Board of Aldermen 03-16-2020 Page 36
Director Kates
So | just want to add two items to that as well. So one of the things as part of the exercise where we
determine those essential employees is we also looked for opportunities to streamline the unique
operations that we are going to be working under. So as an example, Purchasing; instead of having
Division/Department being able to start a requisition and go through a process which they would need
access to Citrix for, we are actually going to set it up so that everything goes to Purchasing and they
are able to process that. So it is now only one license for that. Same thing for payroll, we are looking
to have payroll set up so there is only need for Kronos access. What will end up happening are
exceptions people doing overtime because they are involved in the disaster work. They would all
process that through that central mailbox and get it done that way. So that has been one thing we
have tried to do to limit that.
The other thing | think is important to note about the document that is front of you is about our ability to
leverage employees related to other types of disaster activities. So my number one concern is that
while we might be dealing with biddy basketball, we could be in need, great need of City employees to
take some sort of a part of disaster roles. So we want to have the ability to provide remote access if
we get to circumstances where those employees are doing weird things that they wouldn’t normally do.
Alderman Caron
Ok thank you, | appreciate that.
Alderwoman Lu
Thank you. | have a couple questions about — first of all, regarding meetings of the four Boards that
were mentioned. | wonder if there are ways of adapting to this situation where we can still meet but we
support the social distancing. My thoughts are you know, | don’t know how many of these four get
frequent visitors, | don’t go to all of them. The Board of Aldermen, unless it’s a public meeting, it is
frequently just minimally visited. And for cases like the ZBA, maybe holding more meetings with each
meeting involving only one case.
Now, the reason | am thinking this way is, am | right, it is my understanding that although we want to
flatten the curve, the nature of this is we are not going to reduce the number of illnesses or the rate of
infection but we make it more bearable for the resources to be able to handle it. So because | heard
that | am under the impression that we aren’t not going to — just really decreasing or increasing social
distancing, generally in the City is our goal. But we don’t have to eliminate every meeting. So | don’t
know if | understand that right.
But the other thing | wonder if | understand correctly is that the exposure or that it is carried by people
but after two days on a surface, | thought | had read something about how long it survives on the
surface. And for that reason | am curious why everything has to be deep cleaned. I’m not against that
but | know that’s a large expense and | recall having read that there is a certain life ability to survive on
a surface. And if the schools are all going to be closed for two weeks, do we really expect there to be a
risk after two weeks of no one being in the schools? Thank you.
President Wilshire
Bobbie do you want to address that.
