Jessica Cejnar / Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2020 @ 9:55 a.m. / COVID-19, Emergencies
Crescent City Closes Offices To Walk-ins Through Jan. 4, Urges Public To Do Business Remotely Or By Appointment Due To COVID-19 Surge
Crescent City will return to operations consistent with the early days of the pandemic, encouraging the public to conduct business online or by phone, though staff will be available by appointment if necessary.
The City Council’s unanimous decision Tuesday follows a surge in COVID-19 cases that has landed Del Norte County into the most restrictive purple tier under California’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy. This tier indicates widespread risk of viral transmission following a somewhat quiet summer and fall, according to Dr. Warren Rehwaldt.
“I think we were walled a little bit in Del Norte and most of the rest of Northern California,” Del Norte’s public health officer told Councilors. “I think it’s our turn now along with everyone else.”
Crescent City offices will be closed to public walk-ins starting
Monday through Jan. 4. Councilors will likely revisit their decision on Dec. 21, deciding whether it’s safe to reopen or if the closure should extend beyond the holidays, City Manager Eric Wier said.
Del Norte’s position in the most restrictive of the four tiers on California’s Blueprint means most businesses have to move outdoors, an impractical concept for November, Rehwaldt noted. But the designation “carries the force of law from the State of California,” he said, everyone has to follow those guidelines.
“If (businesses) have to close or have to move outside, we expect them to do so,” Rehwaldt said. “Hopefully it won’t stay here, but a lot depends on the entire community and how much better we can do because right now we’re not doing the best job that we can.”
Courtesy of covid19.ca.gov
Del Norte County is one of 45 in California to be in the purple tier. Del Norte shares this status with its neighbors. Eight counties are in the red tier, indicating substantial risk.
In a letter to the community Tuesday morning, Rehwaldt said Del Norte County saw over 50 new cases last week and about 20 more over the weekend. Public Health nurses have been so busy contact tracing they haven’t had a chance to update the county’s COVID-19 web page, he told Councilors.
Sutter Coast Hospital hasn’t yet been impacted by the virus, Rehwaldt said, though one person has been admitted with COVID-19 as of Tuesday.
An outbreak at Pelican Bay State Prison continues. New inmates have turned positive and staff are “turning up positive fairly regularly,” Rehwaldt told Councilors.
Eighteen Pelican Bay inmates have active disease, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s Population COVID-19 Tracking web page. Among prison staff, there are 26 active COVID-19 cases as of Friday, according to CDCR’s COVID-19 Employee Status web page. That page is updated weekly.
There hasn’t yet been an outbreak in the community’s skilled nursing facility, Lantern Health Crescent City, Rehwaldt told Councilors.
"I think they’re doing as good a job as we can expect,” he said, adding that staff are tested regularly and the facility has a plan for isolating and managing COVID-19 patients. “Hopefully nothing will materialize there, but if it does it’s not unexpected. A lot of nursing homes are just working this into normal business in the sense that they expect they’re going to have cases.”
At City Manager Eric Wier’s request, Councilors on Tuesday extended a resolution passed in March, indicating that a local emergency continues to exist. Noting it’s up to the community to get Del Norte County out of the purple tier, Wier told Councilors he wanted to limit staff interaction with the public, which was effective in the spring.
The departments that interact with the public the most include public works, police, fire and utilities, Wier said.
Wier added that CalOSHA has also come out with new rules for businesses and public agencies, one of which requires employees to sign a sheet saying they’re symptom free when they get to work.
Though the Council’s decision to shutter city offices to public walk-ins through the holiday season was unanimous, at least one was reluctant to take such a step. Councilor Jason Greenough, who won re-election earlier this month, said it didn’t seem right to “just shut it all down.”
“I understand the situation and I understand where we’re at,” he said. “I’m just super cautious to just shut the door — just slam it back shut when we’ve been clawing our way out of this for the last nine months almost.”
Greenough urged staff to get a message out on social media or put a sign on the door informing the public that they can still do business with the city online or by phone.
Greenough’s colleague, Alex Fallman, said closing offices was prudent to stop the spread of COVID.
“I don’t think it’s responsible for us to encourage businesses to close down or to limit interactions (with the public) and then not do the same,” he said, “and say, ‘You can come and have your COVID party at Crescent City City Hall.’ It’s not fair to the community.”
Greenough balked at Fallman’s characterization, saying that while he could get behind limiting the number of people coming into City Hall at a time, he doesn’t want to shut it down.
“I really think that’s a disgusting thing to say,” Greenough told Fallman. “Our staff have been doing a darn good job of adhere to regulations. I really think that our staff and the public can make the right decisions.”
Despite Greenough’s objections, Wier noted that when the city shut offices and worked with the public remotely due to the pandemic in the spring, it didn’t receive a lot of complaints regarding the inconvenience.
Finance Director Linda Leaver said the public can pay their utility bills online — both account clerks are working regular hours. If someone runs into a problem, they can call City Hall and a clerk can walk them through the process step by step. The option of making an appointment for a customer to see a clerk in person is also helpful, she said.
As for people obtaining permits, they can also do that online, though a final piece of that system will be the ability to accept payments for building permits, said Public Works Director Jon Olson. He noted that city staff are processing quite a few building permits, noting that a lot of investment has taken place in the community.
Crescent City Mayor Blake Inscore said if shuttering city hall to walk-ins was a long-term plan, he’d think differently, but he doesn’t have a problem doing that for the rest of the year. He noted that with Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years, there are short work weeks this time of year anyway. Inscore said Crescent City also has a responsibility of trying to set an example.
“I don’t think that means we are stating that we are just going to close City Hall and not be there for the community; I don’t hear that from staff,” he said. “I have a lot more faith in staff. If the doors aren’t open right now, they would still do their jobs and still make themselves available to the community. If they hadn’t done that when we were closed before we would have all heard about it.”
Documents:
• Dr. Rehwaldt Letter To Community
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