Commissioners cast doubt this week on the Platte County Health Department's new order to extend the COVID-19 pandemic stay at home order until Friday, May 15.
During commissioner comments at the close of the Monday, April 20 meeting – which was streamed online and again with presiding commissioner Ron Schieber attending via speaker phone – the officials questioned the extension of the closure order.
“Our families, our businesses, our people are hurting and we are extremely concerned about not only protecting those who are most vulnerable but also what's happening in our economy and with our small businesses,” Schieber said. “We are working directly with some of the decision makers concerning the stay at home orders, including the governor, Mid-America Regional Council (MARC), our public health director Mary Jo Vernon, as well as (Kansas City) mayor (Quinton) Lucas.”
Schieber said the commission had a responsibility to get the economy reopened as soon as possible, while protecting the vulnerable.
District commissioner Dagmar Wood serves on the MARC COVID-19 task force. She said according to her analysis of the data that the number of cases in the nine-county MARC region may have peaked on April 9.
“We are sharply declining in the number of new cases that are being identified in the area and I'm really encouraged by that” she said.
Wood said she has been sharing this data among elected officials and called out Vernon, stating the county health director reports to a voter-approved health board, with the county commissioners having no oversight of her office.
“I would personally like to see a pullback of that May 15 order and I'm doing everything I can officially and unofficially to see that happen,” she said.
District commissioner John Elliott agreed that the authorities managing the emergency needed to put together a plan to move forward and “get people back to work, get kids back to sports.”
Elliott noted that a lot of small businesses and self-employed individuals did not receive stimulus funds from the federal government, or if they did the one-time payment was not enough to help. A phased plan to open businesses between May 3 and May 15 should be created, he said.
“The cure can't be worse than the disease,” Elliott said. “We all say Platte County is a great place to work, live and play. I believe it's time for Platte County to get back to working and living and playing.”
Also at the meeting, Capt. Tony Avery of the Platte County Sheriff's Office presented a proposal allowing the office to waive the competitive bid process in the interest of locating and purchasing personal protective equipment (PPE) for officers and staff.
Even routine budget amendments were affected by COVID-19. County auditor Kevin Robinson recommended the reactivation of a catastrophic disaster fund, allowing the numerous COVID-related emergency accounts for various departments to be funneled into one account. Expenditures may then be more easily reimbursed by the federal government, if such a program becomes available.
Currently, the county has spent about $19,500 in personnel costs and special purchases of cleaning and protective supplies.
Officials also announced that the May meeting of the Platte County Planning and Zoning Commission will be held online and the Platte County Cleanup scheduled for Saturday, May 16 will be postponed.