City of South Lake Tahoe special meeting to request Governor Newsom allow a phased reopening

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - City Council will hold a special meeting on Wednesday, May 6 at 9:00 a.m. with a single agenda item: Authorization of a letter signed by Mayor Jason Collin to California Governor Gavin Newsom to request approval for the City of South Lake Tahoe for its transition to Phase 2 of re-opening the County of El Dorado and City of South Lake Tahoe for individuals and businesses.

El Dorado County Board of Supervisors and the City of Placerville have both sent similar letters. Both of them asked for Newsome to respond by May 8, just as the City's letter would. Modoc, Yuba, and Sutter counties have started to reopen, defying the governor's stay-at-home order.

Discussions with El Dorado County supervisors began on Monday to best coordinate a

joint reopening of the basin. Both Barton Hospital in South Lake Tahoe and Marshall Hospital in Placerville have also been part of the reopening plans.

The proposed letter that will be discussed and voted on:

Dear Governor Newsom:
As we are all aware, over the past few weeks the residents of California have done an outstanding job in slowing the spread of COVID-19. While those actions were absolutely necessary, we believe that the actions taken by El Dorado County have put us in a position to begin reopening our economy safely and we are requesting your permission to do so.

Since the beginning of this crisis, the City and El Dorado County took a community-wide approach to preventing the spread of COVID-19. Working in partnership with the County, including the Public Health Officer and Sheriff’s Office, education, Barton Hospital, non-profits and business community, we put systems in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Enclosed for your review are documents summarizing these efforts (Community Resources/Workgroup Status Report).

To date, the County and cities have been successful in preventing the spread of the virus as evidenced by having a total of 42 confirmed cases, with only five active cases at this time and only 2.4 percent of all tests (>1700) being positive. In addition, over the past 14 days the number of active cases has remained flat.

The efforts we have jointly taken are consistent with your six indicators, including proactive efforts to protect vulnerable populations such as our older adults and homeless, our hospitals are confident they have systems in place to handle surges, and collaborative discussions between our Public Health Department and school and child care facilities will continue into the next school year. With the assistance of your office, beginning in early May, El Dorado County’s testing capacity will increase to approximately 300 tests per day. Based on our population, this number of tests is proportionally consistent with your goal of conducting 60,000–80,000 tests per day statewide.

Based on the overall rural nature of our county and the collaborative efforts of the partners identified above, we believe the greatest risk of COVID-19 will occur when statewide travel orders are lifted, and tourists resume traveling to our region. However, this is not a reason to prevent our business from reopening in a safe manner based on direction and guidance from our Public Health Officer. Those guiding documents are also enclosed for your review (Reopening Guidelines).

While implementing the stay-at-home requirements in the County and City of South
Lake Tahoe were necessary, we also recognize the significant financial impact this is now placing on our entire community, especially our small business owners. Due to the efforts taken by the City and our county, we have clearly demonstrated the ability to protect our residents from COVID-19 and we are requesting your approval to allow for the limited, phased reopening of our economy that allows for the eventual safe return of El Dorado County to normal operations and activities in a safe manner, as well as the ability of the Health Officer to immediately reinstate more restrictive guidelines if City and El Dorado County begins to see an increase in the number of positive cases beyond what our local health system can handle.

Upon approving this phased approach, the following requirements will be put into place for the next phase:

Individuals
 Anyone who is feeling ill should stay home and isolate from others, seeking
medical care if necessary.
 Everyone should continue following physical distancing, hand and surface
sanitization, covering coughs and sneezes, and face-covering guidelines.
 Vulnerable (high risk) individuals should continue to stay at home.
Individuals and Groups
 Gatherings of people from different households where social distancing can not
be accommodated should be avoided.
 Visits to vulnerable individuals in congregate settings limited to essential visits only.
 Non-essential travel is not allowed.

Work and Business
 All workplaces to have policies to ensure that sick employees do not come to
work and that they go home immediately if they become ill at work.
 Use of all spaces to be limited in occupancy at all times to meet the 6-foot
distancing requirements.
 Other non-pharmaceutical interventions shall be applied as applicable (hand and
surface sanitation, use of face coverings, etc.) per State guidance.
 Protection and accommodations should be provided to employees who are high
risk for COVID-19.
 Businesses eligible to operate are encouraged to limit the number of staff and
clients in the building at a given time such that physical distancing and sanitation requirements can be maintained in accordance with all guidelines and
regulations.
 Operation of nonessential businesses that can maintain physical distance
through the entire transaction, that are non-contact related is permitted.
 Guidelines for decreasing the opportunity for spread of COVID-19 include:
- - - Encouraging local businesses to use phone and electronic ordering in lieu
of in-store shopping.
- - - Offering curbside pick-up/home delivery of goods. o Marking floors and
seating to encourage 6-foot spacing between people (customers,
employees, others).
- - - Allowing limited numbers of people into business at any given time – using
standards for maximum customers.
- - - Establishing appointment systems and staggering appointment times.

Outdoor Recreation
 Acceptable to the extent allowed by the State’s order.
 Physical distancing required.
 Equipment/surfaces handled/touched by different people to be sanitized between
users.
 Should occur near the participant’s place of residence; travel outside one’s own
community for recreation is discouraged.

We thank you for your consideration of our request to reopen the economy in El Dorado County under local orders which are developed in concurrence with the County Public Health Officer, and support of the CEOs of the two hospitals and the two incorporated Cities, Placerville and South Lake Tahoe.

Sincerely,
Jason Collin, Mayor
City of South Lake Tahoe

The agenda and instructions on how to participate can be found here - https://docs.google.com/gview?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgranicus_production_attachments.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fs....