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CITY MANAGER’S REPORT January 12, 2021 COVID-19 PANDEMIC The Task Force will continue to meet or more frequently as the needed, to continue the dialogue about our response to the pandemic and the possible need for changes to our messaging campaign. A summary of the Task Force's messaging campaign that continues more organically in the coming months is attached for your review. It was a community effort with our dedicated agency of record for crisis communications leading us along the way. Special thanks to the many community members that helped make our goals reality! At the last Task Force meeting it was great to hear about the progress being made on vaccinations within the County. For more information about the specific Tier the Health Department is currently in for vaccine distribution, or to find out what Tier you are in for distribution, you can access the Flathead City-County Health Department website here. With recent changes by Governor Gianforte, frontline/essential workers have been pushed back a Tier from 1B to 1C. That means city employees under the age of 70 and without serious underlying health conditions will have to wait until Tier 1C, which likely is three or more months away. This week I met with representatives of North Valley Hospital about setting up a vaccine location in Whitefish. We want to provide a vaccine clinic location locally to serve our residents interested in the vaccine and eliminate the need for them to travel to Kalispell. There are a handful of locations that are being explored at this time. Unfortunately, the Armory will not work as a long- term solution due to the other scheduled uses of the facility. There is also a need for volunteers to assist with both administering the vaccinations (clinical volunteers) and checking-in/greeting patients (non-clinical volunteers). There are certain requirements for someone to administer a vaccine and most commonly the clinical volunteers must be nurses, physicians, and paramedics. There is hope that if we have the man-power for distribution then the vaccines will be available, which would speed up the timeline for distribution. As we partnered with North Valley Hospital on our COVID-19 Task Force messaging campaign, this is another area we will continue to work with them on as it is the next step in addressing the pandemic. While Governor Gianforte has not lifted the mask directive, he has indicated the he plans to do so once a bill is passed protecting businesses and limiting liability from and individual’s injury from COVID-19. A hearing for Senate Bill 65 (SB65) was held by the Business, Labor, and Economic Affairs Committee, but no immediate action was taken. SB65 would limit liability if a business followed the health guidelines of Federal, State, and Local Governments in effect. The City is preparing for the face covering ordinance adopted by the City Council to be effective upon the removal of the mask directive. We will have our COVID-19 face covering complaint form available online and a press release will also be prepared and released at that time. We continue to monitor any updates from the Governor about other directive changes such as capacity or hours of operation. ---PAGE BREAK--- While CARES Act funds are no longer available, the City and Whitefish Convention and Visitors Bureau have about one-half of the funds remaining from our crisis communications partnership to continue to provide updates on changes in public health guidance and regulations. These funds will also be available for any other crisis communications if needed. The City is working on our final request for reimbursement from the CARES Act (due January 22nd). Once the request and approval are finalized, a summary of our CARES Act reimbursements will be presented to the City Council. MONTANA STATE LEGISLATURE SESSION The first two weeks of the 2021 Montana State Legislature Session have kept me busy monitoring proposed bills, providing input to the Montana League of Cities and Towns (MLCT), and providing comments on bills that would limit cities in their efforts to provide critical services and infrastructure improvements. You can monitor what bills are being tracked by the MLCT here. NEXT CITY COUNCIL MEETING The next City Council meeting is scheduled for Monday, February 1st. The work session will include a presentation on the Transportation Plan Update. Respectfully submitted, Dana M. Smith, CPA City Manager