The Front Line against the Coronavirus

Even as Congress is struggling to reach agreement on a federal response, and the President three weeks ago denounced covid-19 as the Democrats’ “new hoax,” local leaders have been at the front line–with critical assistance from the Federal Reserve, which has expanded a lending operation that will accept municipal debt as collateral, as fears increase of the costs counties and cities could confront combatting the virus. The Federal Reserve’s changes apply to backstop the $3.8 trillion money market mutual fund unveiled last week–with the move coming as municipal bond prices tanked in the wake of investors pulling withdrawing a record $12.2 billion from mutual and exchange-traded funds. CFO Hazim Taib of the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority said: “A market that is supposed to be liquid and functioning is no longer liquid and functioning…)

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin approved of the expansion, noting: “This will create additional liquidity for the states and municipalities!” His statement came in the wake of local governments and states cancelling cancelling their long-term municipal bond sales as their short-term costs of doing so tripled and doubled.

We will have an opportunity today to assess how grave a challenge can be for one city: Richmond, Virginia, where the Council meets today to vote on ordinances unrelated to the COVID-19 pandemic–but meets in this new covid world where the Council’s session cannot allow more than 10 people to the Council chambers, or else it would flout public health guidance meant to slow the spread of the coronavirus–not to mention proximity of both Councilmembers and citizens. It seems that in the Commonwealth, a fully remote meeting–that is a meeting format which would be the safest option, is not permitted under Virginia law, law because the business does not pertain to the state of emergency. Localities lobbied Gov. Ralph Northam and Attorney General Mark Herring last week for permission to skirt open-meeting law provisions requiring this, given the circumstances.

Councilmember Stephanie Lynch noted: “We literally can’t conduct normal city business, and it’s absolutely critical that we be able to do so.”

Richmond interim City Attorney Haskell Brown last week advised the Council by email  that a fully remote meeting would not only violate the law, but also put Councilmembers at risk of civil penalties. Thus Councilmember Lynch and others on the Council joined other local officials asking the state to weigh in on the issue localities are now facing because of the pandemic.

Herring issued an opinion Friday night outlining flexibility localities have to conduct meetings electronically during the emergency. However, the opinion reaffirmed what Brown told council members last week: At least five of the nine members still must be physically present to vote.

On Monday, the council is set to vote on a $2.1 million budget transfer to the city’s affordable housing trust fund. Mayor Levar Stoney’s administration said it would use the money for more services for the region’s homeless population.

A second measure would extend the deadline to apply for the city’s tax relief program for seniors and people with disabilities until the end of April. Stoney is also expected to introduce legislation establishing a tax amnesty period on penalties and interest for most local taxes at the meeting.

To vote on the measures Monday without violating the 10-person rule, the council plans to implement a series of precautions.

Only five Councilmembers will be present in the chambers, the minimum to achieve the required quorum; four others will participate by phone, an exception elected officials can request twice per year under current Virginia law. But seating will change: normal seating arrangements will change to achieve adequate social distancing: The city clerk and at least one top administrator will also be present in the chambers; in an adjacent conference room, the city attorney and council chief of staff will participate by phone. Department heads will call into the meeting, in case they need to respond to questions.

Residents who attend will not be allowed in the Council chambers; rather they will go to designated overflow rooms throughout City Hall which are typically reserved for packed meetings. As usual, the meeting will stream online and air on television.

All council members agreed the circumstances should not inhibit residents from giving input or tracking issues that are important to them, and a public comment period is still scheduled. Or, as 4th District Councilwoman Kristen Larson put it: “My priority is carrying out our duties and doing it in a way that has public transparency.”

The Council requested residents email comments about the agenda to the city clerk or their council member by noon today: the meeting begins at 6 p.m.

An informal session, routinely held at 4 p.m., has been canceled.

Protecting the Nation’s Most Vulnerable

March 17, 2020

Good Morning! In this morning’s eBlog, we consider one of the challenges for state and local leaders from the coronavirus.  

Protecting the Nation’s Citizens. U.S. District Court Chief Judge Beryl A. Howell on Friday wrote: “In this country of plenty, the federal and state governments work together to ensure that low-income Americans and their families do not go hungry. The largest federal food assistance program that serves as the cornerstone of this joint federal-state effort to reduce hunger—and hunger’s adverse effects on health, educational achievement, and housing security—is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as the food stamp program. A new federal rule poised to go into effect in a few weeks, in April 2020, would dramatically alter the long-standing operations of the SNAP program, placing more stringent requirements on states’ award of SNAP benefits with concomitant, virtually immediate effects on the lives, by the federal government’s estimate, of over one million individuals currently receiving SNAP benefits. Of those million, nearly 700,000 would lose their benefits. Especially now, as a global pandemic poses widespread health risks, guaranteeing that government officials at both the federal and state levels have flexibility to address the nutritional needs of residents and ensure their well-being through programs like SNAP, is essential.” Judge Howell described the proposed rule change as “capricious, arbitrary, and likely unlawful.”

As proposed, the rule change would have mandated able-bodied adults without children to work at least 20 hours a week in order to qualify for SNAP benefits past three months. In addition, it would have limited states’ usual ability to waive those requirements depending on economic conditions. In contrast, the preliminary injunction will preserve that flexibility.

Here, the Department last December had announced its adoption of the rule change, but critics had called on the Department to suspend implementation, especially in light of the economic crisis spurred by the coronavirus pandemic. Notwithstanding, earlier this week, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue stated the Department would proceed with the rule. While the rule applies to “able-bodied adults without dependents,” anti-hunger advocates, including those of us who volunteer and contribute to ALIVE in the D.C. metropolitan region, note that category can include parents who do not have primary custody of their kids, youths who have recently aged out of foster care, as well as some low income college students.

In her decision, District of Columbia, et al v. U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, #20-119, March 13, 2020, Judge Howell cited concerns raised by the spread of coronavirus and its effect on the most vulnerable Americans, writing: “Especially now, as a global pandemic poses widespread health risks, guaranteeing that government officials at both the federal and state levels have flexibility to address the nutritional needs of residents and ensure their well-being through programs like SNAP, is essential.”

The decision means, at least for the nonce, that the proposed SNAP change is now blocked from taking effect pending the outcome of a lawsuit by 19 states plus the District of Columbia and New York City. Indeed, D.C. Attorney General Karl A. Racine, who co-led the coalition behind the suit, described the outcome as a “major victory for our country’s most vulnerable residents who rely on SNAP to eat: The Trump administration’s rule would have forced hundreds of thousands of people who could not find work, including 13,000 District residents, to go hungry. That could have been catastrophic in the midst of our current public health emergency.”

New York Attorney General Letitia James, who co-led the coalition with A.G. Racine, said: “At a time of national crisis, this decision is a win for common sense and basic human decency.: Her office noted that the change would have denied SNAP benefits to more than 50,000 people in New York City alone. Attorney General James added: “As we find ourselves in the midst of a pandemic, the effects of this rule would be more destructive than ever.” District of Columbia, et al v. U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, #20-119, March 13, 2020.

Local & State Leaders on the Front Lines of the Coronavirus Pandemic

March 13, 2020

Good Morning! In this morning’s eBlog, we consider the challenges for state and local leaders from the coronavirus.  

Notwithstanding the President’s claim that there is a test for the coronavirus, a claim denied by Dr. Anthony Fauci, the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and infection diseases. State and local leaders have banned large public gatherings. Other city and county leaders—confronted with explosions of citizens seeking tests—even as hospitals have been overwhelmed. In Washington State, one hospital has created a team just to hunt for vacant lots which could be designated for setting up medical tents.  Many who fear they have the virus have faced one roadblock after another as they try to get tested: some have been rejected because they had no symptoms, even though they had been in proximity to someone who tested positive. Others were told no, because they had not traveled to a hot spot abroad, even though they had fevers and hacking coughs and lived in cities with growing outbreaks. Still others were told a bitter truth: There simply were not enough tests to go around.

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan yesterday reported the city has partially activated its emergency operations center and taken other steps to safeguard against the coronavirus outbreak, stating: “We don’t have COVID-19 in the city of Detroit that we know of, but it is inevitable: What we are doing is not panicking. We are preparing.”  The Mayor warned that “It’s likely a matter of days” before the virus is found in the city. The Mayor was joined at the conference by Gary Brown, the Director of Detroit’s water and sewerage department, and Denise Fair, Chief Public Health Officer for the city’s health department.

His announcement came as the Great Lakes Water Authority approved Detroit’s request to double the funding of its water assistance program, taking it from $2.5 million to $5 million per year, after, last Monday, the city had announced that for 30 days, the state of Michigan will cover the costs to restore water service for customers with service shut off due to lack of payment, or who have received notices of pending service interruption.

The city had sought additional funding for the program as the threat of coronavirus increased, so that Mayor Duggan, referring to the coronavirus outbreak, noted: “With Great Lakes Water Authority Funding, we now are funded for several months into the future, and certainly we will be able to do this through as long as this continues.”

In the wake of the confirmation of two cases of the coronavirus in neighboring Wayne and Oakland counties, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and state officials urged residents to reduce in-person gatherings and discouraged large events of 100 people or more. Officials urged the city’s larger venues to take proper steps to prevent the illness, but stopping short of telling them to cancel events. The Governor warned: “COVID-19 is expected to last for a long time,” as officials announced that the cherished St. Patrick’s Day Parade scheduled for this Sunday is canceled: It is one among a flurry of activities being canceled or postponed around the region, with Mayor Duggan noting: “It wasn’t something that was done lightly…You think about the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, all those folks standing shoulder to shoulder for hours, it was a recipe for the spread of the problem”

Nevertheless, and notwithstanding the widespread closures of college campuses, Detroit City Hall, where 9,000 work, will remain open, Mayor Duggan said, and city services will continue: “There are companies that can say to their employees, ‘Stay home and work from home,’ but City government can’t do that. The nature of our business is that we have to keep interacting with the public.”

As hospitals in counties and cities across the nation are prepping for an expected surge in patients as 1,320 cases in 42 states and the District of Columbia were reported yesterday, Mayor Duggan said he has formed a medical response team to handle the potential spread of the virus and to protect city employees and workers. He said the city will “probably err on the side of over-communication” to keep the public informed going forward: “This virus will stop spreading when we start being responsible to our neighbors.”

The greatest challenge will be for municipal and county leaders in counties, cities, towns and villages who are on the front lines of responding to the outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in their communities. Local elected leaders have the primary responsibility for ensuring the health and safety of their residents. Local governments have longstanding emergency protocols for public health emergencies and community members rely on them to provide them with timely, accurate information about their local preparedness and response. They have never been confronted with a challenge like this at a time of such inability of the federal government to act.

How the Motor City is taking on the Coronavirus

March 12, 2020

Good Morning! In this morning’s eBlog, we consider the actions of the Motor City to address the coronavirus outbreak.  

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan yesterday reported the city has partially activated its emergency operations center and taken other steps to safeguard against the coronavirus outbreak, stating: “We don’t have COVID-19 in the city of Detroit that we know of, but it is inevitable: What we are doing is not panicking. We are preparing.”  The Mayor warned that “It’s likely a matter of days” before the virus is found in the city. The Mayor was joined at the conference by Gary Brown, the Director of Detroit’s water and sewerage department, and Denise Fair, Chief Public Health Officer for the city’s health department.

His announcement came as the Great Lakes Water Authority approved Detroit’s request to double the funding of its water assistance program, taking it from $2.5 million to $5 million per year, after, last Monday, the city had announced that for 30 days, the state of Michigan will cover the costs to restore water service for customers with service shut off due to lack of payment, or who have received notices of pending service interruption.

The city had sought additional funding for the program as the threat of coronavirus increased, so that Mayor Duggan, referring to the coronavirus outbreak, noted: “With Great Lakes Water Authority Funding, we now are funded for several months into the future, and certainly we will be able to do this through as long as this continues.”

In the wake of the confirmation of two cases of the coronavirus in neighboring Wayne and Oakland counties, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and state officials urged residents to reduce in-person gatherings and discouraged large events of 100 people or more. Officials urged the city’s larger venues to take proper steps to prevent the illness, but stopping short of telling them to cancel events. The Governor warned: “COVID-19 is expected to last for a long time,” as officials announced that the cherished St. Patrick’s Day Parade scheduled for this Sunday is canceled: It is one among a flurry of activities being canceled or postponed around the region, with Mayor Duggan noting: “It wasn’t something that was done lightly…You think about the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, all those folks standing shoulder to shoulder for hours, it was a recipe for the spread of the problem.”

Nevertheless, and notwithstanding the widespread closures of college campuses, Detroit City Hall, where 9,000 work, will remain open, Mayor Duggan said, and city services will continue: “There are companies that can say to their employees, ‘Stay home and work from home,’ but City government can’t do that. The nature of our business is that we have to keep interacting with the public.”

Mayor Duggan said he has formed a medical response team to handle the potential spread of the virus and to protect city employees and workers. He said the city will “probably err on the side of over-communication” to keep the public informed going forward: “This virus will stop spreading when we start being responsible to our neighbors.”