The Brownsville City Commission held a special meeting Wednesday via Zoom to discuss department continuity plans, and financial and drive-thru testing site updates.
Eighteen city departments presented a summary of their continuity plans and staff updates regarding COVID-19.
The Brownsville Fire Department is continuing operations as normal with the exception of some adjustments, such as utilizing a paramedic and dispatch to screen callers with flu-like symptoms in order to alleviate overburden on hospitals. The department also created plans to reduce exposure to personnel and the community and designated one ambulance for COVID-19 patients to reduce exposure to personnel.
The police department has trained and provided proper personal protective equipment (PPE) to 18 officers who have been assigned to a COVID-19 specialized impact team. A plan was implemented to separate employees who normally work in areas of close proximity. Eighteen employees were assigned to telework, were equipped and carefully instructed.
Public Health has shifted from normal operations within the continuity plan to work within the incident command system. A majority of the staff is level 1 mission critical and continues work in the field. The administration will add a drive-thru window at City Plaza. The Wellness Division is teleworking and lending support to the mission of COVID-19.
In the city manager’s office, the executive team has been teleworking since March 20. The executive assistant and administrative assistant continue working on-site to handle calls and work on projects such as filing and inventory management. City Manager Noel Bernal said the office is prepared to telework for a long period of time.
Other departments included:
–airport;
–city attorney;
–city secretary;
–communications and marketing;
–engineering and public works;
–finance;
–enterprise applications;
–internal services;
–library;
–municipal court;
–multimodal transportation;
–organizational development and human resources;
–parks and recreation; and,
–planning and redevelopment
Lupe Granado, finance director, presented the financial updates for the city amid the virus.
The Fiscal Year 2020 budget impact is $474,333, the emergency procurement is $78,230 and the total amount of expenditure is $552,563.
“Since the onset of this event, we had tasked the departments to start tracking their activities related to COVID-19 from their nine item budgets,” Granado said. “The intent was that they track them, they report it to us and as we seek reimbursement, we have tracking details in order for us to proceed with it.”
He said FEMA will reimburse eligible expenses of up to 75%, which the department anticipates being $424,422.
The city cost summary includes personnel, $404,095; supplies, $41,603; lease costs, $1,253; contract costs, $10,272; other miscellaneous costs, $3,795 and; use of equipment, $13,316.
Other city costs include the PPE masks, which had a procurement of $59,500 and $35,750 spent, and drive-thru collections/testing site, which had a five-day estimate of $6,960 in operation cost and $11,770 in testing kits.
The airport department presented its response to the virus, such as only allowing ticketed passengers in the terminal, and increasing security presence, custodial services and disinfecting.
Airport budget responses included evaluating existing budget revenues versus expenses and limiting necessary travel.
Brownsville Metro gave a presentation and compared its average hourly ridership. On the 7 a.m. routes, its average from March 25 to 30 of this year are 81.6 riders, compared to 471.6, the average from March 27 to April 1 of 2019.
A status of drive-thru testing was also presented to the city commission.
As of 10 p.m. Tuesday, 338 individuals were tested, 191 were insured and 147 were not. Three results have come back positive and 335 negative.
