City Council Meeting Recap 5.19.20
Here is the video from today’s meeting:
Here are a few of the main items the Birmingham City Council discussed at the May 19th, 2020 Meeting
Shipt Incentive Payment Deferral
In July of 2018, the Birmingham City Council approved a five year incentive Agreement with Shipt, with the City’s incentive payments to be capped at $800,000 for the first year and $1,000,000 for each subsequent year, subject to the overall payment cap of $1,762,000. Now, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Shipt has agreed to defer its receipt of this year’s payment for one year.
The incentive Agreement went toward funding Shipt hiring 881 new employees, and utilized three new City initiatives:
— Talent Investment Program (TIP): Provides additional funding for the company to recruit high-demand, hard-to-reach occupations.
— Talent Acceleration Program (TAP): Designed to take workers who may be low-skill and low-wage and set aside funding for those employees to access new tuition pools and learn new skills while furthering their education.
— Talent Optimization Program (TOP): This component is designed to help the company hire local talent. It pushes additional funding to the company as a way to hire graduates from Innovate Birmingham graduates and residents of the city. It creates a pool of funding to partner with universities and other local entities to train mid-level managers, a group that Carpenter said there is a shortage of in Birmingham (70 percent of Innovate Birmingham participants are city residents).
Read more about the City’s incentive agreement with Shipt:
“Shelter in Place” Ordinance Extension
The Birmingham City Council voted unanimously on Tuesday to amend the city’s “shelter in place” ordinance until May 29th.
According to the amendment, businesses must comply with the order of the State Health Officer that was issued on May 8 — those guidelines can be found here.
Health experts with the National Foundation for Infectious Disease maintain that facial coverings are highly successful in reducing the spread of COVID-19.
During the meeting, Council President William Parker said the Council would be determining a plan of action as it relates to increasing the number of test sites, COVID-19 educational campaigns, and applying for portions of the $1.8 billion in federal relief funding that was approved by the Alabama Legislature last week.
Face Covering Ordinance Extension
The Birmingham City Council voted to extend the city’s ordinance requiring face coverings in public spaces until Friday, May 29.
Councilor Steven Hoyt said the measures approved by the Council on Tuesday are focused on educating the public on the dangers of COVID-19 as opposed to being punitive restrictions.
“This is to raise awareness and the seriousness of wearing a mask,” Hoyt said. “There are still folks that are being very cavalier about wearing face coverings in public. This ordinance just underlines how serious this situation is. The numbers haven’t gone down in Jefferson County. I want to see an all out campaign on why this is important and how serious this virus is. We have to do whatever we can to raise awareness in order to save as many lives as possible.”
Councilor John Hilliard echoed this sentiment, saying he believes this is not the right time to relax restrictions.
“I know people are getting restless, but we can’t just relax the rules so we can get out of the house,” Hilliard said. “Our city is at risk. There are a good number of elderly citizens in my community and we need to be taking every opportunity we can to educate them on the dangers posed to them by this public health crisis. You can’t legislate morality. But we need to all be doing the right thing to protect our families, friends and neighbors right now.”
The exceptions to the Ordinance are listed below, with a new addition allowing for face coverings to not be worn while eating or drinking in a restaurant.
Exceptions:
(1) Face coverings or masks are not required to be worn over the face during individual outdoor exercise, for example, walking or jogging, but must be worn when encountering and interacting with groups of other people in a park or other public place. For the purposes of this subsection, “exercise” includes other forms of physical exertion, whether for recreation or work, where unrestricted breathing is needed to perform the activity.
(2) a. Children two (2) years of age and under, as face coverings or masks may pose a risk of choking, strangulation or suffocation to infants and young toddlers. Carriers and strollers with coverings that allow the child to breathe comfortably are alternatives for infants and young toddlers.
b. Parents, guardians, and caregivers shall be responsible for ensuring proper masking of children over the age of two (2) years when in public but must ensure that the face covering or mask does not pose a choking hazard for children older than two (2) and can be safely worn without obstructing a child’s ability to breathe.
c. Parents, guardians and caregivers of children eight (8) years old or younger shall exercise judgment regarding the ability of those children to consistently wear a face covering or mask.
d. Parents, guardians and caregivers shall exercise judgment and avoid bringing children not wearing face coverings or masks into public places, especially where contact with vulnerable individuals is expected, due to concerns of health officials that children may be asymptomatic spreaders of COVID-19.
e. Daycares and other childcare establishments shall provide parents with information on the facility’s procedures for use of face coverings or masks. Where the consistent use of face coverings or masks are not possible due to supervision of multiple children, the facility shall adhere to sanitary, hygienic and face covering practices to the maximum extent practicable.
(3) Patients in examination rooms of medical or dental offices or clinics or hospitals where there is a necessity to examine or treat the mouth or nasal area, subject to the direction of the medical or dental professionals in charge of the office, clinic or hospital.
(4) When wearing a face covering or mask poses a greater mental or physical health, safety or security risk such as anyone who has trouble breathing, or is unconscious, incapacitated or otherwise unable to remove the cover without assistance. For purposes of this subsection, “safety risk” shall include external factors, such as, but not limited to, where wearing a face covering or mask may pose a risk to persons working on ladders or at height, wearing other respiratory protection, heavy physical exertion or operating heavy equipment or operating in an environment where a face covering or mask hinders communications. However, employers are encouraged to structure work to promote social distancing and limit close content as much as possible within in workplaces where face coverings or masks may pose such risks.
(5) When eating or drinking in public at a restaurant, bar or other food or beverage establishment operating under conditions required by the state health officer’s order.
