Mayor Details Workforce Impacts, Approach To COVID-19 Policy

Tuscaloosa AL

08 December, 2020

6:44 PM

Description

TUSCALOOSA, AL. — Fears of an imminent shutdown of Tuscaloosa businesses were put to rest Tuesday as Mayor Walt Maddox relayed communications with DCH Health System, which has yet to reach a point where its leaders believe the hospital system is on the verge of being overwhelmed. However, drastic impacts to the city of Tuscaloosa's workforce have raised alarm bells and prompted immediate action from the mayor's office in an effort to preserve the city's essential services. QUICK FACTS DCH added a total of 16 new coronavirus hospitalizations on Tuesday, bringing the systemwide patient total to 134. Due to a range of circumstances regarding discharges and deaths from day-to-day, Tuesday's overall inpatient total was a decrease from Monday's 138 total inpatients. At present, 67% of the Tuscaloosa Police Department's personnel is available, while 82% is available for Tuscaloosa Fire Rescue. Tuscaloosa County added 188 new coronavirus cases to its total on Tuesday, topping previous single-day highs. Maddox offered a trove of information and updates ahead of Tuesday's regular City Council meeting, mainly focusing on the city's workforce position, its position on added restrictions on local businesses and the integrity of DCH Health System as cases surge. Following Maddox's update, DCH reported adding 16 new hospitalizations on Tuesday, but due to high discharge rates, the overall total of coronavirus patients came in at 134, which is down from the 138 inpatients reported on Monday. The latest from Maddox also comes on the same day that Tuscaloosa topped previous highs for new coronavirus cases, with 188 added to the county's cumulative total by the Alabama Department of Public Health on Tuesday. "This is the highest number of new cases we have seen in a particular day from ADPH," he said. "Certainly, that is not a record any of us want to claim." PROTECTING THE WORKFORCE One of the more troubling statistics provided by the mayor focused on city employees on leave due to testing positive for the coronavirus or coming into close contact with a positive case. The Tuscaloosa Police Department is among the hardest hit, with the latest data showing an employee availability of 67%. At present, 34 TPD personnel are on COVID-19 leave, while another 66 are out due to their status as a trainee or an inability to work the position alone. A chart detailing current staffing levels for different departments within the city of Tuscaloosa (Graphic courtesy of city of Tuscaloosa) "The most important stat for me is percentage available," Maddox said. "That is who we can deploy out in the field to provide for the people of Tuscaloosa." Infrastructure and Public Services is another city department seeing a high number of employees on leave as 82 are currently out due to COVID-19 protocols, while another 46 are on non-COVID leave. This comes in addition to 45 vacancies due to a hiring freeze to allow the city to shore up a $1 million budget shortfall for the new fiscal year, bringing the department's availability to 67%. What's more, Tuscaloosa Fire Rescue also reports 31 employees out on COVID-19 leave and another 11 on non-COVID leave, which comes out to 83% of its employees currently available. Click here to subscribe to our daily email newsletters and breaking news alerts delivered to your inbox and mobile devices for free. You can also support local journalism by donating as little as $5 a month to become a supporting member or by downloading our free Patch mobile app. The workforce impacts have already prompted swift action from the city, resulting in the closure of all city buildings and event space to the public until the new year, along with postponing Holidays on the River through Dec. 17. Residents will also see the city pull back on litter pickup and landscaping for now, in addition to taking a more reactive approach to issues with storm drains, water and sewage. "This was done to protect our employees," Maddox explained. "This was done to ensure we can meet the essential functions that you require, as you should, of us every single day. Preserving our workforce has become a top priority over the last few weeks as COVID-19, and really the isolations as it relates to COVID-19, continue to impact our staff." AVOIDING A SHUTDOWN A hot topic of conversation continues to center on the possibility of a shutdown of non-essential businesses as local cases and hospitalizations rise. But Maddox stressed that the city, and most importantly DCH Health System, does not feel it is at a point where it is warranted to implement a new set of restrictions. Instead, at least for now, he said the city will continue to defer to state public health guidelines as they relate to masks and social gatherings. Maddox then presented a long list of reasons why the city has not yet reached the point of a new lockdown, chief among them being that DCH has not made a request for city officials to take additional steps to protect the integrity of the healthcare system. In breaking down anecdotal examples, the mayor said the daily census for DCH on Tuesday is actually lower than some peaks in July and emphasized how the public tends to look at the number of coronavirus patients and not necessarily the overall census of the hospital. As of Tuesday afternoon, Maddox said DCH had roughly 30 beds available systemwide. However, Maddox did say another crucial point of focus will be the hospital's ability to perform elective surgeries. "DCH has yet to cancel, modify or reduce elective surgeries," he said. "If they make that decision, then I think we need to get in the on-deck circle. If they make the determination to reduce or cancel elective surgeries, that is a clear sign that their capacity within the hospital itself is being diminished … I think that is the point where we begin to look at more draconian steps in terms of restricting interaction within the greater community, but they haven't done that yet." Turning the conversation to how the local business community would be impacted in the event of shutdown, Maddox pointed to exceptions embedded in federal and state laws that would allow big box stores, which see heavy foot traffic, to remain open while shuttering smaller local businesses who depend on the holiday season. "If you said you're going to shut businesses down, you're going to have corporations that have exceptions under the law," he said. "So what you're going to do is you're going to punish more of your small business owners. Right now, we don't have the ability to enforce it. The ability to enforce it, as you saw, with 67% availability within TPD, you would stretch us even more thin without the capacity to effectively enforce it." Additionally, Maddox pointed to any added restrictions only applying to the city of Tuscaloosa, which could pose problems for businesses in the city limits while doing little to combat the wider spread in the area. "It wouldn't apply to Northport, wouldn't apply to the county, and I think based on prior history they haven't necessarily mirrored our actions," Maddox cautioned. "You certainly would be making a difference, but globally I don't know how much more difference you would make." Lastly, Maddox mentioned the roughly 25,000 University of Alabama students leaving the area for Christmas break as playing a crucial role in controlling the local spread. This will mean less occupancy in local bars, restaurants and other businesses. UA students will also be gone an additional week for winter break than in years past, as the university will forego its Spring Break in favor of an extended break following the end of the 2020 fall semester. "We get that built-in advantage without doing anything," Maddox said. As the situation shows no immediate signs of improvement with respect to the local rise in cases, Maddox said the onus will remain on the individual to prevent further spikes and inundations for DCH. "The most beneficial actions is going to be us and our own actions," he said. "That's going to be what gets us through this." Follow Patch here for updates or on Facebook and Twitter.