Weekly comments from Dale Martin . . .

By Dale Martin
City Manager
Fernandina Beach
March 27, 2020

City Manager Dale Martin

As the concerns and responses to Covid-19 continue to grow, the City’s efforts are much in line with other communities throughout the State.

One of the first steps taken by communities is to declare a local state of emergency. The City, through the Mayor, declared the local state of emergency on March 19. While the local state of emergency is directly related to State statutes and additional authority granted therein, the additional emergency powers are rarely, if ever, utilized. Most of the enhanced authority is related to procurement and personnel: the need to quickly mobilize physical resources and people, which, in the past, was primarily needed for natural disasters and emergencies. The Covid-19 virus is a completely different emergency than previously experienced.

Another key aspect of the local state of emergency is that with that declaration, the time of eligibility for the City to seek funding or reimbursement from federal and state agencies formally begins. The City’s recent efforts with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the City Marina notwithstanding, reimbursement for other activities has been reasonably prompt. This allows the City to take measures to prepare for the disaster, beyond the scope of normal operations: overtime costs and supplies that would likely have not been incurred are eligible for reimbursement.

A disaster entails significant paperwork to document the activities of many City personnel (mainly hourly staff since salaried staff is not compensated for overtime). In some cases, the amount of internal effort is deemed to be cost prohibitive in light of the anticipated reimbursement. The City did not file any claims (on behalf of the City) following Hurricane Dorian because, unlike other recent storms, Dorian occurred during daylight working hours and damage was minimal.

Most of the actions being implemented are presented to local officials (and the general public) through Governor DeSantis’ series of Executive Orders associated with Covid-19: the restrictions on local businesses and the conduct of public meetings. During this unprecedented public health emergency, the federal and state governments have substantially more emergency authority and power than local governments.

City staff is making a concerted effort to continue operations as normally as possible. Some special actions, as with other cities in Florida (if not the nation), have been implemented through the local state of emergency. With many residents’ income potentially adversely affected, the City has waived late fees for utility payments and suspended water disconnections due to late fees.

City facilities have been closed to the general public, and many of the services provided can now be conducted remotely (but not robotically). Documents and applications are available and can be filed electronically. “Social distancing” and self-isolation make the public business of government challenging.

Water and sewer services continue uninterrupted. Trash collection also continues normally, but, like other businesses, is susceptible to interruptions or changes related to personnel. If collection workers are afflicted, it may become necessary to reduce such collection services as bulk and yard waste to ensure that adequate staff is available for solid household waste collection (the lack of which would add to the public health emergency).

The City is preparing for the conduct of remote City Commission meetings, the first of which is tentatively scheduled for Apr 7. The effort is being made to base the meeting from the City Commission Chambers and thereby enable residents to observe the meeting via television or computer. Public participation in the meeting, though, may be limited.

The most critical operations now are public safety efforts. The men and women of the Police and Fire Departments (and, although not City staff, other healthcare professionals) continue to respond to calls for service. Some new protocols have been implemented to protect these vulnerable responders as much as possible. In other countries with significant infections, the loss of healthcare professionals greatly exacerbates the spread and effect of the virus.

Until the emergency stabilizes, the community’s response can be enhanced with personal responsibility and compliance with emergency health guidelines: wash your hands frequently, stay at home (especially if 65 years old or older), and, if necessity requires you to go out, be aware of the presence of others and minimize your contact.

We are faced with uncertainty, and the situation will further develop over the course of the coming days, weeks, and months. Please help, however possible, others in need and stay healthy yourself.

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Tammi Kosack
Tammi Kosack(@tammi-kosack)
4 years ago

Adding to the statistics I posted in my comments yesterday to several articles:

Of the 5 positive Covid 19 cases in Nassau county, one is in Callahan, 1 in Yulee, 1 unknown and 2 in Fernandina Beach. So not only is our county running higher than normal in positive cases to number tested (5 positive out of 52 tested at last update) at 10%, we have 20% of the positive cases here in the City of Fernandina Beach. Percentage rates rule in these situations.

Granted this is a very small sampling, however it would not be surprising if we are showing just the tip of the iceberg in regard to actual cases on our island. The lack of testing for the many, many people who are currently displaying one or more symptoms of this virus can only draw the conclusion that if testing is more widespread then our numbers WILL rise.

In light of these stats, I applaud the closing of most of the hotels and 2 B&Bs, as economically difficult as that will be to the local service industry. And I question the continuance of operations at both our airport and the Ritz. It stands to reason the patrons of our airport are well-heeled international travelers who would possibly stay at the Ritz. What are the precautions taken at the airport? Are we really protecting our citizens if there is unrestricted private air travel to and from our Island?

Those that think we are over reacting cannot argue that this situation has put us into unknown waters. We have already suffered a tremendous economic contraction–is it worth additional human risk to keep a few places open for short term minimal monetary gain?

It is PAST time for a paradigmatic shift. Be smart, be vigilant. Because once this is over and we begin rebuilding it would be nice to work with a robust, healthy population rather than grieve over the loss of many due to our greed or ignorance.

Peggy Bulger
Peggy Bulger(@peggy-bulger1949gmail-com)
4 years ago

I want to talk about the island. I would hope that the City and County Commissions have taken extra time and care to work TOGETHER for the sake of all of us in this pandemic crisis. Our Governor is putting all Floridians at risk by not instituting an immediate statewide “shelter in place” order and ENFORCING his aspirational plea for visitors from the NY corridor “hot spot” to self-isolate for 14 days. This is NOT happening. DeSantis has said that decisions will need to come from local government!! This is difficult. Some of us who call Amelia Island our home are City residents and some of us are County residents. For such a small island, we need total coordination and cooperation between these two local government bodies in order to have safety and health security on Amelia Island. I applaud the commissions for closing the beaches to all . . . this is not the time to open for ANY reason. If we all work together and sacrifice for the short term, we just may get out of this alive (that is not hyperbole).

Linda Martucci
Linda Martucci(@lam1102)
4 years ago

Who ‘s office do we flood calls to in order to get “local government” to enforce no incoming people from the nation’s hot spots?
We could create a job or two for people to stop people from crossing bridge to the island.
We closed everything “they” are or should be coming for, so why let them be potential breeders of the virus to our island?!

Nicholas Velvet
Nicholas Velvet (@guest_56973)
4 years ago

“they” are already here folks. NY,NJ,MA license plates at Walmart,Publics, Harris T’s,etc.and please do not tell me “they live here”. Way too many white legs and shorts out and about these past two weeks! After the fiasco last weekend on AI beaches, no wonder these were shut down. So the crowds shifted to hotel pools, downtown. Now downtown is alot of dark glass(reminds me of 2009~~2010). Set up the electric road signs used for Hurricane announcments out on A1A as well as southern approaches to AI,…..”AI BEACHES ARE CLOSED”. Changing the speed sign on Fletcher to say “BCH closed” does nothing. We who live here are well aware of that. A person or two walking the beach at sunrise or sunset was and is not the problem but the Beach Rangers will be out so beware! Please explain to me the difference between walking on the beach, Egan’s Creek Greenway, Centre Street or for thast matter any street on this island?

Tourism as this island has know it over the past ten years or so in less than two weeks has disappeared. Tax base? Well……. the taxpayers will just have to suck it up folks! Hopefully The City Manager, Commissioners,etc. will not see it this way but rather sharpen their pencils budget wise.(I doubt it) $500,000.00 for a new park on Simmons Road(when countless existing parks sit empty and the lot would have had to be very near clear cut of trees)? $1,000.000.00 to purchase conservation lands( see Commissioner Chip Ross article of the extent of City owned properties)? 30% increase in tax bills for City residents(can’t raise the rate so… special assessments time)? Hire more staff because we have more to manage(while the priviate sector takes a 70% hit)? The list goes on and on.

Here are some novel thoughts and possible solutions……. An across the board freeze of any and all “new” county or city projects. Ditto hiring or equiptment purchases( there are more than enough shinny new F150 pickups with City seals driving around with one person in them).ALL county and City employees starting at the top take a % salary reduction in proportion to the expected tax revinue loss accross the board. No exceptions. The old additage was ” a half of a loaf is better than no loaf”. FYI folks there will be ALOT of island/county residents with no loaf on their tables in the months if not years to come. As was said recently, it’s really sorta easy to spend money but harder to save.

I believe in fairy tales too.