City Council

>> Welcome to the city of St. Petersburg City Council meeting if you're elected officials are mayor Rick district one Robert black money. District 2 Brandi Gobert it's tricky 3 and Council chair and might marry. District 4 garden right. A district 5. Deborah big spenders a district 6 Council vice chair Gina Driscoll a district 7 Lisa Wheeler Bowman. And district date Foster. >> Good afternoon and welcome to the St. Petersburg City Council meeting for Dec., the 10th 2020, let's begin with a roll call please. Invocation this morning or this afternoon is going to be given Mayor Rick kriseman followed by the pledge of allegiance. We all please stand. Good afternoon, Mister Chair members of City Council. For those of the Jewish faith tonight is the first night of Hanukkah. Hanukkah means dedication in Hebrew. After the Jews reclaim the temple from the Syrian King. Antioch us they rededicated the temple by lighting a lamp filled with enough oil to last for one day. But miraculously. That oil with the temple for 8 days. And so as this Hanukkah season begins tonight in kicks off our holiday season. We ask you of okay to our father our King to help us rededicate ourselves to creating a more equitable city. A city filled with peace and understanding. Well we live in a time where our differences seem large help us to see our commonality remind us that we are one people. One race regardless of the color of our skin. The God we prayed to are the people we choose to love. He just so Lord how to create a community where the desire to help others. It's stronger than the desire to help ourselves. A report out on aisle he developed along checking under the command of the young wise man has that. Blessed are you Lord, our God. King of the universe who has kept us alive who has sustained us and was brought us to the season of joy peace and hope and let us say. Thank you mayor kriseman for moving indication. I'm good at a recognize you to recognize one of our long serving employees of the city of St. Petersburg mayor kriseman yet the floor. Thank you Mister Chair members of City Council. Thank you for allowing me. This time this afternoon tough us say a few words about the pending retirement for our long tenured department director, Mr. Louis more. For 36 years from December of 1984 to December of 2020. Louis has been the director of our procurement department. Louis get Louis guided the procurement department during some of the city's highest profile projects. Projects like the new police headquarters, the bio solids to energy plant and of course the new Saint Pete pier. Over the last 36 years if we had to buy something or built something. Louis Moore was involved and we are certainly grateful that he was as a city we have been blessed to have Louise long-term leadership. Leadership which has been recognized not just here in St. Petersburg but around this country. Here's just a sampling of Louise accomplishments and awards that he has amassed during his outstanding career. Under his leadership or procurement department was awarded an unprecedented 3 peruto awards for excellence in public procurement in 2003 2008 2018. The award is the gold standard for public procurement agencies and as such money many public agencies haven't even applied for the award as the requirements are to rigorous. 2 former governors of Florida appointed Louis to serve on statewide committees. Louis served on both the state Commission for the visually impaired and severely handicapped and the minority business task force. He is a past national President Of the National Institute of government procurement and served as the President Of the Tampa Bay area chapter of the National Institute of government procurement from 1985. Oh I'm sorry and from 1985. 2 1997. He chaired the Pinellas County purchasing program. During his tenure, Louis has been a role model, a mentor and a friend to all of those who worked in procurement as well as to every member of our city team. In 1984 not long after he started Louis was informed that he was going to take over the warehouse function of the city. At that time there was a series of smaller warehouses around the city being run independently by different departments. So there was no way to know if the department for buying missing products or have the same needs basically there was a total lack, a coordination and a focus. Louis stepped up and started the process through which our consolidated warehouse came into existence and has continued to thrive. Mister Chair and City Council we are working on a plan that will be forthcoming in the next couple of months to more formally recognize Mister Louis Louis more for his long service to the city. So there will be more to come on that. But we could not allow his last. This last meeting of the year to happen without sending Louis off into a well deserved and well earned. We will Miss Louis. We will Miss His professionalism his confidence will also Miss That big beaming smile of his that lit up every room that he ever walked into. We wish he and waveney an much relaxation and enjoyment. A family and grandchildren in long walks and Davis to park. He has certainly hurt. Thank you. Mister Chair members of Council. Thank you mayor for those very moving words. From long time just a hero to our our city. I wish we could be here in chambers with us and you're right about His smile he can just light up a room with that smile Louis also married very well. Way wave in the end, it's just a gift to be Also thank you for. Amazing life of service to the city of St. Petersburg and I'm I'm looking forward how we can recognize Louis going forward to so thank you. Council We agenda before us. Some of the changes that we have to the agenda. We have item d-four letter project we're going to item f one under the covid report. And we're going to e 10 a red tent initiative that was deferred from our Dec. The 3rd meeting. How entertain a motion to approve the agenda with the changes that I just outlined. We have a motion to have a second. Second we have a motion a second approve the agenda with the changes with the clerk please open the machine for voting. Council members please cast your votes. Seeing all present council members have voted with the clerk please tally announce the vote. Consent agenda before us I'll entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda. Approval. We have a motion that we have a second we have a motion a second to approve the consent agenda. Mister Clerk do we have any cards on the consent agenda. Thank you. We have a motion a second scene a request to speak with the clerk please open the machine from voting. Council members please cast your votes. Seeing all present council members have voted will the clerk please tallied announce the vote. Thank you Mister Clerk will move to open form can that can can the clerk please read the rules of open form. If you wish to address City Council and subjects owner than public hearing or quasi judicial items listed on the agenda. Please sign up with the clerk in conference room 100. Only the individual wishing to speak May feel out a yellow card. Only city residents owners of property. Business owners in the city or their employees May speak all issues discussed an open floor must be limited to issues related to the city of St. Petersburg government. If you're speaking to an item on the agenda. You May only speak wants to win the open form or when the item comes up on the agenda in order to provide an opportunity for all citizens to address Council. Each individual will be given 3 minutes to speak and after which the microphone will be muted. I we have one speaker Corey Givens. >> Good afternoon. Deputy mayor Chairman Snoring council members. We have this poor people's campaign of Saint Pete in the Southern Poverty Law Center. We strongly encourage the City Council to complete the redistricting process including a demographic analysis and period for community engagement and feedback ahead of the Nov. 20 21 general election. We also strongly urge the City Council in the charter review Commission c-dot proposed amendments to establish 3 at large seats and single member voting and 5 districts in time for the Nov., 2021 general election. The minority population has grown drastically in St. Petersburg but remains under served. Saint Petersburg's minority population has significantly increase since St. Petersburg completed the last redistricting in 33. At the same time conditions and several African American neighborhoods have worsened. Despite the city's recent elevation to a premier tourist destination. Providing a huge cash infusion poverty rates still remain high in black neighborhoods like midtown. Of quality education are slowing and gentrification is drastically changing the demographics and South side. It's number 2. The minority representation on the Saint Pete City Council has become stagnant under the current election system despite changes to Saint Pete's demographics exacerbating these issues is the under representation of minority communities on the Saint Pete City Council. The cluster plot impact, minority majority districts and the at-large voting scheme because an at-large voting system permits voters, not in the majority black districts, the vote for the representatives and the majority black districts but candidates competing against port candidates in those district 10 to lose of the 14 general election cycles that we've had since 1999. But candidates for City Council have run in districts 5, 6, 7, However, these limited districts are not representative of St. Petersburg growing minority population as a result, only 2 City Council members currently african-american while there are 6 were white which makes 37.8% of St. Petersburg citizens identifies people of color. But the black community comprising of the second largest demographic in the city at 23%. Since 2005 black candidates have lost every general election when their opponent was white. Even though these races occurred in district 5, 6, with the minority majority districts issue 3. The Saint Pete City Council to complete a redistricting process by the Nov. 20 21 election and the charter review Commission. So the dot complimentary proposed amendments for Harbert system some minorities are adequately represent to address chronic under-representation of minority communities. We urge the City Council to complete this process. Ahead of 2021. So we do not have issues that we had 10 years ago. It is imperative that n charter amendment proposed by the chartered commute review Commission by the 2021 mandate in voted on by the elector thank you. Thank you for your comments. We have any other cards. >> We'll open form and will move next to reports and bring up the East 6 covid up the dates and now Our emergency Manager amber bowling. She's joined Pinellas Deputy assistant director Gayle guy dash did I pronounce that correctly and that doctor one of which. >> For having us you have a crew here today to talk to you so we're really excited to be here. So the state it is updated as of yesterday. Dec. 9th. Snapshot for Florida. We've been seeing increased about 65,200 cases since her update last Thu. Bringing us to 1083 thousand. 362. 19,462 deaths which is an increase of 686. Since our last update so both of these are increasing numbers increasing transfer the state. This is a little different than my usual graphic show you which is always been by day. And we group them by week this time I think it makes it a little easier. Visually and to identify the trends. You know they're in the middle of July you see our our peak and it was a very quick peek that we had so it climbed really fast. And then now towards Santa November. Beginning of December, it's more of that slow burn so it's a slow and steady increase. The definitely an increase. And so Pinellas County 35,883 cases, our 14 day average is 272 cases a day. And I'll say that our seven-day averages 315 cases a day so it's it's climbing. Same story with the the graphs this is by week. 3 13,729 cases. And it looks very similar again it's more of a slow burn increase through November and December. Our 14 day average is 92 cases a day in Saint Pete, and the 70 averages, a 104 so again it's it's on the increasing trend. Now it's County deaths. Also reported by week. We've had 30 additional deaths in the last 7 days. This is an increasing trend if we look at the previous 7 day improvements. Even though it looks like deaths are decreasing over time remember it is a lagging indicator. And those deaths are sometimes reported weeks later. It looks like that that's beginning to be an increasing trend as well. 941 total for the county which is about 3% of all cases. Here's that code data so there's a lot going on. Here so which are used to it's the zip code by day we're just showing you the last 7 days now. So you can see that riser is of codes it's a pretty consistent rise among the zip with the more densely populated zip codes having a little more of an increase. The top 3 zip codes with the biggest increases the last week or 3, 3, 7, 1, 0 with a 108 new cases, 3, 3, 7, 1, 3, with 89 new cases and 3, 3, 7, 0, 2, with 65 years. Our rolling to week average. Or percent positivity trend. So. The mayor rolled out his race to save campaign. And the goal there is to be at 5% or under. So you can see that we are above goal. In the last few days. Yeah we were seeing a studying out if not a small The last several days we've a steady increase and that percent positivity once again so currently it. 6.2 9. Long-term care facilities. This is a pretty consistent trend. Overall cases make up a smaller percent to 14% of all cases and the silla tease and then 60% of all deaths in the county or in facilities so currently at 634 deaths. Which is 14 new deaths. Since last week and that's out of a total of 30 deaths. Hospitalizations so we've continued to possible stations of primary that diagnosis of covid go up you'll see an outlier there in the middle that could have been a hospital maybe not reporting so if we. You know disregard that one if you look it's definitely a steady rise. So we went from a 167 hospitalizations at the end of November to 210 as of yesterday. Again it's a fluctuating number but on the whole we are seeing that that number to go up. Hospitalizations for covid are going up. Overall but availability remains fairly stable. Where we've been staying right within. You know between the 2030% range. So currently there is 27% availability and the total beds in Pinellas out of all that capacity, 4 and a half percent of them are covid occupied and witches very consistent with what we were at last week which was 4 point. Icu beds again fairly consistent. Rad 18% total capacity there for icu beds. Currently out of all the icu bed capacity 13 and a half percent of covid occupied. So just a note on the ventilators there's 271 ventilators available. Out of all the ventilators to percent. And that is what I have from my numbers update for you today and with that I'd like to turn it over to get a guy to she's the assistant director for the Florida Department of Health and the North County. Who going to share some updates. Maybe some trends and some facts and information and more any Thank you, thank you, thank you. After you've every very happy to be here happy to share any information. Doctor Joe census, the He has been tasked with being part of the statewide. Task force in order to do that that's a nation outreach and and push out the vaccine to the community. I'm going to talk a little bit about covid I'm a talk a little bit about that seems my colleague Austin Morris loan is here. He has dived into a lot of the fda and yulee a date in all those acronyms that you've just heard recently to be able to answer any questions that you May have what I will probably tell you is that some of your questions will not have answers because we are awaiting a lot of information as you all know, I'm sure today is a very important day we are really really hoping that Pfizer vaccine gets approved and how it gets approved and who is on the list that can be given the vaccine is very important. So we are watching all the safety data in and that's what you May have heard a lot of information about how this vaccine was rushed to production. Well you have to understand that this vaccine is different than any other vaccine that has ever been made before it's a different process it could be made click or it can be made in more quantity and the fact that there was money involved to be able to push it forward as well this having so many people willing to be part of the testing phase has really helped to go through so when you talk about 34,000 or more people willing to take a pilot vaccine really is incredible. So that's what we're watching we're watching all that safety data. So we are anticipating by next week if everything falls through, we May have a 174,000 doses. Well the fire is a vaccine in Florida next week. Now for those of you that know that Pinellas County has million people. The state of Florida has 21.5 million people. So that's a minuscule amount of vaccine that we need to protect the population. You've all heard about herd immunity we've talked about that before with other vaccines. And you know sometimes they're saying at least 80% of the population needs either have natural immunity or this vaccination well it's going to take a very long time. So we're trying to tell people as you've heard there's light at the end of the tunnel but it's going to take a long time so we can not stop with mask-wearing with social distancing with handwashing and with sanitizing it's just we just can't even if somebody were to get the vaccine. The efficacy has been stated to be sometimes 9495%. But there's a percent that is not going to take for some folks for whatever reason so we can't just say that you're going to go ahead and be fined for ever furthermore, I'm sure you've heard that some people that actually got the covid disease can be can resolve and actually get the covid disease again there has been re infection. We usually use the mark of 90 days after but what I've seen in all the data is the first infection was mild and the second we can be quite worse. It all depends on their immune response. So we want people to stay the course and continue to do what they're doing. So the vaccination campaigns are going to be very slow at the start and the governor has set or our guidelines for who were going to do first and his the cdc has guidance for who's going to be in the one a category. Well he turned it me said we want to start with long-term care facilities. Residents and staff because they are the ones that have the highest disease burden and they have the worst outcome says as I'm sure Amber has shared with you that a lot of our long term care facility. Residents have passed away based on the disease morbidity because they're they're elderly and they have a lot of co-morbidities so the governor wants to start with long-term care facilities and hospitals and hospital workers and then we'll go from there continuing along the lines of 65 and older, and also look at communities with which we need to think of disparities and other issues so it's the difficult part will be we'll have to wait for an effect seem to continue to push out. The other issue that we're going to be concerned about is are people going to actually take it or getting are they going to wait to see what happens to the first wave of people and that's possible. I've heard in some different groups. 30% will take it 30% will not and 30% will wait to see what happens. So the campaigns in order to make sure that people are very and can you know not concerned about taking the vaccine, but they think it's safe are going to be very important. We've even talked about having high level folks doctor Cho doctor Jamison, some of the other folks in the community to take it and talk about what it was like what you know type of arm pain what he felt to be at a fever in order to show that we have confidence in it, he's told me many times he's read all the information and if he's offered if he's going to take it because he's competent and this vaccine. I think we all want to hear that. Former medical experts so I hope if you have any questions I can answer them or I can actually write them down and we can make sure that they the answers come back to you because there's a lot of work to be done and I want to say as a resident of Saint Pete. I'm so proud that you guys have done things like restart Saint Pete and race to safe because it makes me proud to live here and be in this community so again thank you and I take any questions and Austin's here to help me as well. He's the brains and brawn. Okay, thank thank you very much. Doctor one of councilmember Miller Bowman, I think you you had some questions for doctor one of which should you want. Doctor one of which to come to the podium first. >> My question him thank you for being here. I just wanted to know. Because you are our physician, I just know wanted to know from you. What you thought regarding the vaccinations a lot of half fear of even taking them. And so I just kind of wanted to hear from you being my doctor, what did you. What are your thoughts absolutely in first of all thank you. A 100% in agreement with everything that was said before me, I'm not sure if you had a chance, but I did send out an e-mail today. Where you know I felt because of all the discussion you know that I have to take a stand that have to sort of know the community in the city and their employees. My feeling is and certainly in 100% in favor of and in support of the safety behind this vaccine. As I mentioned that letter you know there's a lot of unknowns in life in general in every day we make arrests we take risks make decisions without having the full set of knowledge behind us with this vaccine yes, you know it's not how other vaccines were made before. But the technology and we're talking about the Pfizer in the Moderna vaccine which is the mrna which all that is basically a mechanism to get our own cells to produce the protein of covid to which are anti body or our new system fights against. So it's just a way to achieve the same ends in as was stated it's a far more efficient process to ramp up production when you know normal vaccines take incubation period that we just can't get to the numbers that we need within a short amount of time to end this devastating pandemic. So the science has been around for a long time it's the first time it's been apply to a vaccine. And again because of the money that was put into it companies found you know the resources to do it in such a way they can get it done. But the scientists behind it the physicians, the medical and health staff that are you know in support of it all the research trials there's enough integrity behind the research that has been done. And it's in in the literature if enough people take the time to read it that I'm a 100% confident in and it if they should agree you know under the emergency use authorization it Snow more dangerous than any new medication that comes to market. Diabetes pill hypertension pill. You know how it works do we know truly how it works 30 years from now and what it does to the body 30 years from now so that's sort of going to be my approach when talking to patients. We know what covid is we know that it's devastating. You know you can kill you at worst and you know the other long-term effects if you do not pass away from it are significant. So if we have a way to stop it and it's only one part of the puzzle. The vaccine is going to be one big part of that and we need to do our you know our best to educate and really push the community that's as many as we can. >> And let's again thank you for I know last week. It was mentioned by one of the council members. It was on my radar as well because I have grandkids and so. You know if I'm able to take the vaccine and they're not. Do we know when our kids will be able to be vaccinated or in. As far as the happy how we're going to figure out. You know who actually gets to the vaccination right. So currently the confrontations to vaccination so far pregnancy those with it, you know suppressed, you know conditions around you know suppressants. There's just not enough data and these patients were not enrolled in the study and pregnant women often are not wrote in the study the special at the onset kids they are starting to open up the research 2 children I think is more doubt is out there. The thought is that it's it's just as safe as kids in kids as it is in adults, but again we know that kids are not as affected by covid we do not transmitted as much to. Nor do they acquired as much as adults do. So for the time being I think the push is definitely to get it to the those at greatest risk. But I imagine you months into it once things are sort of running smoothly in the vaccine after being distributed and you know we have a the solid grasp on getting it to those in Bill quickly approve it for the use in kids they'll follow shortly thereafter, we're probably looking at you know I imagine 3, 4, 5, months down the road. That's just an estimate. Thank you very much better. Thank you chair. Thank councilmember gather. Thank you and I thank you. Councilman Lisa Wheeler Bowman for bringing up the kids issue because that was definitely one that I had a lot of concern about. >> I was curious and we talked about this last that we want to just I wanted a little bit more information about who we think will be responsible for getting out the vaccinations I think in that. >> Will it be the health Department I mean will they come to hospitals mean how is that going to roll out. The right We have a system called Florida shots and that is our system with which we provide vaccines and its port any provider. It for pediatricians for doctors offices, it's not required. But if you get. Vaccines for children which are the free vaccines from the federal government you have to use that system. So we are asking people to start going into that system requesting covid access because eventually it will be like the flu shot it will be like every other vaccine that you order you go in and you order it and it's directly shipped to you. So initially there's going to be a very tight push and like I said if if they do the today. They're going to start driving vaccine down from the Midwest freezer farms to all the states to pre stage them. So that's why I'm so excited because it could be they could be on the road today because there's so many limited vaccines. One group of vaccines are going to go to Tampa General Hospital in order to sort of Park and wait until everything's ready and then the other ones will be direction depending on where they go so initially it will be hospitals and the Health Department possibly to give up the vaccines until it's opened up, there's a large contingent of vaccine. That's going to go the pharmacy program with cbs an Eckerd attorney and a Kurd dash old. Yes and Walgreens and they're actually going to long-term care facilities. The residents and staff. So they're actually they've been poisoned if any of you use any of pharmacy chains. They've been pushing up messaging saying we want to hire pharmacists and nurses because we need to do this big program so they're going to get a good pitch. So they anticipate maybe 85 million doses in and of themselves to push out to the different long-term care facilities. So initially it's going to be a very tight structure of people they can do it. And then it will eventually open up and that's really my goal we've been working with you know amber and emergency management to talk about what if we have to change the Tropicana site from testing to vaccination you know we've we've talked about those plans. It's possible. It's not difficult to do vaccines in the car. But it's not the big easiest way. So I'm hoping that we can get enough The committee where we can put in doctors offices put it into geriatric facilities put it out there. You know we've even done vaccinations at schools, you know in years past so could we do something like that so can we do it in a parking lot absolutely do we have to if we can get enough out there then we won't need to and there's nothing different really the Pfizer vaccine is a little bit challenging. I'm sure you've heard in the news, it's ultracold you have to reconstitute you can only use it for certain amount of time so that that modeling we have to really have an idea how who were going to vaccinate because if you have a vial of 5 and you have to find have 5 people in the queue. Then the next mile 5 so if you unfreeze a huge tray of them you want to make sure that you have people in line to take them because you don't want to waste them. So initially it's going to be very tight and then it's going to move on to hopefully everybody but the vaccine is no different. You draw it you give it and right now the Pfizer vaccine is 5 doses per vial most vaccines nowadays are single dose. Needles. So there's not no waste. It's there's not a lot of dry and there's not a lot of unfreezing in freezing so it. It's just the manufactures were tasked to get a lot out and it's better to get it out in large parties and large that so I can understand why they did it this way in and it's going to be a little bit tricky at the start but ultimately i think we need to be prepared to have it as part of the regular vaccination program. Now how long it lasts we're not really sure you know we've we've talked about a natural covid immunity lasting for a while but they're not sure you used I've said that we've seen some people be reinfected we're hoping this last a little bit longer, but you know, that's a wait and see what we have to do this every year like flu. We'll wait and see but you know, I'm the flu is a little bit different because it's it changes it mutates could this mutate the spike protein if it mutates it's not going to attach to sell as well. So let's have a new take that to be great, but I don't want to be any stronger so so there's a lot to consider and again we learn every day but yeah my my goal is to get it out to where it needs to be where people can get it and again what will have to consider access to care, that's always been a concern that's why we did some pop-up testing sites with the Urban League we went up the child's Park. If we're going to have to have that in our back pocket to plan because you know not everybody is has a primary care physician, not everybody can can go to the urgent care. I do want to say that the vaccine is free. But doctors offices are allowed to charge an administration fee to insurance. If you don't have insurance you won't be charged, but I just I think people need to understand that because if they see a charge on their bill you know we had that discussion with some testing sites where they charge there insurance and people are concerned so you know it's it's if they're trying to make it as part of the regular process. So I think that's why they're doing that. You know, I'm I'm looking forward to it, I'm excited you amber and I had a great conversation about how the city would would Pickett's people and how they would do the pilot and 2 surveys and I think it's it's great. I think we survey now and amber had a great idea you know ask if they're willing to take it and if not why can we can we get to those barriers can we figure out why you're concerned is it something about you know traditional needles about traditional things and we we talk about the kids we have a lot of children in in our County who are not vaccinated for a lot of reasons and it's really really hard to to make the parents I believe in what we believe so I I I preach in every day and and I hope that it we'll come and people will take the vaccine, but you know it, I'm looking for the people that are on the fence and trying to show them and I think that's why we picked the leaders and not just the health leaders I think we find non-traditional leaders in the community who are willing to step up and say I took it and I'm I'm comfortable with it and I'm still gonna wear my mask because there are people that are respected in the community that sometimes we can't we can't ignore we have to bring them into the fold and say step with us and make sure that that people understand that this is in Port. I definitely agree I think we all do that the more people we get vaccinated the better. And that actually skunk you are looking at my notes the other day when I was watching it roll out in They were talking about they were using their community centers too. You know actually be able to kind of take it to the neighborhoods. So I was wondering if that's something that we've talked about I mean obviously it will be a couple of steps in but have we talked about actually utilizing our community centers and doing like what we did with the pop ups. It's definitely part of the strategies that we're looking at so nothing is set in stone yet we're kind of waiting for the process to evolve and and see. You know how it unfolds in the space one. How we can start you know looking to you know get all of our populations here in the city. It will be a partnership with the way to the county just like we did the pop-up testing sites. It takes a lot of partners to make it happen, but you know one of the big goals is seen of access to care and making sure that those folks and the 100 1%. Yes, we just don't have those set in stone yet because there's still so many moving pieces. And then my last is and maybe you can share if if they're even there yet with having this conversation. >> Since its 2 doses. There's the fear that people won't go back for their So what does the fat Look like to make sure that those people come back in. >> There are vaccines now that have multiple doses and hepatitis b is a great example, it's a threeto series. And it's it's been challenging to get people in on the right schedule and keep them engaged. The good news is the efficacy of the first dose from Pfizer for what we scene could be up to 85%. But we want them to finish. So that the Florida shot system is being poised to do. A reminder recalls so it reminds people that they're due for their shot and for Pfizer it's 21 days plus or-5, so we can get him a little bit earlier a little bit late. There's no good data about what happens if they don't take it and they want to take it 6 months later we're not there yet but I would in traditional vaccinations like chicken pox and whatnot we just give them the second dose when they can come. The other issue that we've discussed is once the market has more than one vaccine. How do we ensure that people take the right vaccine and that's going to be a challenge and what I suspect May happen is depending on what the clinic is doing what shot we're going to check in the system for the first dose to ensure they've gotten which one and we May have to turn people away and say you know you need to go to this place because the Moderna is here and the Pfizer is here so it's it's going to be tricky there's not this is never been a case where we've had multiple vaccines for a single you know. The flu shot is is. The flu shot can have different manufacturers but the stranger, the same because they decide that the year before and then they have to grow it and then they have to produce it and it's a very long process which is why you you haven't seen a course correction with the flu. So when you've heard flu shots sometimes or 40% effective or 60% effective. It depends on which of the strains that they've chosen the year before so and by the time the manufacture it there's no way to turn around so this mrna this technology is really exciting because they're even talking about using this for cancer. You know you can actually take the strain and in teacher cells to recognize these proteins and then to train your immune system to find these proteins so it's it's incredible. Yeah, it's we're in the future that Well thank you, thank you for all your hard work thank you amber and doctor w it's great seeing you guys in person. Thank you chair. Thank thank you. So I I've got just a couple questions. So you you mention if they Pfizer vaccine gets approved today. That May be a 174,000 doses would be sent next week to Florida. Which seems like a very in the low amount do you have any other information like how quickly other. You know the vaccine is would be coming. Others there's been a schedule they've been releasing what they believe Florida will be getting a different weeks if Moderna who's on a week behind Pfizer it's approved then they'll be about 374,000 coming that next week. So there's another batch and there's no millions of doses that they're planning week by week. But it's just a matter of once everything gets approved and how we're going to start pushing this out and then the real work of figuring out the populations how we're going to target first and how we get everybody involved so. There we had some discussions about part of the target group or those with co-morbidities or you know diabetes and all these things. Well traditionally we don't ask people when they're getting a vaccine hey you have to have diabetes or hypertension or anything and to get to work. I suspect we're not going to ask people for their co-morbidities we're just going to give it out as matter of trust because the more we give out the better it would be and then there are a lot of folks in our community with a lot of comorbidities doctor Jamison always reminds me, you know people don't think about their hypertension because it's controlled so they don't say oh I have hypertension because their blood pressures find because they take a pill every day so we need to think about all those things that are important and I think it would be easy for us to push the 65 and older group we've talked about going to places like the main lanes and mobile home parks and all these things because there's transportation issues for that group as well so there's a lot of of nuances of how we're going to push this so I think with emergency management and all the cities we're going to have to figure out who goes next and then who goes next you know, everybody is really important. You know. The interesting thing about covid as we've seen how important all of our all of our our workers can be utilities how incredibly important there. You know there's so many important groups for so many different reasons. It's it's really it's a struggle to be able to pick and I think I agree with with the if you get that the the challenge with what we don't have anything for kids but we have the adults so it's the marketing and the management of letting people know that we're going to get there. It's just going to take a while and I think that's the important part is I know that a lot of people I know a lot of different and friends and family members that have been shuttered in their home for 4 months now, and they need they need rest and I think getting the elderly population this vaccine as soon as we can could bring some normalcy to them and let them live their lives. But yeah, it's it's it's going to be a challenge. I think with messaging as much as we can and letting people know that we really really we really want everybody to get it as fast as we can, but we only have so much in the past. Ok good. Thank So when when. Like what sort of course the cut off is there. You know is that 1618. Right now they did not have enough under 16 to make that a safety Cho They're adding the 16 year-old is now in you know, then they're going had women who are pregnant they have to slowly add them and get them in enough population that they believe the safety data is there. And you know for this particular this these tests they have to let people get the disease. So they either get the vaccine or the placebo and they have to wait for them to maybe get the vaccine or not there the disease or not so you know that's not an easy process as well and as we go forward you May have heard that in the uk there were 2 instances of adverse reactions for somebody who had and if lactic issues so they already had allergic reaction issues. They had an allergic reaction. They have resolved since then but now we want to ask the question of folks do you have allergy issues and give them the the choice where they will still get the vaccine. >> There's there's there's a lot of lot of lot of questions and I appreciate you you being here and doctor one of which an in Austin thank thank you for being here to answer some of them council member you're you're up next. Thank you very much chair, and yes, thank you so much for all the information that has been very very enlightening in. We have had to search around on loan from budget conflicting. Opinions I really appreciate this just one quick question was. You mentioned. People getting I guess you're saying I didn't understand it was. If you're in your follow-up or not but getting the right vaccine is it kind of just you take what you can get or with certain people be looking to get a certain brand or what would be the status of that. Well each will have its it's population with which we can vaccinate so like you said right now, nobody nobody under 16 can get any the vaccines cause it's not approved. And its emergency use so it's it's a quick process. For if we target the long-term care facilities and the people over 65 we're going to give them as much as we can as fast as we can whether it's Pfizer Moderna but we can't give them Pfizer and Moderna we have to give them Moderna and there's different schedules so Pfizer's within 21 days. Then the during his 28 so Ike can guarantee people will get confused. So we will have to be the subject matter expert and make sure that they understand so we've even talked about a simple either a qr code or color or something they will get a vaccine car you know that's a traditional process that we do we say, here's your card within 21 days we write the date so they know the actual date that they're supposed to come back and then give them a reminder recall. You're right if we were to run out of the Pfizer then what we do so these are the that really sticky notes is that we're going to have to figure. So you're basically. Talking about cross those in the supposed to targeting from the first shot one of the other. Well we're going to tell you what we have yes, so if we get you know the 134,000 Pfizer and then we get the modern at the same time we have Pfizer left over I think we're just going to start pushing out as much as we can have seen that the efficacy of both have been very great. I think in phase 3 will have the luxury of picking which one we want which would be nice because then you can say oh I think I'll take this one or this one because they are different. Technology so the ones that we've talked about the Pfizer Moderna or the mrna there are others that are different technologies that are going to be different vaccines and May have different issues with them. So you know there's I think people need to read as much as they can ask their physician or ask medical advice about that because there could be different new once that us are approved. There could be different things like ok, this particular population should not take this vaccine. Thank you very much Ed shake your hand but that's frowned upon thank you again for the information that I do have just 1, 1, more questions or walk in clinic. This does So he's like our working clinic to they need like a special freezer to store this vaccine. If if the. Pfizer vaccine is the one that we're getting is a special freezer that has to be -80 degrees Celsius along this really really low. So there are locations in the community that have those ok and so the vaccine can be placed there, however Pfizer has a proprietary transportation box that they've created that uses dry ice and a mechanism with which it monitors the temperature that it can last for up to 5 days by itself so you can receive the bucks and you can use it for 5 days, so that's a lot of the logistics that we're talking through about how to work that the Moderna is not that complicated so we're looking forward to the Moderna because it's going to be just like the regular vaccine. All that seems have to be kept in temperature and they have to be monitored. So that's the good news is that all Texans have already gone to these process, but the Pfizer is very tricky in. There's a lot of components that we have to consider so we but every vaccine that we have regardless of the type you have to monitor cold chain so you have to take temperatures you have to document it because if there's a variance of temperature you have to throw it away. >> Thank you again for coming in and answering our questions. I don't see other council requesting to speak. Thank thank Doctor Debbie thank you Austin thank you amber for for for being in today and where we are. We'll right around the corner. Thank you thank you so much. The council will now take up the East 6. Which is a resolution accepting. $0.2 million Every mayor do we That you want to speak on this Sir. Mister Green. They're happy to return to. And for its and Penn oriana Pollard as well as the deputy mayor and mayor and I have all been participating in this. But I'm going to turn it over to Anand might have I might come back with some summation comments. Nice to see you all again. >> In front of you today a joint effort that has been the wide relating Eligible expenditures could be reimbursable depending on awards available throughout the county. So this is the actual agreement with the county that sets forth the terms and conditions. Eligibility amounts for the city. Based upon our kind of estimates that we're having you know we have eligible cares act expenses that are that are above the amount that the has been allocated to this to the city. You I would expect that everybody in every business. You know what in the world has care that eligible expenses that could be reimbursable under some program they're never going to get recovery for. A national crisis so it's not going to be like a hurricane where we contract and be able to get a 100% reimbursement or even anything close to that. So however we have been tracking quite a bit and we have been tracking for both fema eligible expenditures have their own specific criteria. As well as tracking what could be eligible under cares that if we were so awarded that so. Actually allows the agreement. Right now the count. The the limit is up around $3.2 million. You know if there was any change in that coming. The resolution would support that. I could be then changed if that is done so by the county. Open for any questions and we also have. Involved in this whole process as well. Tremendous amount of criterion documentation required. >> And can Tell us where the funds will be going if this resolution passes what what part of the budget. >> You know certainly we want to prioritize everything public safety is kind of been our priority and tracking to make sure that we're tracking those you know anything related specifically to covid so it would go back then to the general fund as a reimbursement because some of these copies cost have already incurred some of them in last fiscal year. That have eligibility so again depended on the award criteria and and then you know and then the determination of the prioritization of public safety that would most probably be then general fund. >> It got to the general fund of fund balance, okay. Entertain a motion to approve the resolution that's before us move approval. Second we have a motion in a second to approve the resolution before us to Just over million from Pinellas County for reimbursement of Corona, the coronavirus virus. Mister Kirk do we have cards on this item. Seeing no further request to speak with the clerk please open machine for voting. Council members please cast your vote and saying oh. Thing all council members have voted with the clerk please tally and announce the vote. The motion to approve it again. The final item on the covid. 19 update f >> Public a virtual participation council member Kapur. Thank you So I brought this item forward on adds and deletes after a council meeting last There was quite a bit and I'm sure several of you probably saw it as well. Conversation going around on social media and I had been reached out to by individuals that were concerned in a time of covid You know cases rising and people wanting to be able to participate in public comment. Not only during open forum but also on items why we as the city we're not allowing any sort of hybrid participation option. That's the question that was posed and frankly I did not have a good answer for it. You know, I'm a board member for forward Pinellas and we have a hybrid system where we allow public participation and it works very very well it's a very seamless process there I know that the city of largo has also been doing the same I'm not sure about our other municipalities we have the technology. We were up until this week allowing staff to do it so that was another concern that had come with the public and I know that that's not based upon direction of staff but I wanted just to bring this forward so that we could have a conversation about if you're on the dias it's my intention always with everything that we do that we get as much opportunity for public input and that the democratic process can work. The way that it should I don't want people sitting at home feeling afraid to come out and speak to us because they're afraid of getting covid we have the technology we have the ability. I've had several conversations with deputy mayor about it she's been very open and very forthright that you know, yes they the technology exists we put it in place. It's really the will of this body as to whether or not we allow that and what that looks like. Recognizing that we would have to set very clear expectations for the public. I want to bring it up I thought that it warranted conversation and we owe it to our community provide as much opportunity for access to us while keeping them safe is passed. Leave my comments there because I would love to hear how everyone else bills. >> Council members anybody else have any comments. >> I like to know from legal what what our. What our choices are and you know what kind of flexibility we have. You know there's open forum and there's public hearings. There's you know an opportunity at the end of the meeting as I wasn't sure of public hearings a different standard. For in person requirements. But if you could just refresh my memory on what what what our legal guidelines are. >> Well I'm fully in support of this I think anything that we can do to. Public participation each year to. Make it more available and more accessible on for people to participate I think that's absolutely the right direction to go in. You know, I'd be open minded to looking at how that's something that we could accommodate regardless of the pandemic pandemic situation. So I I'm totally in support of you having more of this conversation. Come councilmember Foster. I I just one share my support of my colleagues, this is something that other. Municipalities have done for a long time, it's something I brought up early in my tenure and at the time the technology wasn't where it needed to be for that to happen seamlessly I think it's one of the silver linings of covid that. >> We've been forced to figure out how to make things work better remotely even though there are technological challenges and I think any time we can have more public participation it is better for the decisions that we make so I would support this and would make a motion that we come up with a plan to. >> Thank you we have a motion on the And a second councilmember cafferty oh wait until any other council member that has an spoke. Ok thank you councilmember plakon I just want say also I agree with council member Gabbert that any measure of public participation that we can. Bring to the table and import is always good for decision making process which i moving into next year might also be an interesting time to revisit the idea of a facebook live. Motion I presented and having more public input for 4 different issues so I agree more public participation is great for the democratic process and like tofu revisit that. On in this vein, come the new year. >> Let me just say when we over the course of this year as we went through different parts of the year we weren't sure if the governor was going to extend his. Executive order in allow virtual public meetings. So as the year went on I would have these conversations with the administration and with legal illegals. Initial take was if. Council was in person than the public should be in person so when we when we finally got to the point where we didn't have the. The governor did not extend his a good executive order to allow virtual meetings. It seemed to me like a good time to go ahead and if we're going to meet in person the public should be here in person. With us. And that's kind of the logic that I used. We still are having some technology issues we just had one last week with a staff member and we've had some technology issues with. Also they May not have a. Updated version of zoom that seemed to be compatible and Chan would have to make you know some sort of. Like bring them up to a panelist there was always some some little thing so it does seem to me to be like a. Clear point in time to go ahead and make the transition and if Council was meeting in person, the public good could meet in person. As someone that has sent through a lot of meetings before I came on City Council I think that your task force was probably the the one where we had slick 61 meetings and we had a whole lot of public him input. I'm on board with the having as much public input is possible. The thing that I I try to think about is getting our work done efficiently and not getting bogged down with technology type problems they they tend to slow or business down and they tend to be somewhat frustrating so. That's something I think needs to be kind of thrown into this conversation and if we do decide to move forward and allow the public to participate virtually. I think that would be a a conversation the chair we have with administration on how we go about doing something like that so that it can be. Is clean and that is fish and in as efficient as possible. Let me stop right there council member gathered next. 2 other people who haven't spoke here. Okay, let's go next to a vice chair just come. >> Thank you What about other public meetings are is dear c c d c Siri any of doing virtual as part of their public comment or are all of our public meetings. At this time including in person, public participation only. >> Is that a quiz is a question for me, I mean the the suggestion that there May be a situation the city clerk's office might know so that the meetings. I can what's the question. How are other public meetings being conducted in our city. Our other boards and committees. They're being is it consistent. Everyone is doing the in person public commenters are are any of those meetings allowing for virtual public comment. In person public comments and for a for make these changes would have to this change. I I think it should be across the board so we have a consistent policy. So I'm wondering what that means for those other meetings. I can speak to that a bit I mean I do think that's a philosophical or prerogative of the way we decide I don't know that one dictates all of them. I have had the chance to contemplate. Burden on staff to facilitate virtual comment at every Council meeting at every point in which the public has a chance to speak and that is something we our prepared to take on we figure out how to do that I'd like to think about and look at the schedule and talked to staff about the number of meetings that are involved with public comment to have a more comprehensive understanding of what it would mean to facilitate that for every public meeting. I don't have a conclusive answer position on that. I haven't had a chance to contemplate that. But it will be even if we just do it here will be additional responsibility for staff we would need to transfer that from Chan's scope into I t operational eyes it permanently certainly something that we can do both offically agree with the idea of access. I would just have to work through that one thing that also want to be sure to work through. To the expectations of mutual agreement of Council is how the order of public comment would happen as early as to who showed up here dialed in and how and when that would be address to make sure that everybody's on the same page with that particularly the public as it relates to who would be called on when and how so there's some logistics around it's not something we can just flip a switch and say next week let's do public comment. Although this is the last meeting of the year. Okay, but we still need time to work on it. Thank you. >> that the mayor kind of talked about a couple of the things I wanted to follow up with was that prioritization of if if I choose to stay home and I'm on the call but there are people who physically came into the space. What is that prioritization i mean certainly at a conversation talking about that in the deputy mayor recognizing that there will be some conversation that you as the chair will need to have with staff about that and that will be something that you know the public will have to understand that we have to create rules around. So that was something that I did want to kind of talk about and then the other thing I just wanted to bring up for consideration of this body something that we had talked Jackie and I regarding an end date for to you know will this go on forever even after covid is over. I don't know if that's something that we as a body want to discuss today. There is a movement if you have not heard about it forward Pinellas has been engaging in the conversation Florida League of cities is looking at making part of their legislative agenda this year. Being able to have these hybrid type meetings going forward even after coven I don't know if the Legislature will take that up or not but it is something that is becoming more of a movement. Now that we've kind of lived in this world for almost a year now and we see what technology can do. I just want to kind of put that on everyone's radar that. Well we May want to look at there being an end date that maybe corresponds with the emergency order that we're currently under the executive order for covid 19 that that could change going down the road if the Legislature sees fit. We have that ability for everyone. So I want of credit for those things out there as well for conversation. Thank you councilmember Blackmon. Councilmember Gabbert I think is psychic because I want to ask about a sunset before this and basically has been wondering what the other municipalities and bodies that she referenced if they if she knew what protocol was but what what I guess I would I would say from my personal feeling is I'd be comfortable supporting the hybrid as long as we're under a state of emergency. I really don't want to go, you know beyond that right scope right now. But yeah I'd be supportive while we're still under a local state of emergency. That's how I would feel also. I could see doing it under the state of emergency but then I would like to get back to. Have a motion in a second on the floor. Can the maker