Title
Phased Reopening City Services
Description
Request authorization for the City Manager, or his designee, to reopen outdoor city facilities and activities in a structured design to serve the public as part of a Phase II plan based on achieving the moderate community spread designation as reported by the Arizona Department of Health Services Community Spread Benchmarks. Phase II B is recommended for consideration after the AZDHS Community Spread Benchmarks is at or below the current figure of 29.26 for two consecutive weeks (Attachment A).
Report
Summary
Many City services and facilities have been functioning in Phase I for the past several months. Part of the focus of the internal COVID Response Team is to monitor the status of the community spread indicators. For purposes of this discussion the City of Phoenix is serving the public while navigating:
Substantial Risk
- Greater than 100 cases/100K
- Greater than 10% positivity
- Greater than 10% COVID-like illness
Moderate Risk
- 10-100 cases/100k
- 5 - 10% positivity
- 5 - 10% COVID-like illness
Minimal Risk
- Less than 10 cases per/100K
- Less than 5% positivity
- Less than 5% COVID-like illness
These categories are part of the community spread benchmarks provided by the Arizona Department of Heath Services. To date nearly everything that has been done to serve the public has taken place while the community has been at the substantial risk level.
Experts have told us that there is no such thing as being 100 percent risk free. What staff has done in light of that is to insert measures and practices to make things as safe as possible both for city employees and the public.
Those precautionary steps included employees working differently including teleworking where feasible, and restricted access service delivery in many City facilities. During this time we have also taken steps to support City workers who have been anxious about performing their duties in the midst of the risk. Support has included frequent communications aimed at reporting pertinent information and regular interactions with labor groups to address employee concerns.
Recent Experience
In recent weeks we have seen conditions improve to the point where we are now operating within the Moderate Risk category. The community has been hovering around that range for the past several weeks. That welcomed level of progress has led us to consider a partial restoration of the service delivery that was suspended or altered during the early stages of the pandemic. On September 2, the City Council began this restoration by reopening parks fields and associated restrooms with COVID prevention plans in place by users.
Transitioning from what has been the City's Phase I or current state to the next step or Phase II means different things for our impacted departments. Because the types of services or activities within departments varies widely they were asked to prepare plans that detail the specific set of services or activities they would feel comfortable undertaking now that the level of community spread has decreased.
The departments bringing forth plans include Parks and Recreation, Library, Housing, Human Services, Public Works, Convention Center, Public Transit, Municipal Court, and internally focused areas like Council Chamber and Human Resources. These plans have been shared with our public health advisors, COVID-19 Recovery Advisors. Their review with individual department plans is ongoing. Their advice may cause a department to adjust how they might seek to perform a function. The consultative advice is designed to mitigate risks, but the consultants have been consistent in advising us that mitigated risk does not mean eliminated risk.
Phase II A - Outdoor Parks Facilities, Moderate Spread
The first action for consideration comes from the Parks and Recreation Department. The focus of their proposal is centered on outdoor activities during a period of moderate community spread. Specifically they include:
- Flatland Park Restrooms
- Ramadas
- Picnic Tables
- Basketball Courts
- Volleyball Courts
- Sports Complexes
- Playgrounds
- Outdoor Fitness Equipment
- Outdoor Ranger Programming
- PHX Plays
- Outdoor Parks Programs
- Special Events
* It should be understood that if the penetration of community spread worsens it may be necessary to revisit the resumed activities.
The recommendation to resume these activities was presented to the Parks and Recreation Board on September 23, 2020. During the meeting the Board approved reopening all outdoor park amenities in flatland parks. As part of that approval the Parks and Recreation Board stated its belief that opening and closing of parks is within the jurisdiction of the Board under the City Charter, but understands there may be extraordinary times where there may be an exception to this authority. The Parks and Recreation Board further request the City Council have the Board Chair designate a representative for joint dialogue and collaboration with respect to opening and closing (of parks amenities) outside of regular purview of the Parks and Recreation Board. This motion passed 7-0.
Staff recommends ratification of the action of the Parks and Recreation Board.
Phase II B - Indoor Facilities, Moderate Spread
Phase II A is centered around service delivery changes that will occur outdoors. Phase II B represents various activities or service delivery approaches that will take place indoors during a period of moderate community spread. Phase II B is recommended for consideration after the AZDHS Community Spread Benchmarks is at or below the current figure of 29.26 for two consecutive weeks (Attachment A). Again these changes are manifested within departments in different ways based on the way that they do business. These plans are being submitted to our public health advisors for review and consultation.
Library
During Phase I the Library devised a way to serve the public even though all branches were closed to public access. That included a set of virtual, online, and services delivered outdoors in a drive through manner.
Recognizing that a risk is still present but taking steps to mitigate it the Library is proposing a limited set of indoor offerings. They include: (Attachment B).
- Computer and Internet access with time and occupancy limits.
- Collection browsing with time and occupancy limits.
- PC Printing, scanning, and copier service.
- Self-service checkout kiosks.
- Grab and Go service, including: holds, book and media bundles, new and best pick browsing.
- Issuance of new and replacement Library cards.
- Continued Service of Phase I
o Morning Curbside service 8:30-10:30
o Kids Café service 8:30-5:00
o Mobile Printing 8:30-5:00
In order to access the computer and internet service patrons can call the Library call center to receive a time block or they can schedule it at the door if they are a walk up client.
Housing
During Phase I the Housing Department has not been holding any in-person group meetings with their constituents. The facilities they typically use have been closed. As part of Phase II B the department would start the reopening process by using facilities for various limited indoor activities. They are proposing:
- Resume regular maintenance.
- Conduct group meetings of less than 50 at community centers.
- Conduct relocation meetings with less than 15 people.
- Conduct caseworkers visits by having the staff person visit with people at the door only.
- Conduct employee meetings and training with less than 15 employees.
Human Services
Human Services prepared to move to a limited set of activities indoors. If granted approval:
- Family Service Centers will serve the public by providing in-person appointments but limiting the number of persons to 10 at any one time.
- Head Start home visits remain virtual through December 2020.
- Senior Programs will continue in a virtual manner.
Convention Center
Under Phase II B Convention Center seeks to proactively market that the facility could potentially be leased up to 40 percent of capacity. This potential utilization would be based on physically distanced room sets the staff has prepared. Per the Governor's Executive Order the staff would still need to bring any clients desiring to hold an event in excess of 50 people to staff Special Event Committee, including our public health consultants.
Municipal Court
The Courts follow direction from the Supreme Court and therefore have resumed jury trials. The City public health consultant visited the Court and provided guidance on the best options for reintroducing jurors. Jury trials have now resumed.
Public Transit
Public Transit working with Valley Metro adjusted routes, frequency, and hours due to reduced business demand. During the previous government ordered shutdown far fewer people were taking trips. As businesses, schools, and other organizations increase their operations future demand will drive service restoration. They are specifically examining data from the average weekly traffic volume, and customer data derived from a survey.
|
|
Current limit |
Phase II limit |
|
Circulator |
5 passengers |
10 passengers |
|
40’ bus |
10 passengers |
18 passengers |
|
60’ bus |
15 passengers |
30 passengers |
Front door boardings and fare payments will need to be revisited in Phase III.
Council Chambers
Staff recommends the Chambers continue to be operated in the current manner utilizing WebEx for the remainder of 2020. Retrofit of the Chambers will be ongoing this fall, to allow for safe distancing of public, staff and council members in 2021.
Staff will return to Council for approval of subsequent phases of reopening when health measures indicate advancement is feasible.
General City Services
During Phase I, general City services such as development and permit review, police and fire, streets, water and other direct public services continued. Some, such as planning and development services, were adjusted for reduced access to City facilities and appropriate social distancing. In fact, Planning and Development Department staff went to a hybrid customer service model that includes in-person construction projects inspections (with social distancing requirements), virtual services and appointment only in-person meetings. The workload has remained high for the Department due to strong construction activity. Typically, the Department averages about 1,300 plans in for review at any one time, currently the Department has 1,751 plans in for review. The Department maintains a high-level of customer service with 87 percent of recent survey respondents saying they experienced “quality customer service” on their most recent visit, this slightly higher than pre-pandemic numbers. Development industry professionals are also reporting increased efficiencies and better customer service experience because they can schedule appointments versus having to wait in line at a customer service counter and significant efficiencies in time management due to the availability of virtual project meetings instead of the development team meeting with the city review team in-person at City Hall. The growth in virtual services has been exceptional, with 79 pecent of all plan reviews now being submitted in an electronic format versus 14 percent pre-pandemic. This helps the private sector eliminate unnecessary delivery costs and time spent filling plans with the City and paying for review fees.
As the City moves to Phase II, the City Manager will assess how to maintain efficiencies from increased on-line and by-appointment services, and begin moving toward hybrid telework/in-person work as facility retrofits allow. City Hall By Appointment will also continue.
Phase III - Further open indoor activities, Minimal Spread
As mentioned previously staff would seek Council approval before transitioning to Phase III activities based on moving to minimal community spread. Phase III activities would consist of further expanding the service delivery of the affected departments. In this phase even more employees who are teleworking would be asked to return to their regular work location. All precautionary steps would remain in place as the transition occurs.
Library
The Phase III expansion will consist of returning to normal service hours and days of closure, expanded seating for study and personal device use as well as all previous services at 50 percent of building occupancy. In an effort to promote the safest environment possible for both customers and staff the Phoenix Public Library has chosen to utilize the indoor theater model based on the dashboard to reopen Arizona schools and businesses found on AZDHS publications. In doing so the statistics must remain within the “Minimal Community Spread” Criteria (Attachment A).
Additionally, appropriate staffing will always be a key component to safety. In order to safely staff each branch to effectively expand to Phase III the employee vacancy rate should be reduced from 21 percent to 12 percent as well as a reduction in the employee leave rate from 32 percent to 15 percent. Furthermore, the implementation of the Phase III expansion will be executed considering the following.
- Health shields at all staff service desks and customer computer workstations to remain in place.
- Installation of health shields at select desks for study and/or personal device use.
- Socially distant service lines for Grab and Go as well as Account and Library Card management.
- Daily on-site custodial staff to disinfect frequently touched surfaces and restrooms throughout the day.
- Abundant availability of disinfectant wipes, hand sanitizer, and disposable masks for customers and staff.
- Lounge furniture to remain unavailable to promote a sanitary environment and prevent loitering.
- Continued temporary bag policy limiting one backpack per person.
Parks and Recreation
Reopening of community/recreation centers including classes and programs would occur during this phase.
Pools and splash pads would not be considered for reopening until May of 2021 and only after review of the Parks and Recreation Board.
Human Services
The operation of various departmental programs would need to be evaluated to ensure maximum mitigation of risk but potential programs include:
- Business and Workforce Development
- Family Service Centers
- Caseworker home visits for welfare checks.
- Home visits of Head Start Home Based.
- Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program
- Landlord and Tenant Program
In-person senior programs are not recommended to resume until allowing Minimal Community Spread and a widely distributed vaccine.
Neighborhood Services
Consideration of in-person meetings.
The threshold of reaching the closest approximation of pre-COVID like operating levels will not occur until a vaccine is readily available for the general population. Until then there are a set of operating protocols we propose to leave in place.
- Social distancing in elevators, conference rooms, enclosed spaces.
- Plexiglass dividers.
- High touch cleaning.
- Use of PPE.
- Personal appointments only in the downtown campus and environments where vulnerable populations frequent.
- Strategic teleworking.
- COVID related signage.
- Continued voluntary COVID-19 testing of employees.
- Frequent cleaning of restroom facilities.
- Continue to use and add touchless faucets where possible.
Department
Responsible Department
This item is submitted by Assistant City Manager Milton Dohoney, Jr. and the City Manager's Office.