with the exception of Mr. Frantom who was out. Addendum Agenda: 1. Discuss/approve modified operations for Augusta Transit Department. (Requested by Commissioner Ben Hasan) 2. Discuss/approve the development of a webinar with Augusta Small Business Community. (Requested by Commissioner Ben Hasan) 3. Motion to adopt the amendment to Augusta, Georgia pay policy and to provide short term hazard pay for essential critical infrastructure workforce, as provided by the Department of Homeland Security and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). (Requested by Mayor Hardie Davis, Jr.) 4. Motion to approve suspending transit fares and to provide for services to operate under the approved Holiday Schedule. (Requested by Mayor Hardie Davis, Jr.) 5. Discuss OneAugusta COVID19 Relief Fund and Recovery efforts. Mr. Mayor: We’ve had a brief conversation about the addendum agenda and we’re striking items three and four. The Clerk: Okay. Mr. Mayor: We’re going from top to bottom with the primary agenda and then the addendum items being added to the agenda without objection. The Clerk: All right. 1. Motion to approve the Augusta Pay Policy. Mr. Mayor: The Chair recognizes Administrator Sims. Mr. Sims: Commissioners and Mayor, our present challenge for COVID-19 for our 1 workforce we must be mindful that even though we are significantly reduced for our operations there are many employees who will be forced to report to work to protect and in order to continue to provide vital services for our citizens. As the employees continue to report to work potentially place them at higher risk and they are unable to shelter in place which has been ordered by our Governor. In an effort to recognize this additional level of danger in which many of our employees are placed, I’m recommending to the Commission to approve hazardous pay for those employees. My staff and I have presented three scenarios for you all. One for $1.67 per hour, one $2.35 per hour and the third option is $3.33 per hour. The financial impact of each scenario has been presented in our spreadsheet that was provided to you all. The recommendation is for the $3.33 an hour which equates to approximately $500 per employee per month which may vary slightly from department to department based on each departmental differential schedule. We think this is in line with other municipalities as far as hazardous pay and we would recommend the $500 per month for our employees. We also have listed the departments that will be impacted as well as some support departments that are also impacted. With this recommendation certain departments we are recommending fully such as Sheriff’s Office, the Marshal, RCCI, as well as EMA. As far as the departments that we know that they have scaled back as best as possible we are recommending a 25% as far as cost for those employees personnel. Planning, Engineering, Recreation & Parks, Central Services, Finance, Procurement, IT as well as Human Resources. And the reason why we’re asking for these departments is because they still have to provide vital services to our operations in order for us to continue to operate. Our amount that we are recommending is $893,317. I also have our Finance Director, Donna Williams, on the line to answer any questions that you all may have. Mr. Mayor: If you want to ask questions just hold your thumb up and I’ll recognize you in that order if you will. Administrator Sims, I want to go back to the 25% allocation and in particular with regards to the folks in Transit. I am concerned about them being at 25 when they are absolutely the front lines of this conversation. We’re going to have a conversation specifically about Transit in just a moment but I do want to hold with regards to that. I think this is a very good approach but I do caution us with regards to that. Mr. M. Williams: That list that was just read out about those employees, there are some other groups I think that’s going to be necessary, when you’re talking about Utilities and those people working outside, shouldn’t we put everybody in the pot before we start talking about the amount? Just a question. Mr. Mayor: They’re included in that list. While Jarvis didn’t go through the complete list, they are also included in that list. A complete rundown would be the Sheriff, the Marshal, RCCI, Animal Services at 100% and then you’ve got Fire and 911 at 100% and the 25% category would be Planning, Engineering, Rec and Parks, Central Services, Finance, Procurement, IT, EMA, and then Building Inspections, Environmental Services, Utilities, Stormwater, and Transit. They’re at 25%. Mr. Sims: That’s correct. Mr. M. Williams: Okay, that helps me understand a little bit better. I wanted to make sure we included everybody that’s going to be affected by the services that we’ve got to provide. 2 Mr. Sims: That’s correct, Commissioner. I’m sorry I forgot to mention those others but they’re also in the trenches. Mr. M. Williams: Is there anybody else that should be included or that we talked about? Mr. Sims: (inaudible) recognize all the other departments that still maintain an operation that are not working from home. Mr. Brown: I just could not hear exactly what the Administrator just, his last comment. Mr. Mayor: His comment was that they’ve included generally everyone that meets the requirements of essential, critical infrastructure workforce employees. That they meet that requirement. That’s what that does. Mr. Brown: Attorney Smitherman, of course her role is critical in this and she’s in the Law Department so the Law Department should be included. Administrator Sims had asked me that question previously and I did not get back to him with an answer. Mr. Mayor: Now are you suggesting that she would be included in the 25% category under EMA? Mr. Brown: No, she should be under the Law Department. Mr. Mayor: Okay. What you’re saying is that there’s one employee under the Law Department. Mr. Brown: I think it should be 25% which equals two people. I come in and of course I’m not including myself but I do have to have a staff member come in to keep the operations going. I have to have at least one administrative person here. Mr. Mayor: All right, so let’s do this. Let’s do this right here. So as not to get bogged down with that, I think the matter that is before us is the amount and the period of time that we’re paying it. That can be worked out in terms of adopting the policy because that’s the motion that’s in front of us. All right, so let me get some additional comment. I’ve got the hands. Commissioner th from the 10. Mr. Clarke: Okay, I have three questions. One is the Animal Services Department included in that pay? Mr. Mayor: Yes, they are. Mr. Clarke: Okay, thank you. Number two, is everybody that is considered non-essential and working at home, they’re still getting full pay, aren’t they? Mr. Mayor: That is correct. 3 Mr. Clarke: Okay. Will they be receiving any additional hazardous pay? Mr. Mayor: They’re not included in this. Mr. Clarke: Thank you, sir. And the third and I think you addressed this, Mr. Mayor, is when we adopt the policy we will adopt the length of this, will we not? Mr. Mayor: Well, that’s a recommendation. Mr. Clarke: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. That’s all. th Mr. Mayor: Okay, commissioner from the 6. th Mr. M. Williams: 9. th Mr. Mayor: Well, I recognized you a moment ago. I’m going back to the 6. If you weren’t done, I do apologize. Mr. Hasan: My first question. Are we anticipating the possibility of being reimbursed for services here by GEMA around this pay policy? Mr. Sims: At this time I’m not aware of that. I have reached out to other cities and they are also (inaudible) similar things but I am just not aware of any reimbursement. Mr. Hasan: Okay. I asked that question per a conversation a couple of us were having and that was just wondering if we were going to be pursuing that could we actually extend this beyond thth the Governor’s decree because if he says the 13 at this point and we say the 25, will they honor that? Right now you say we are in no man’s land and we’re not quite sure so I’ll move on. I won’t worry about that at this time because we don’t seem to have an answer. Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Hasan, if you can suspend for a moment, there are two things that can happen as it relates to that. I want to recognize Director Donna Williams. Ms. Williams: Okay, we have continued to dig around and all of these acts that come through and they are pretty lengthy and so we’re struggling to try to get some of this. We’re relying on ACCG, NACO, GMA, whoever we can find and what we have discovered related to the hazardous pay, we think, beginning this morning was in what they call the Cares Act and it states that Georgia’s going to get $4.1 and some change billion dollars and the four counties that have over $500,000 populations, they’re going to get $614 million dollars of that money which leaves three and a half billion for everybody else. It speaks to eligibility that in order to be reimbursed that they must be necessary expenditures incurred due to the public health emergency with respect to the Coronavirus, they were not accounted for in the budget most recently adopted which is our 2020 one which these expenditures are not in there and that they must be incurred during the period that begins March 1 and ends December 30 of this year. So just relying on those three sentences it appears that this may be a qualified expenditure. As we kind of cautioned before working through these things is not 100%. The rules tend to change and typically sometimes 4 expenditure is not reimbursed really quickly but based on what we have dug up this morning it would appear that this type of incremental pay could be a qualified reimbursable expenditure. Mr. Mayor: All right, so let me qualify that as well. That is a true statement pursuant to what Director Williams just said. Commissioner Hasan and the rest of us based on what we know and the challenges around the population cap that was in the Cares Act, we’re not one of those counties that is of 500,000 or greater and so we’re going to be getting an appropriation that’s predicated on the remainder of us who don’t meet that population cap criteria so the remainder of the $3 billion would be disbursed around what effectively from an accounting perspective would be remaining almost 150 counties that are left that don’t meet the 500,000 criteria so that right there holds true so I’ll pause there. You still have the floor. While he’s talking there are 911 and Fire, they have separate funds that these resources will come from. It won’t be a hit on the General Fund. All other departments will come from the General Fund with the exception of Fire and 911. All right, Donna. Ms. Williams: These additional funds would come from the home fund of each department so Utilities would also come from Utilities. Environmental Services would come from that fund. If there are expenditures from the Stormwater personnel, so in general the hazardous pay, the incremental pay follows the home department fund for each employee. That’s probably the clearest way to state it. Mr. Hasan: Thank you for that. But also as Attorney Brown mentioned, I had written out the Law Department, the Administrator’s Office and the Clerk’s Office. I think as we all know that just over the weekend itself as some of those persons worked and we got these agendas back and forth, they were working over the weekend as well so I think as you put that together all those should be considered. You said we’d discuss that at a later time. I just wanted to put that out there. My next part of this conversation, Mr. Mayor, is as you all know the Sheriff resent something that was sent previously and I was the one that was asking him this morning for the notice and saw it attached to it and was asking how he had come to the figure, which he had about $11 an hour and he sent that. I do realize that is a tall order and I see we’re being recommended around three dollars and something so we maybe before we close this out we may look at do we want to raise the amount an hour, consider that as well. So I’m through, Mr. Mayor. Thank you. rd Mr. Mayor: Okay, thank you. I’m going to the commissioner from the 3. Ms. Davis: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Ms. Williams, I know that these are coming out of those other funds and I mean, do you feel like they can handle these additional costs and do you approve and recommend the three, the same level that the Administrator recommended? What was it, $3.33? Ms. Williams: 911 fund may have some issues because they are supported partially by the General Fund. Utilities is going to be okay. Now Transit only has three employees that belong to us so the difference between 25 and 100% is not a huge jump but as you know Transit is almost, is heavily dependent on the General Fund but the amount that we’re talking about at this increment is really not substantial. I don’t think I got back to the can the budget handle it at this point. Cashwise we most certainly can. There, finding that this may be included as possibly a 5 reimbursable item surely adds some, a level of comfort to the person that’s sitting in my chair so that’s kind of where we are right now. We are barely three months into this current fiscal year. Do we know how this whole situation is going to affect us right now? We really don’t. Ms. Davis: One other question, I guess is to the Administrator, Mr. Mayor, are the department heads on board with this? I mean the ones that have to cover this cost. Have they been a part of this discussion? Ms. Sims: The administrators, they have spoken with their directors, yes, ma’am, the departments that are being impacted. Ms. Davis: Okay, thank you, Mr. Mayor. st Mr. Mayor: All right, commissioner from the 1. Mr. Fennoy: One of my concerns is that we have employees that are putting not only themselves at risk but their families at risk during this crisis and I know that we cannot afford to give them an additional $11 an hour but since this may be, we may get reimbursed, then I think that we could do better than three dollars and some change an hour. Commissioner Hasan has already talked about the Clerk’s Office, the Clerk of Commission. I’m assuming that’s who you’re talking about and I do think that they need to be included but I guess my biggest question is even though the bus drivers are not, work directly for the City, is there any way we could include them because they are really at risk with all the people that they come in contact with and I saw CNN a couple of days ago where a Transit driver, somebody coughed on the bus and two weeks later he died so I’m wondering if there’s any way that transit could be included in this? Mr. Mayor: So I’m going to go back and just very quickly reiterate that transit has been included in these considerations. That is in the list. That is the most recent document that was sent out from the Administrator’s office that lists the categories of employees who are included that meet the essential critical infrastructure workforce criteria. As such they are included on that list. Transit is there and they are under consideration along with a host of other entities and departments. They’re included. Mr. Fennoy: But my concern about Transit, Mr. Mayor, is that the bus drivers themselves don’t really work for the City. Earlier you said we have three employees in Transit that work for the City. Mr. Mayor: No, I didn’t say anything about we had three employees. I’m not quite sure where that came from but that was not from me. At the end of the day, I see them driving around our city. They have people on that bus who can potentially have come in contact with someone. They themselves are at risk which is your concern and if we’re going to adopt a pay policy that includes individuals who are essential critical workforce employees then they should be included in this conversation as well and they are. Mr. Fennoy: And my second concern is there any way that we could do better than three dollars and some change an hour? 6 Mr. Mayor: Okay, so let’s qualify that. That’s just the breakdown per hour. That’s an additional increment. This is a $500 monthly stipend. That is how it will be communicated, that is how it’s being messaged. It’s consistent with what the City of Atlanta has done. In fact Atlanta has 5400 employees who are going to receive this additional stipend and it equates to $8.2 million dollars over the period of time that they set. From start to finish $8.2 million dollars. In our instance if we do this over a two-month period of time it’s effectively $1.6 million dollars in terms of expenditures that the City will incur and so again, that amount is consistent with the capital city. It’s in fact more than some cities, most cities aren’t doing anything at this point because of the difficulty of being able to try to manage that. We believe that this is prudent. I think that there are those of you who are on this call who are here in this meeting today who believe this is the right thing to do and that is what is before us. Making a decision to compensate our employees for this work over and above what they’re doing. Mr. Fennoy: Thank you, sir. th Mr. Mayor: Going to the commissioner from the 4. Mr. Sias: Thank you. A couple of things. When we talk about the Transit folks, we are already aware that there is a separate pot of money that can deal with the Transit issue and we just have to line that item up, line the item up that way and put in an application for the money so it can cover the Transit drivers and it can cover the folks that’s employees of the City. So there’s money available to do that that’s already been per se amount allocated that we can receive and that came out in an email that was sent from the Administrator. Now for the other folks and those folks as well. As far as the i.e. hazardous pay or exposure pay, Chief James was the first one to bring this up to my knowledge about our employees and I’ve heard it from several other directors as well. Their initial talk was about $7 and some change per hour. I think it is very appropriate for our employees. I mean Atlanta may be doing something, Savannah, other cities, but we’re none of those. We’re Augusta. I don’t have an issue when we look at what other cities are doing but we don’t have to follow them to the letter. I will be recommending to this body that we do $5 per hour for our employees. It’s clear that we may have to do the red tape and do the paperwork but we can get this money back through this COVID-19 legislation. So we just have to go out and do the work, dig through that as I mentioned to the Mayor a couple of days ago we need somebody designated to search through all these federal departments to see where the money is. The money that was allocated to Transit was $8 million dollars and that was to Augusta/Aiken and what I hear is that we get $6 million out of that, Aiken gets $2 million. That’s already designated and been sent out through the federal Department of Transportation, whatever you call it. That’s already there. They’ve outlined what each city receives. They started at 50,000 people per municipality. So the bottom line is the reimbursement avenues are out there. We just need to dig into it and whether this is a substitute motion or not, I want to say that we should use, we should do $5 an hour for the timeframe that we do this emergency. Thank you and I’ll have my hand up again. th Mr. Mayor: Commissioner from the 5. Mr. B. Williams: I didn’t have my hand up but I’ll do a second for that motion for $5.00. 7 Mr. Sias: Mr. Mayor, may I do a quick follow-up? Mr. Mayor: Sure. Mr. Sias: Before saying the $5.00 I did contact the Administrator and ask him if we would have Finance or whoever run the numbers on the $5.00 per hour so we’d know what that would be and if they did that, I’d like to hear that number now. Mr. Mayor: Administrator Sims. Mr. Sims: Yes, we were able to do that and that number for all funds is $1.3 million. Mr. Sias: Can you repeat that? Mr. Sims: For all funds that number is $1.3 million. Mr. Sias: And I want to just caveat that with this one thing that was up. There’s money available that we can get the reimbursement from but the thing about it is and I heard this, I won’t say where I heard it from, but if we’re going to ask for some money, we’ve got to spend some to ask for some and that don’t mean we want to be wasteful with it but we talk about the first responders but ever since COVID-19 came into play, we’ve had Housing inspectors stay out there doing their job, we’ve got the guys at Utilities, we’ve got the guys from Engineering. I see them out there every day and they’re working very diligently on a project that I visit almost daily and other projects. So I want to say that you don’t have to be a first responder but when you’re out there in the ditches and the trenches, you are a responder. So I think we should just treat all our folks equally and treat them fairly and I strongly recommend that $5.00 per hour in this particular deadly situation that we’re in. Thank you. Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Sias, again I’m going to pose this question to you. You’re recommending that and there’s a second and you’re saying all employees should be treated equally across the board. In this narrative that’s being presented to us you’ve got some at 100, some at 25 and so are you suggesting that everybody is at 100% or – Mr. Sias: Let me clarify what you just said about 100 versus 25%. Administrator Sims, you correct me if I’m wrong. When we talk about 100%, that’s talking about all employees involved. When we talk about 25%, it’s not 25% of the $3.33. It’s about an estimate that 25% of employees of that particular department may qualify. Administrator Sims, is that correct what I just said? Mr. Sims: That’s correct. Mr. Sias: Okay, so, Mr. Mayor, that’s not accurate the way you put that. Mr. Mayor: Okay, all right. So we’ve got a motion and a second for $5.00 an hour which effectively is $1.3 million dollars per month. 8 Mr. M. Williams: Mr. Mayor, before we take a vote now I thought – Mr. Mayor: I’m coming back. Mr. M. Williams: Yeah, if we’re going to vote, ain’t no sense in coming back --- Mr. Mayor: No, I’m not getting ready to vote. Just hold on. Mr. M. Williams: I’m trying. th Mr. Mayor: Let me get the hands. I’m going in this order. Commissioner from the 9, rdthth. 3, the 10 and the 8 Mr. M. Williams: I’m really concerned about what I’m hearing. Naturally this is a dangerous situation when you take care of an employee but we’ve got to be mindful of what we’re going as well. I want to go back to what the attorney mentioned about the two positions in his office who are involved. Now if they can work from home they ain’t got to be on the front line. They ain’t got to be knocking on door to door to bring no legal information. They’ve got computers and technology and all this other stuff to work for. We need to make sure we’re including those people that’s going to be out in the public who are risking their lives and their family’s lives with this situation. That’s my first point. The other point is we talked about the Sheriff wants $11. Are we going to give everybody $5? It sounds like the District 4 commissioner and the Administrator have been having a lot of conversations. It ain’t what you say but how you say it sometimes but still if they’ve talked about this then everybody ought to be talking on the same page. Now since there has been no meeting, there’s been a meeting before the meeting. I’m in favor of supporting the workers. But at the same time we’ve got to be fair with everybody, I agree. If we’re going to give $5.00 then let’s give everybody $5.00. We can’t give the Sheriff $11.00 and turn around and give somebody else $5.00 and then give somebody else $3.25. The Finance Director ought to be answering those questions not the Administrator but the Finance Director ought to be telling me where those funds can come from, what those numbers are going to be? The Administrator ain’t going to do no financing. He may have consulted with Finance. He don’t have those numbers. I need to hear them from somebody else. Mr. Mayor: I think you’ve heard from Donna as well but you’ve also heard from Administrator Sims who gave the presentation and I think that you’ve heard again that he worked hand and hand with the staff and was able to provide us with this information which is how we got to this point. And so to that end if I may, I’m going to go to Director Williams to speak and there may be some additional information that she can offer and then I’ll come right back to you. Mr. M. Williams: Okay, let Donna speak and then I’ll go from there. Ms. Williams: I forgot why I had my hand up. I’m sorry. I think it was to address the difference between the 25 and the 100%. Those were staffing levels, not that he meant, what you’ve already explained just then that it was not 25% of whatever number was approved. Those were done for me to be able to give cost estimates based on the level of staffing that I perceived might be affected. 9 th Mr. Mayor: Okay. Commissioner from the 9. Mr. M. Williams: So the other part I addressed about the people who have the technology and the means of working from home, the technology to work at home and do the same job versus somebody on the front line I think the legal department talked about at least two people. His office ought to be closed. There shouldn’t be nobody opening up and coming in with the technology that most people got. So that’s a concern for me now. Mr. Mayor: Yeah, I think it’s a very valid concern. I do not disagree with that. All right, rd commissioner from the 3. Ms. Davis: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Commissioner Williams, help me out. I wanted to hear some more from Donna as well. This new number, $5.00, I know where you still can’t give 100% guarantee that we’re going to be okay because this is all uncertain times right now with budgets but what are your thoughts on that? I’m just not comfortable with where we’re going to be this year. I want to give our employees something but I just don’t know what level. What are your thoughts on the new motion from Mr. Sias? Mr. Mayor: Is that to Director Williams? Ms. Davis: To Donna. Ms. Williams: Okay, what I will offer to you guys is once again, none of us really knows where we are going to wind up. What I can tell you is a small pool of money as we have gone through, we’re closing 2019 and one of the items that we received in 2019 was a FEMA for the 2014 ice storm so that was not revenue that was expected, let’s say, during 2019. That would have been directly applied to our fund balance. That was a million and a half. So while it doesn’t come out of 2020 budget it is a pool of funding that would be available to cover whatever is done in the interim until such time as these monies could be reimbursed to us. If they are not reimbursed to us then we really wouldn’t be adding to the fund balance for 2019. We would just kind of be holding the status quo which in today’s world as we’re seeing it right now holding a status quo is going to be a pretty good thing. Ms. Davis: Do you have any idea, either the Mayor or Ms. Williams, when we might know if we’re going to be getting reimbursement or any indication of any time frame when you would find out if we’re going to get reimbursed? Mr. Mayor: That’s very difficult to tell when we don’t know what the end game is as it relates to this pandemic. I think if we take from a historical perspective what happened with the ice storm again that happened in 2014 but as soon as we all got here we were dealing with that and it sounds like Donna said she’s got a gift for me that that was another check for $1 million that just came in in 2019 that we didn’t know about so I think it’s just too difficult to tell that. We don’t when GEMA is going to be requesting communities to begin submitting reimbursement requests through FEMA. It’s just difficult. I think given what we know today there are a series of things that have happened. One, the Masters didn’t happen this week. Two, we know what that number 10 historically has been from a sales tax perspective. You can couple that with the fact that now we are here and businesses are not operating at normal state so these are going to be some opportunities and times for us to tighten the belt a little bit but you know again we heard good news today. The Masters is going to happen in November. That’s our expectation. That’s good news. But I think out of an abundance of caution but being prudent and good stewards what we know is that over the last five years we have ended each year with a budget surplus. We have been good stewards of those resources and so we’re in better shape than we have been in the previous 20 years so I think that’s good to at least think about. Ms. Davis: Thank you. th Mr. Mayor: Commissioner from the 10. Mr. Clarke: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I’m going to echo just a little bit what my colleague th from the 9 said that it seems like there’s been a whole lot of conversation among two or three people and not among the whole commission. I would like to verify that whatever we decide on the dollar amount of money is that the same amount of money that the Sheriff’s Department deputies are going to get or is that going to be a separate item. Mr. Mayor: I think our posture is that there is going to be a motion which we have one and a second for an amount and that amount will be across the board for the organization in these categories of essential critical infrastructure workforce employees. That’s a term from the Department of Homeland Security and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency and so as a result of that, that’s that number. We have a calculation of what that is across the organization of $1.3 million dollars so absent there being another motion, that’s what’s in front of us at this point. th Mr. Mayor: Commissioner from the 8. Mr. Garrett: Before we vote on this I’d like to get a couple of questions answered. First of all I appreciate Donna for filling us in on the FEMA money that was unexpected, that reimbursement from the ice storm. Hopefully it won’t take another five or six years to get reimbursed for this but I guess the main question is how long would this pay increase be in effect for? Do we have a specific end date? Mr. Mayor: You can and again that’s a conversation that was posed to Administrator Sims as we were going through the conversation earlier about this. Again, in similar cities some who have done nothing and others who have a begin date and an end date. I use once more as an example because even whether it’s our law enforcement, our fire, they saw what happened in Atlanta. They’ve looked at other examples in Baltimore as well and there was a begin date of March 30 I believe for Atlanta and an end date of June 30 so again it was effectively over a three- month period of time, 5400 employees or so, so it’s certainly appropriate, Commissioner Garrett. Mr. Garrett: And one follow up question. I’m looking at the list that was earlier today and I see where the Coroner’s Office is not on that. I think it would definitely need to be added since the Coroner and his people are out every day as well. 11 Mr. Mayor: You certainly can say they need to be added to this list just like the Law Department was added to the list. Mr. Garrett: And if they were to be added to the list what would the end number be? Mr. Mayor: I’m going to defer to Director Williams. Ms. Williams: I’d have to pull them up. I think they’ve got six or seven individuals there so the total amount is not going to increase substantially. I think they work (inaudible) weeks and I think it would probably be prudent to do that estimation at 100% instead of just the 25%. I will update my sheet because we’ve got some others on there with the additions of the Law Department, Administrator’s Office and the Clerk so I can send that back out but because they are relatively small numbers of employees in those departments it’s not going to be a big change to the total number, the $1.3 for the two pay periods. th Mr. Mayor: All right, going to the commissioner from the 4. Mr. Sias: Number one, I hear from two of my colleagues saying about so much conversation. I guess I’m guilty of that. When I saw the email, I picked up the telephone and I called the Administrator and said can you explain what the 25% means. That’s exactly what I did. Now I think all of us have a telephone and all of us know folks number. So if you have a question you have the right to ask it so I don’t what all this so-called conversation going on and if there’s meetings before the meetings and between the meetings. So it’s as simple as that. I use the tools that we have. Thank you. Mr. Mayor: Director Williams, as we go back through this list, the motion is a simple motion and that is a dollar figure but there are clearly some gaps in terms of what this basic list looks like from an employee standpoint as it relates to EMA. As I understand it that’s 100% of EMA or at least it should be 100% of EMA as opposed to 25. They are on the front lines. 25% of staff. It should be 100% of staff. I can’t imagine why they would be any different than Fire and 911. Mr. Sims: The updated list reflects EMA at 100%. Mr. Mayor: Okay, all right. I don’t have that in front of me. I’m going to go in this order. th Commissioner from the 5. Mr. B. Williams: We’ve been all around the table and everybody has given their take on what they think we should be doing. We should be as you said thinking about the community, those that are working and working out something for them. We’ve got a motion on the floor and I think we need to go ahead and vote on that motion. If it passes, it passes and if it doesn’t we go back to (inaudible). I think we should just go ahead and take a vote. nd Mr. Mayor: I’ve got the commissioner from the 2. 12 Mr. D. Williams: The only issue with that that I really have is the length of time. We don’t know how long this situation is going to last and if we obligate ourselves for the certain total down the road it may be lengthier, a lengthy process. Then it may put us over the boundaries somewhat. I don’t see giving an exact total right now for the hazardous pay and the other issue I have is I’m not happy with everybody on the list getting hazardous pay. But that’s not here nor there. I’m learning to compromise. But I think if we vote on an amount right now with no expectation of what the end total will be, that would be somewhat dangerous for us. Mr. Mayor: Okay, thank you for those comments. Let me go to the commissioner from the first. Mr. Fennoy: It appears that some of my colleagues are concerned about whether or not we will get reimbursed for the hazardous duty pay and I guess one of the questions that I would ask is is it possible that if we come up with a dollar amount that we could go back and give it to them when this epidemic is over with. Does it have to be for the month of March, does it have to be given in April or the epidemic is over in June can we give it to them in July? Mr. Mayor: Here’s what I’d like to do. What we can’t do is go retroactive and pay th individuals. Here’s what I’d like to do. Commissioner from the 5, without saying that he’s calling for the question, what I’d like to do at this point is we’ve got a motion and a second. We’ve got a motion and a proper second for an amount of $5.00 hourly pay increase for a period of two months. I think the motion should be amended as such for a period of two months and if necessary we’ll come back and revisit it at that time. That gives certainty. A date certain effective today and ending on what would be sixty days from now which will be your two-month period of time. That effectively takes us to June 6 I believe. Mr. Hasan: I did have a question – Mr. Mayor: Hold on. I want to try to just bring some clarity here otherwise we’re just going to be all over the place. So, Director Williams, Administrator Sims, that’s the state of play in terms of the motion that’s before us right now. Those calculations will take us over a two- month period of time. That’s effectively $2.6 million dollars. I’m going to take two more comments and we can go back and revisit and clarify this list that some people are not seeing right now and don’t have access to with regards to the departments, i.e. the employees that are included in this. What our objective today was to come and adopt a pay policy and so to the degree that we adopt the policy then there’s a corresponding amount that goes with that. Mr. M. Williams: The question’s been called but that doesn’t mean that there’s some unreadiness. This is serious. We’ve got to talk about this. Mr. Mayor: I fully understand that there’s unreadiness. Mr. M. Williams: We’re trying to work it out. Mr. Mayor: I understand. There’s a lot of conversation about it and I want to make sure th we have proper debate about this matter. Go back to the commissioner from the 6. 13 Mr. Hasan: Mr. Mayor, I just wanted to make sure for the Administrator in particular are we only compensating people even though they may be in these departments these are people who are in the elements per se. Are we looking at the ones who are on the job and not just the ones who are maybe working there but they’re at the house? Mr. Sims: The departments that you mentioned about, the Sheriff, Marshal, RCCI, EMA, those departments were 100% for approving hazardous pay. The other departments we listed as far as Planning, Engineering, Recreation & Parks, Central Services, Finance, Procurement, we looked at 25% of that department looking at the employees that are physically working but we are looking at a different model for those departments. Mr. Hasan: I just wanted to make sure, Mr. Mayor, that in other words I could be in RCCI as an officer and I can be off that day and probably get regular pay or go on vacation and get regular pay, I didn’t want to get an extra compensation not being in the workplace whether I’m on vacation and getting paid or either just not being at work that day at all and still getting compensated. I just want to make sure that these are people who are on the job at that particular time and getting compensated and in the field, per se. Mr. Mayor: I want to clarify a few things. This is a snapshot in time. We are only having this conversation because of the pandemic that is before us. This is a snapshot in time and five years from now or fifteen months from now we could potentially come back and revisit this. And as such we are adopting a pay policy for a snapshot in time that will at the end of that snapshot in time that we determine here will revert back to the normal pay. So what we don’t want is a situation where we’re mired in the weeds. This will apply to folks that are physically reporting to work, not working from home. Physically reporting to work. Mr. Hasan: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. th Mr. Mayor: Now I’m going to the commissioner from the 9 and then we’re going to vote. Mr. M. Williams: Mr. Mayor, I don’t know whether we’re ready to vote or not. It’s a lot of unanswered questions. There’s too many. This is a pandemic that we’re trying to work through. People shouldn’t be just worried about paying folks. We need to be getting through this and those who are actually out there involved ought to be getting the additional pay. But you have got people who are not actually out there because they’re in a department. There’s a lot to be talked about but if ya’ll want to go ahead and vote, but you ain’t talked through all of this stuff. The price has changed from $11 to $5 to $3.25 to whatever. We ain’t got none of that clear yet and ya’ll want to vote. If you don’t want to talk about it, you sure don’t want to do no work. If you don’t want to talk about it then you shouldn’t be elected. I said that and I take responsibility for that. We ain’t got time to sit at home and do it so we know we ain’t going downtown and do it. This thing is serious. This is a lot of money. This is a serious event and we need to make sure we’re dotting our I’s and crossing the T’s and we’re still going to make some mistakes. I’m sick of people playing games. 14 Mr. Mayor: I appreciate that. Let me recalibrate the conversation. This is where we are. Today the matter that is before us is amending our current pay policy to add a clause that provides for hazard pay for employees who are essential critical infrastructure workforce as provided by the Department of Homeland Security and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. That is what is before us right now. That’s number one. Mr. M. Williams: But you’re talking about the people that are essential. What about those that are not essential. You’ve got people that you are adding in that’s not essential. Mr. Mayor: The list of individuals who are here I want to vote on first and foremost the adoption of the policy and that was the matter that was before us. That’s number one. The second thing that can and should be voted on is an amount. The first piece is will we adopt this policy that provides for our ability to have hazard pay. That’s the question that’s before us. That needs to be the first motion. Mr. Hasan: I make a motion, Mr. Mayor, to amend the pay policy. Mr. Clarke: I second. Mr. Mayor: Madam Clerk, this is our posture. We’re voting on the amendment to the pay policy which is the first order of business and we’re going to do that by roll call vote. The Clerk: This is to adopt the pay policy. th Mr. Mayor: That is correct. That is the motion. Commissioner from the 6 with a second th from the commissioner from the 10. Motion to adopt the pay policy. The Clerk: Mr. Clarke. Mr. Clarke: Yes. The Clerk: Ms. Davis. Ms. Davis: Yes, ma’am. The Clerk: Mr. Fennoy. Mr. Fennoy: Yes. The Clerk: Mr. Frantom. Mr. Frantom: Yes, ma’am. The Clerk: Mr. Garrett. Mr. Garrett: Yes, ma’am. 15 The Clerk: Mr. Hasan. Mr. Hasan: Yes, ma’am. The Clerk: Mr. Sias. Mr. Sias: Yes, ma’am. The Clerk: Mr. B. Williams. Mr. B. Williams: Yes, ma’am. The Clerk: Mr. D. Williams. Mr. D. Williams: Yes, ma’am. The Clerk: Mr. M. Williams. Mr. M. Williams: Might as well. Motion carries 10-0. Mr. Mayor: Okay, thank you, Madam Clerk. The matter that is before us now is what that th pay amount is. That’s the matter that is before us and previously Commissioner from the 4 had a motion of an amount of $5.00. I don’t know what that translates into in terms of monthly pay but I will submit that that’s probably an additional two dollars which will probably translate instead of $500 a month that’s probably an additional $650 to $700 a month based on the calculation so again to that end that is the conversation now. There was some unreadiness about that and in particular unreadiness about who the eligible employees were. And we can have more debate th about that or we can move forward with that motion that we’ll ask the commissioner from the 4 th to restate so that everyone’s clear on that and the commissioner from the 5 is who seconded that motion. Mr. Sias: Should I restate that now? Mr. Mayor: Suspend for a moment. The Chair recognizes the attorney. Attorney Brown. Mr. Brown: Yes, sir. Mayor and Commissioners, such a motion does indeed have an element of what the pay will be but the (inaudible) by the Administrator and HR and Law Department is the declaration so the amount is a part of adopting the declaration. Mr. Mayor: Attorney Brown, what document are you referring to? Mr. Brown: It’s the – 16 The Clerk: Attachment. The attachment from the Administrator? Mr. Brown: Yes, ma’am. The Clerk: Okay. Mr. Brown: COVID-19 declaration (inaudible). In order to pay the employees you have to declare, the policy says you can pay them under extreme conditions so in this instance the Commission has formally declared that extreme working conditions exist. Mr. Mayor: And where is that document? The Clerk: It’s the supporting documentation under Item #1 on the regular agenda that says a recommendation for hazardous pay. There is a memorandum from the Administrator attached is Augusta Extreme Condition Pay Policy and then there is an estimate cost for incremental pay. So there’s a four-page document. Mr. Mayor: Okay, so we’ve already adopted the Extreme Pay Policy. That was what the motion was just a moment ago. That’s this document, that I think everyone has a copy of that says Augusta, Georgia Extreme Condition Pay Policy. We just adopted that. That was the motion and is there some additional information, Attorney Brown, that you’re referring to? Mr. Brown: Yes, the Administrator. There is, there is a declaration – The Clerk: It was attached. Mr. Brown: And I understood that the (inaudible) that – The Clerk: Let me, is that the Estimate of Incremental Pay? Mr. Mayor: No, it’s not. Mr. Sims: It’s a declaration that was forwarded on Saturday. We can send it to you right now, Ms. Bonner. The Clerk: You’re sending it to me right now? Mr. Sims: Yes, I’ll send it to you right now. Mr. Mayor: Send it to the Mayor right now. The Clerk: I’m stepping away to get the copies so that I can show it on the screen for you. Mr. Sims: Okay. 17 Mr. Mayor: And if you’ll still forward that I’d like to have a copy of it here that I can print out. Everybody just stand at ease for five minutes. \[RECESS\] Mr. Mayor: Ms. Bonner, are you ready? The Clerk: -- declaration. I think I sent it to everyone electronically. To abbreviate what the declaration, I’ll ask Attorney Brown if – Mr. Mayor: Madam Clerk, let’s let Attorney Brown explain that. The Clerk: The last portion is what they’re actually voting on. Okay. Mr. Mayor: Attorney Brown. Mr. Brown: The pay policy you just passed stated that this is policy when there is extreme working conditions hazardous pay will be authorized. So that’s just a general policy that applies. In this case we will as a body, as a City, we will have to declare, the governing body will have to declare that this condition qualifies under the extreme working conditions that authorize so you are declaring that the condition exists and you will be declaring what the amount of pay would be and the policy itself does have a period of time that this condition is (inaudible) to exist. The Clerk: Is that the April 6 date through the June 6 date? Mr. Brown: On the declaration it is left blank in Section 3. The Clerk: I see that. I’m asking is that the date we put there? Mr. Brown: Yes. The Clerk: The effective date of this declaration shall be, so would be April 6? Mr. Brown: Yes, ma’am. The Clerk: And shall remain in effect through June 6? Mr. Brown: Yes, ma’am. The Clerk: Okay, that’s what I was wanting, and the pay should be $5.00 an hour, is that what they’re voting on now, right? Mr. Mayor: Well, that’s debatable, Madam Clerk. We’re going to vote on that in just a moment. The Clerk: I’m saying that’s what Mr. Sias’ motion entails. 18 Mr. Mayor: That’s correct. Mr. Sias: Question. th Mr. Mayor: Commissioner from the 4. Mr. Sias: In the declaration where we said this effective date I want to ask the attorney a question. You’re putting an end date which is approximately 60 days out. Did you also include a clause, I haven’t had an opportunity to read it completely, that says unless sooner terminated? In other words it can go to April 30 but it doesn’t have to be. It can be terminated if there is a need. So is that clause in there? Mr. Mayor: The reality of it is this declaration hasn’t had time to be vetted. It should simply state beginning with the current pay period and ending, we can do a date certain, which is extremely important or during the duration of the declaration order. But it should clearly state from the beginning of the current pay period which is what date? Mr. Sias: I don’t have a clue on that. What I was just saying just for example if this thing cleared up before whatever the date we put in then we should be able to terminate. That was my question and point. Mr. Mayor: Again, it certainly can be terminated at any point in time in the future. Attorney Brown. Mr. Brown: Yes. If you look back at the pay policy, anything regarding this pay policy can be amended. That was number four in the policy itself that it is amendable. But with the declaration (inaudible) 30 days by some miracle the situation cleared up and the working conditions no longer existed the Commission by agenda item could simply terminate the extreme, terminate the declaration and declare an end to the declaration itself. You are not bound to have it for 60 days and you can also go in before the end of 60 days and (inaudible) if you would. Mr. Sias: Thank you. th Mr. Mayor: Commissioner from the 9. Mr. M. Williams: That would be automatically then tomorrow we would stop the declaration, wouldn’t we? We wouldn’t continue to pay people if it is not being used so extending it would be something and I think the attorney mentioned that how we can extend it beyond the time. But if it ended next week that’s when the declaration would end, wouldn’t it? I guess Mr. Attorney would have to answer that. Mr. Mayor: Let me be clear. We shouldn’t be worrying about when this is going to end at this point. We don’t know when this pandemic is going to end and in fact what you heard yesterday was that it is only going to get worse, that we’re in the two-week period of time where you’re going to see more death than we’ve ever seen and while I don’t know if that’s true I know 19 that’s what everybody is telling me. Surgeon General is telling us, Fauci is telling us this, the President is telling us this and at the end of the day, we’ve just voted to adopt the pay policy and now the question that is before us is an amount and that’s the question before us and you have this document, this declaration document that says we’re going to provide a declaration of extreme working conditions and subsequently as a result of that, we’re going to provide hazard pay in the amount of $5.00 an hour. That’s on page four of the document. The date certain, they can be written in there. So when we adopt this declaration, the question before us is are we going to vote on the $5.00. So I’ve got a motion and a second to adopt the declaration and included in that would be the amount. We can do it as one motion or we can have two separate motions. Mr. M. Williams: Is that the Sheriff’s Department and everybody – Mr. Mayor: Everybody will be included in that declaration because you’ve adopted the policy. Mr. M. Williams: But the amount, is that for the Sheriff? Mr. Mayor: That will be across the organization, everybody, a single amount. All right, so let’s do this. I think the attorney would like for you to adopt this declaration of extreme working conditions. Do I have a motion to adopt the declaration of extreme working conditions? We’ll do th in that order. All right, the Chair recognizes the commissioner from the 10. Mr. Clarke: I unmuted it. I was ready to vote. Mr. Mayor: All right, are you making a motion to adopt the declaration of extreme working conditions? Mr. Clarke: I make the motion to adopt the recommendation. Mr. B. Williams: Second. Mr. Mayor: Got a second. The Clerk: Who was that? Mr. Bobby Williams? Mr. B. Williams: It was Mr. Bobby Williams. The Clerk: Thank you. Mr. Mayor, for clarification are you saying this declaration will include – Mr. Mayor: No. We’ll vote on that separately. We’re just voting on the declaration at this point and we’re going to vote on the amount separately. The Clerk: And you’re going to vote on the termination date, the beginning and the end date separate as well? 20 Mr. Mayor: No, no. The Clerk: Because this declaration includes the dollar amount per hour and the effective and the termination date so, it’s on the last page Section 2, Augusta, Georgia employees shall receive an additional I guess it would be $5.00 per hour and hazardous pay in line with the budget. Section 3 gives the beginning date and then effective through would be the end date so I’m just asking. Mr. Mayor: Madam Clerk, the effective date is today when we take a vote on this. Again Finance and Payroll will work it out as it relates to what that current pay period is. Again from a declaration standpoint it will be effective today with an end date of June 6 and if it needs to be amended it will be amended at that time. Mr. M. Williams: Question, Mr. Mayor. th Mr. Mayor: Commissioner from the 9. State your inquiry. Mr. M. Williams: My inquiry is the essential employees, you talked about that earlier, those who are on the front lines out in the public or those who’ve got offices and can’t work from home, do we distinguish that or not? Front line people who I am concerned about. Not the ones who can stay at home who don’t have to be out there, who may travel from one point to another but they don’t have to be out there like the firemen, police, bus drivers and that kind of thing, so do we make that determination? Mr. Mayor: Well, there’s been a document provided that effectively makes that determination but at this point, Commissioner, I’m going to let each and every one determine for themselves what that is but you’ve got the date of that support, well, what again policy says it should be but we’re going to let everyone make that determination for themselves with this next vote. We have a motion to adopt the declaration of extreme working conditions with a date certain effective today ending June 6 with a dollar amount of $5.00 per hour in hazard pay. All right, Madam Clerk, roll call vote. The Clerk: Mr. Clarke. Mr. Clarke: Yes. The Clerk: Ms. Davis. Ms. Davis: Madam Clerk, just again was this for the $5.00? The Clerk: Yes, ma’am. Ms. Davis: Okay, no, ma’am. I can support what the Administrator suggested but not the $5.00 at this time. The Clerk: Mr. Fennoy. 21 Mr. Fennoy: Yes. The Clerk: Mr. Frantom. Mr. Frantom: No, ma’am. The Clerk: Mr. Garrett. Mr. Garrett: No, ma’am. The Clerk: Mr. Hasan. Mr. Hasan: Yes. The Clerk: Mr. Sias. Mr. Sias: Yes. The Clerk: Mr. Bobby Williams. Mr. B. Williams: Yes. The Clerk: Mr. Dennis Williams. Mr. D. Williams: Yes. The Clerk: Mr. Marion Williams. Mr. M. Williams: No, ma’am. Motion carries 6-4. Mr. B. Williams: Is it over? Is the meeting over? The Clerk: Well, you asked that some additions be included that you need to vote on that. Mr. Mayor: All right, Madam Clerk, we’re going to the first item on the addendum agenda. Item Number 1. 1. Discuss/approve modified operations for Augusta Transit Department. th Mr. Mayor: Commissioner from the 6. Mr. Hasan: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. What we did the other day when we voted on this 22 and I pretty much I would say for lack of a better (inaudible) I was against it because I was a little caught in between to say whether the employee was going to get compensated and at the time I was assuming that they already had a contract in hand and had the money in hand and as a result of that to try to confirm those things after the meeting I called Ms. Dottery and asked her about it so she reached out to the vendor and the vendor sent some relevant information which came back Friday to try to give us some insight about potentially money out there by the Cares program that is tied to the COVID-19 and as a result of that we decided to take another look at this and we support it as best we can. However, I think there are still some questions out there because they said we’re in the neighborhood of about $8 million dollars and about $2 million of that goes to North Augusta or to Aiken County and about $6 million dollars comes through Augusta Richmond County. So there still is some criteria about whether we can pay the folks and expect to get reimbursed out of that money or what have you but I did want to say as a result of that that’s why I put it back on the agenda because I do think either way it is worth revisiting and going ahead and approve but my motion would be to leave the schedule as is as opposed to changing the schedule. Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Hasan. Mr. Hasan: Yes, sir. Mr. Mayor: There are two matters that were before us regarding that. It was the issue of suspending fares and again the holiday schedule and what is your motion as it relates to that? Mr. Hasan: My motion is to leave the schedule as it is because it is such a short notice and employees got to use the bus. I mean inconvenience them and we’re only talking about two hours a day (inaudible) leave it as is and we can suspend the fares. Mr. Mayor: Okay, we have a motion to suspend fares and continue the current schedule. Do we have a second? Mr. Sias: Sir. th Mr. Mayor: Commissioner from the 4. Mr. Sias: Thank you. With the thing, so I just want to ask Commissioner Hasan something with reference to his motion. Mr. Mayor: State your inquiry. Mr. Sias: Did you feel like your motion needs to include anything about insuring the drivers got full pay? Mr. Hasan: Let me say and further, Commissioner, I continue to have conversation around this. I reached out to our Finance Director, Ms. Donna Williams, talked to her Saturday and then I followed up this morning trying to get a handle on this and I’m just not sure that even with the money that we’re getting that whether we can compensate somebody else’s employees. That’s 23 why I’m moving away from that. I think we put ourselves in harm’s way attempting to compensate somebody else’s employees. Mr. Sias: I just wanted to get clarity. Mr. Hasan: Okay, thank you. Mr. B. Williams: I’ll do the second, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Mayor: I’ve got a motion and a second to suspend fares while continuing the current th schedule of operation for Transit with a second from the commissioner from the 5. Madam Clerk. The Clerk: Mr. Clarke. Mr. Clarke: No. The Clerk: Ms. Davis. Ms. Davis: Yes, ma’am. The Clerk: Mr. Fennoy. Mr. Fennoy: Yes. The Clerk: Mr. Frantom. Mr. Frantom: Yes, ma’am. The Clerk: Mr. Garrett. Mr. Garrett: No, ma’am. The Clerk: Mr. Hasan. Mr. Hasan: Yes, ma’am. The Clerk: Mr. Sias. Mr. Sias: Yes, ma’am. The Clerk: Mr. Bobby Williams. Mr. B. Williams: Yes, ma’am. The Clerk: Mr. Dennis Williams. 24 Mr. D. Williams: Yes. The Clerk: Mr. Marion Williams. Mr. M. Williams: Yes. Mr. Clarke and Mr. Garrett voting No. Motion carries 8-2. Mr. Mayor: Madam Clerk, item number 2. 2. Discuss/approve the development of a webinar with Augusta Small Business Community. th Mr. Mayor: Commissioner from the 6. Mr. Hasan: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. What happened after the Governor made his declaration the other day and he identified about 20 businesses that were pretty much, that would actually be closed at this particular time and some, one or two would be working half (inaudible). Some of those businesses was bars, nightclubs, gyms, fitness centers, so forth and so on. What I did at that particular time I reached out to Director Rob Sherman to try and give us an idea of many businesses were impacted and just give me a basic outline. What it was bars and nightclubs came to 60 businesses. Gyms, fitness centers, and bowling alleys, 32 business. Theater or live performances, 4 businesses. Dine in service restaurants, private social clubs came to about with limited service and full services together came to about 413 businesses. When you’re talking about the hair designers, the body art studios, beauty shops, barber shops, cosmetology schools, hair design schools, barbering schools, so forth and so on came to 330 businesses. And then when we talk about licensed massage therapists came to 52 businesses. What I just mentioned was about 891 businesses for all intents and purposes have been shut down and we’re not talking about their employees and things of that nature during this particular time. I wanted to know the impact of that and what kind of information that we could get to give them some sense and get some relief out there because sometimes you don’t want to go and look for information. With that my conversation and my thought process when I was thinking about trying to find out some webinars that are out there that could speak to that. And what we were able to find, the southern region there, Ashley Bell, Mr. Mayor, who you may be familiar with, is already beginning to compensate businesses and things of that nature and some of them were getting money within 72 hours and also just recently yesterday in the Augusta Chronicle they was talking about the University of Georgia and small business also doing webinars. And there will be a webinar tomorrow at 12:00 th for the 7 region which we are in Region 7 at 12:00. So I started out thinking this was something I thought we may have to lead the charge on, it’s more about us now just informing the public that there will be a webinar tomorrow at 12:00 Noon and the number, put it on our website and putting it out in the media. That’s what I wanted to try and get out there and we’d be involved in trying to get that information out to the public. Mr. Mayor: Thank you, commissioner. Anyone else? So I’ll lean in a little bit because th what you’ve raised, Commissioner from the 6, is consistent with Item #5 below and there have 25 been a series of conversations with the business community, the broader business community. What we did over effectively a five-day period of time is conduct a small business survey. You may have seen that on the City of Augusta’s website. We polled our entire business community and also pushed that out to the Metro Chamber of Commerce. That survey was completed on Friday of our businesses that have been impacted. It was a 13- question survey and that data is being provided back to us with the goal of again doing a series of things. One, you’ve taken an approach of having a webinar with our small business regional director, Ashley Bell, who is going to be hosting a town hall for Atlanta as well. We can certainly do that here in Augusta but part of the survey’s goal was to provide us with concrete data on the Augusta Commission as we talk about how we best can help our small businesses of all sectors to be able to not only recover but to restart and continue to do business in the community. That information should be available to the body here within the next two days. That will help us shape our thought processes in terms of how we help businesses going forward. That dovetails into the conversation again around Item #5 so we’re talking about it right now around COVID relief fund and recovery efforts. The stth commissioner from the 1 has raised this issue with me as well as the commissioner from the 4 of how we can use those link deposit funds in order to be able to get businesses back whether it’s providing micro loans, whether it’s providing small time grants and so with that data we want to be able to do something meaningful and substantial to help businesses in the Augusta community specifically. You may be aware of the fact again that the Augusta National provided $2 million dollars to the community on last week. A million of those directly for Augusta University Medical Center around testing, rapid response and their health care services. One million to the community foundation in partners with United Way. As a result of that those resources are spread across the region and not necessarily specific to Augusta and so while we may have access to those resources as well I think it’s vitally important for Augusta to do something directly for businesses in our community and so we look forward to having a broader conversation around that and sharing that information with the Commission so that we can take action on providing our businesses with some relief and support so that they can continue all the way down to the barbershops and hair salons as well who have been directly impacted and of course our restaurants as well who we’ve had a series of conversations with. There were almost 500 respondents from the survey and the data that’s been brought back it’s going to be very useful in helping to shape that. So I’ll pause there. I appreciate you bringing this item forward because I think it again dovetails very nicely under number five and we look forward to getting that information out to all the members of the Commission so that we can have some broader discussion. Mr. Hasan: Can I give a response, Mr. Mayor? Mr. Mayor: Sure. Mr. Hasan: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I appreciate all the information that you just shared with us. You’ve probably seen the article yesterday in the Augusta Chronicle about this webinar tomorrow. Can you find a way to fully get that out to the media so many businesses in this community can take a look at that in the meantime while we are trying to potentially formulate something internally because it looks like there are some immediate funds in hand in a reasonable amount of time and things like that. So if we can take advantage of that and there is a webinar tomorrow at noon and is basically operating out of Augusta. 26 Mr. Mayor: Again, we’ve had some conversations with Ashley as well. Let’s talk about a series of things. Two weeks ago the SBA provided all of our local businesses with an opportunity to apply for low cost loans. That was already pushed out to the business community. That’s already been done. Number two, what has happened post the Cares Act being passed the $2 trillion dollars that you’re hearing about on Friday the federal government through a series of banks provided what they call the Payroll Protection portion of that. There were a series of banks that allowed individuals to apply and that information was also pushed out to the business community as well. So absent that the webinar will probably be a reiteration of some of those things and so to your point we’ll send out a communication to the local media and internally to all the members of the Commission saying how that works and what we’ll also have Ashley do is provide a specific Augusta town hall call for folks to be a part of as well. Mr. Hasan: Yes, sir, one part of it, the economic disaster loans, which pretty much doesn’t have to be repaid. So those are the kind of things we need to get to them and get it to them as much as possible and they probably tomorrow will hear some of that as well. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, I appreciate that. st Mr. Mayor: That covers item 1 and number 5 around the, commissioner from the 1 go ahead. Mr. Fennoy: In listening to some of the comments not locally but from small businesses across the country they say one of the issues that they’re running into is that the monies for these loans are given to the larger banks and the larger banks are working with their customers as opposed to working with a small business that does business with another bank. And they say they have tried and tried and tried to have access to these loans but they have not been made available so I think that is a stumbling block that we’re going to run across and I don’t know if that’s something that we need to address. The loans are at the bank and the bank is taking care of their customers first and then where does that put the other businesses. Mr. Mayor: That is a very valid concern and one that has been raised. It was no different than raising the issue around the population caps with the $2 trillion dollars. When you talk about counties again of 500,000 or larger, there are not that many counties that are that large in Georgia and it diminishes the ability to get those appropriations if you don’t meet that threshold. The same holds true again here locally. You’ve only got a few banks locally that are in that list of SBA preferred lender banks. Bank of America which happens to be a big bank has done the most applications as I understand it but locally you’ve only got Regions and Queensborough who were on that list. All of the other banks were not on that list from a local perspective and that’s just information that was brought to our attention just here within the last several days. So I’ll go back th to the commissioner from the 6. Mr. Hasan: So to Commissioner Fennoy’s point what goes back to the Mayor which you think about the survey that you’ve done, it gives us an opportunity also as you look at those 500 businesses that you have just mentioned that have done the survey and other businesses that have participated in this process and we can somewhat attempt to try to track the success of it and as a government if we feel that there is discrimination in that process for whatever reason we can try to help and put our finger on that certain businesses are being discriminated against in regards to 27 this Corona 19 Act for lack of a better term so that’s a good way for us to track that as well in doing those things and kind of take some charge of it so those small businesses won’t be out there on their own. Mr. Mayor: Yeah, absolutely. Again I will tell you that there are a host of issues associated with this. The Department of Labor waived all of the affirmative action requirements for any of those resources so there are a host of issues that are ongoing as it relates to that and you’ve a multitude of groups trying to address those concerns. Is there anything else you’d like to add as it relates to item #2, Commissioner Hasan and roll up item 5 into it? Mr. Hasan: No, thank you, sir. We appreciate it. We just need to expedite the process because some of those businesses have enough resources to last all in a month’s time and we need to see what we can do to assist them. Mr. Mayor: Absolutely. All right, Madam Clerk, I think that’s all we’ve got before us. We’ve talked about item five as well which is what I wanted to do. If there is no additional business th before us, this meeting, Commission from the 5. Mr. B. Williams: Yeah, I wanted to ask you a question about the Patch. The Governor’s executive order allows golf courses to be open so why is our Patch closed? Do you know? Mr. Mayor: I think you and I, I was not aware that our golf course was closed. As I understood, the clubhouse was physical distancing but they were still open. That was what I understood so again, Administrator Sims, can you speak to that issue? Mr. Sims: It’s my understanding that our park facilities should be closed. Mr. Mayor: No, sir. The parks are open, the parks are still open and that’s consistent even with the Governor’s orders that parks and facilities like that are open and so you just practice social distancing and there is no mandate for the golf course to be closed. Mr. Sims: (inaudible). Mr. Mayor: I think what I’m hearing is that the Patch should be open. Mr. B. Williams: Yes. Mr. Hasan: Mr. Mayor, I have a question for you please. Mr. Mayor: Okay. Mr. Hasan: It’s not a question for yourself. It’s just to remind us as part of the Governor’s position the other day, he sent out about four attachments that came to us. One of the attachments has something with an order to ensure a healthy Georgia. And two of those things on there in the workplace in particular he laid out, he was asking about considering suspending the use of personal identification those pin number pads and things of that nature or entities that could do that and that 28 was one. Bullet point 12 on that was discouraging workers from using other workers phones, desks, offices or other work tools and equipment and so as we’re bringing people back in and out, it also says for all intents and purposes people should be using their own desks, their own office equipment, their own computers and not using their colleagues’ computers and I want to make sure that we end up practicing that. We’re not currently practicing that. Mr. Sims: We will make the adjustment regarding that. I do know that our departments do try to streamline to have all departments try to work in the same area. But since (inaudible) we will address that and have that and we had some that were working at a satellite office go back to that location. Mr. Hasan: Thank you, sir. st Mr. Mayor: Commissioner from the 1. Mr. Fennoy: I have a question for the Administrator. Mr. Sims, the hazardous duty pay that we approved today, that would also apply to our part-time workers that are working during the virus? Mr. Sims: The part-time employees that are working in those departments (inaudible) if they (inaudible) hazardous pay (inaudible). Mr. Fennoy: Okay, thank you. Mr. Mayor: All right, this meeting is adjourned. \[MEETING ADJOURNED\] Lena J. Bonner Clerk of Commission CERTIFICATION: I, Lena J. Bonner, Clerk of Commission, hereby certify that the above is a true and correct copy of the minutes of the Called Meeting of the Augusta Richmond County Commission held on April 6, 2020. ______________________________ Clerk of Commission 29