The Bartlesville City Council has called an emergency meeting to discuss possible action on a resolution listing mitigation measures in response to the COVID-19 disaster declarations. The meeting will take place on Wednesday at 8 a.m. from Bartlesville city hall.

The council discussed that measures on the city level could be coming in its Monday night meeting. The resolution is the only action item on the agenda.

While there are currently no confirmed cases of the virus in Washington County, City Manager Mike Bailey and City department directors have been working for the past month to identify potential areas of concern should the virus become widespread in the community.

“When it became obvious this virus could potentially become a threat in the U.S., we began looking at our current practices and how they might need to be altered in the event of widespread illness, both in our citizen population and our employees,” Bailey said. “Our primary focus has been and continues to be maintaining continuity of the essential services we provide — water, waste water, police, fire and sanitation — to our citizens. We also have a responsibility, to the extent that we can, to put into place protocols that will not only help reduce exposure of this virus to the public but to our City employees as well. After obtaining updates and input from Gov. (Kevin) Stitt’s office and the Oklahoma State Department of Health, in conjunction with the guidelines set forth by the Centers of Disease Control and the World Health Organization over the past several days, we are ready to present these recommendations to the City Council.”

 If approved, the following would remain in effect until discontinued by the council:

· Existing special event permits will be revoked and no further special event permits will be issued.

· Municipal Court will be suspended other than by teleconference where required. No further failure to appear warrants will be issued or served.

· All Code Enforcement hearings will be suspended.

· Public gatherings of greater than 50 people will not be allowed at any City owned or managed facility.

· Further utility cut-offs will be suspended. The city manager will be directed to reestablish service for any disconnected customer. Amounts due will not be forgiven. · City owned pools will not be opened.

· The Bartlesville Public Library and History Museum will be closed to the public.

· All City boards and committee meetings will be canceled except for City Council and all Authorities. Authorities will be encouraged to meet only when necessary. · The use of City owned meeting rooms for public gatherings of any size is prohibited.

· In-person gatherings for social, spiritual and recreational purposes including, but not limited to, community, civic, public, leisure, faith-based or sporting events, parades, concerts, festivals, conventions, fundraisers and similar activities are strongly discouraged.

· Restaurants, bars and other privately-owned gathering places are highly encouraged to limit the number of patrons such that at least six feet of space is available to each person. Such facilities are further encouraged to provide enhanced “take out” and “delivery” options.

· Local gyms and exercise facilities are encouraged to discontinue all group activities and to significantly increase and enhance facility sanitation regiments.

The resolution to be considered by the council will also allow the city manager to take the following actions:

· Where practical, to close portions of public facilities to the public and encourage the use of email, telephone and other remote methods of conducting business with the City.

· Modify work schedules and conditions as necessary to ensure business continuity and employee safety.

· Invoke special protocols to limit the risk of exposure for City employees.

· Establish procedures for certain employees to telecommute where practical.

· Provide paid admin leave for employees who have potentially been exposed to Covid-19 as per management developed policy.

· Establish mandatory disinfection protocols for all City facilities.

· Take other actions as necessary to preserve the health and safety of City employees.

· As needed and where prudent, utilize funding from the Capital Reserve Fund to purchase items necessary to facilitate these directions.

If approved by the council on Wednesday, the measures would go into effect at 11:59 p.m. Wednesday, March 18th, and be reviewed and, if warranted, amended or renewed by the council during its regularly scheduled meeting on the first Monday of every month.

“We have been careful to ensure that our approach is measured and appropriate in this situation,” Bailey said. “We certainly do not want to feed into the panic that could create further hardships for our citizens but rather make reasonable and rational decisions that will result in us taking the appropriate actions to protect our citizens and City employees. We believe these measures will help us do that. It is important to note that none of these proposed actions are draconian or over-reaching. They are primarily intended to encourage or bolster guidelines and recommendations already set forth by the CDC and the WHO and are in accordance with the information we’ve received from the Oklahoma State Department of Health.”

To view the proposed resolution in its entirety, see cityofbartlesville.org.