< Previous10 | THE DAILY NEWS | LATITUDE 29 | 2020 THE SCENE AT THE GALVESTON COUNTY COURTHOUSE on Sept. 25 was a study in how government works in 2020. The regularly scheduled Monday meeting was at the county courthouse in Galveston, and was just the fourth time the court had convened a meeting in the county seat since March. At the front of the room, a table was set up below the commissioners’ row of desks and a projector streamed live webcam images of Galveston County Judge Mark Henry and another com- missioner onto a portable screen. In the part of the room meant to ac- commodate the public, which normally sits 100 people or more, a dozen or so chairs were spread out 6 feet apart. The precautions were similar to those taken in many places during the pandemic. They were meant to keep people safely spaced apart to help avoid catching the COVID-19 virus. But they didn’t exactly make things easy. The microphones in the room didn’t come through on Henry’s speakers, and every presentation and question from commissioners was met by a scramble of IT staff members to turn volumes up or down or by panto- mimes to communicate a vote. Near the end of the meeting, Henry said he was logging off and ask com- missioners to fill him in later about what happened at the end of the meeting. “It was embarrassing,” Henry said, still frustrated about it days later. “A county of our size can’t even set up a Zoom meeting. We better be able to get our IT department to be able to perform, or else we’ll be looking for other IT employees.” That technology hiccup might end up being one of the lasting legacies on local government caused by the coronavirus pandemic. As precautions forced people apart, governments became more plugged in and broad- casted. Public meetings were held on Zoom or Facebook, and business once confined to a single room was now on social networks. Beyond public meetings, more coun- ty businesses are holding meetings between staff members or conducting transactions with clients online rather than across a desk or counter. Many expect that change to continue, and some argue it’s an improvement. “You don’t need to come to our building,” Henry said. “Someone sitting at a computer can easily service 20 to 30 people an hour. Whereas, you’re dealing with someone that has to stand in line, you’re going to cut that efficiency in half. Maintaining those efficiencies would actually be a positive outcome of the pandemic, Henry said. “God knows we’ve had very few of those up to this point,” Henry said. OTHER EFFECTS ON GOVERNMENT The first case of COVID-19 in Gal- veston County was identified March 13. Soon after that, like the rest of the country, there were mass layoffs in the private sector and widespread closures. Across Galveston County, officials worried their revenue streams would be choked off and that they too would have to furlough or lay off employees. But eight months into the pandem- ic, government leaders say they’re in OK shape. Property values in the county were calculated before the pandemic hit and continued a years-long trend of increasing. Local governments subsequently chose to make limited increases to their tax rates; no tax increases were so large that cities needed to ask voters for approval. Some entities, including League City, Texas City and Galveston Coun- ty, managed to lower tax rates below last years’ effective rates — essentially promising to collect less money overall from their residents during the next fiscal year. That’s not to say COVID didn’t leave lasting marks. They’re just legacies that might not be fully appreciated for some time, local officials said. Galveston County, for instance, took two dozen unfilled positions off its book permanently, effectively reducing the size of the government, without ac- tually firing anyone, Henry said. Those jobs will be added back to the gov- ernment only on an as-needed basis, Henry said. The city of Galveston similarly instituted a hiring freeze on unfilled Mike Nelson, justice of the peace for Precinct 2, adjusts the volume on the live feed of the Galveston County Commissioners Court meeting in the break room at the county annex in League City. To keep in compliance with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations, the commissioners were spaced 6 feet apart and only 10 people were allowed in the courtroom at a time. Other county staff members were able to watch the preceding from the break room.2020 | LATITUDE 29 | THE DAILY NEWS | 11 positions. Mayor pro tem Craig Brown said those limits on new employees has made the city “lean and mean.” “It has shown the city can function with less personnel and with the reor- ganization of some of our departments and some of our manpower,” Brown said. “We can provide services and not have to have the total number of indi- viduals at city hall that we do know.” The city of Kemah, which is heav- ily dependent on sales tax revenues from retail and tourism, laid off police officers and dispatchers, and the city of Hitchcock outsourced its police dispatching to the Galveston County Sheriff’s Office. COVID-19 hasn’t yet delivered as hard a hit to government revenues and services as some had feared, League City Mayor Pat Hallisey said. “As long as we continue to grow, we’re in good shape,” Hallisey said. “We were worried to death about the sale tax because of the pandemic. While we didn’t meet our projections last year, our sales tax receipts were up. We don’t have what we thought we were going to get out of there, but we have enough.” THE FUTURE Fallout from the pandemic is still to come, and it remains to be seen how it will affect local governments. As of August, Texas’ unemployment was at 7 percent, less than the national rate, but still nearly double what it was in August 2019. The United States is still in a reces- sion, and Henry feared local leaders could be faced with a comeuppance once federal aid and protections, like the ban on rental evictions, run out. “Loss of jobs, delay of primary health care, the ripple effects are going to have tremendously negative negatives for probably decades,” Henry said. “The people that haven’t had to pay “Loss of jobs, delay of primary health care, the ripple effects are going to have tremendously negative negatives for probably decades.” Galveston County Judge Mark Henry their rent, we feel for them, but the property owners are still going to have to pay their taxes, and they’re going to come in January and say ‘We weren’t allowed to collect our rent, how are we supposed to pay our property tax- es?’ I don’t have an answer to that.” The pandemic also has brought the potential for a sea of change in the leadership in the county at all levels. There are 113 items on county bal- lots for the Nov. 3 election — spanning national, state and local races. At least some of those races seem primed to be affected by peoples’ feelings about the government’s reaction to the pandemic. In Galveston, some of the shifting of leadership already has taken place, at least temporarily. In July, three-term Galveston Mayor Jim Yarbrough stepped down from his office before the November election, which had been delayed from May. That left Brown, one of five candidates Galveston Mayor pro tem Craig Brown, who is acting as mayor, prepares for a virtual meeting in his office at city hall. Three-term Mayor Jim Yarbrough stepped down from office in July. vying to replace Yarbrough, in charge of leading the city through its next steps in the pandemic response. For Brown, that has meant lead- ing the discussion on the city’s first pandemic budget, making decisions on when to begin permitting large public events that have not been allowed because of the pandemic and ordering Galveston’s first mandatory hurricane evacuation in 12 years, which came with its own worries about locals catching or spreading the virus as they sheltered off the island. Brown’s interim position might leave him open to paying at the voting booth for government decisions that are not entirely in his control. By the end of September, with COVID-19 cases at near their lowest point of the year, orders imposed by Abbott were still forcing bars to be closed, and some restaurants, gyms and other business- es were limited to being open at 75 percent capacity. “It’s about where we thought we would be,” Brown said when asked to assess the city’s situation in late Sep- tember. “I would say that one of the surprises for me is that we’re relaxing the restrictions at a slower pace than I thought we would. I thought these restrictions would lighten up quicker than they did.” GATEWAY TO THE GULF Expect easy breezy coastal living. New neighborhoods and schools. Renaissance District downtown redevelopment and neighborhood Family friendly festivals and easy access to everything Galveston County has to offer. Dedicated city leadership and engaged citizens. THIS IS LA MARQUE. #iloveLa_Marque Small city, big on business. Grow with us. Visit LMEDC.com or call 409-938-9258. HomeTown Bank has earned another five-star “superior” rating for 2020 from the nation’s leading independent bank and credit union rating firm. To find out what our superior rating means for you, visit www.bauerfinancial.com. 25 Consecutive Years of 5-Star ‘Superior’ Ratings Galveston • Friendswood • League City • Alvin • Pearland • Internet: www.HomeTown.Bank 12 | THE DAILY NEWS | LATITUDE 29 | 2020 Visit us at www.texasf irst.bank or stop by any one of our 26 locations to learn more. Bankingyou. fo Bankingof you. becaus 2020 | LATITUDE 29 | THE DAILY NEWS | 1314 | THE DAILY NEWS | LATITUDE 29 | 2020 ‘A LONG JOURNEY’ FOR HEALTH-CARE WORKERS, A YEAR OF ADAPT AND OVERCOME Story by KERI HEATH ABOVE: Sonda Lewis, a registered nurse in the intensive care unit at Memorial Hermann Southeast Hospital, dons personal protective equipment before entering a COVID patient’s room. OPPOSITE PAGE: Lewis checks a patient’s IV bags. PHOTOS BY JENNIFER REYNOLDS IN THE INTENSIVE CARE COVID-19 unit at the Memorial Hermann Southeast Hospital, 11800 Astoria Blvd., it takes Sonda Lewis several minutes to put on her protective equipment. Lewis methodically pulls on gloves and ties a gown over her scrubs. She takes off her surgical mask briefly to don an N-95, a higher-grade mask offering greater protection. Then she finishes putting the surgical mask over the N-95 and dons a second pair of gloves. Lewis goes into the patient’s room, checks vitals, and when she’s done in the isolated room, she takes off all the extra gear and puts it in the trash. The constant donning and doffing of protective medical gear has become routine for heath-care workers this year as they’ve adapted to take care of patients during a pandemic. Fighting the virus has meant rapidly adapting in hospitals and proactively tracing the human contacts of people who’ve been infected. And while much is still uncertain about COVID-19, local physicians have been able to adapt practic- es to treat patients and reduce spread of the virus.2020 | LATITUDE 29 | THE DAILY NEWS | 1516 | THE DAILY NEWS | LATITUDE 29 | 2020 The first few months of the pandemic caused rapid and major shifts in local hospitals as heath-care workers respond- ed to unknowns about the coronavirus. At the beginning of the pandemic, physicians didn’t know a lot about how to treat the virus, and that’s what was scary, said Dr. Shawn Nishi, associate professor in the division of pulmonary care and medicine at the University of Texas Medical Branch. Now, physicians know more, Nishi said. Doctors now know patients lying prone, on their stom- achs, breathe more easily, and that drugs such as remdesivir and dexamethasone ease symptoms of the virus, Nishi said. They also have refined their care of long-term patients, which means treating the side-effects, such as muscle wast- ing, of being in the hospital for weeks or months, Nishi said. “It’s not just the acute illness anymore,” Nishi said. “We really start to think about what can we do while they’re in the hospital.” SHIFTING ROLES Part of the fight against COVID-19 means adapting quickly if patient numbers or demands increase, said Dr. Nadim Is- lam, an emergency room physician and chief medical officer of Houston Methodist Clear Lake Hospital. That meant people had to shift their traditional roles, he said. “These nurses that work a lot in administrative positions, we put them back in clinical work,” Islam said. Doctors are used to things changing, but this year, they have been changing more rapidly, he said. “We had to find ways to make our PPE last longer,” Islam said, referring to personal protective equipment, such as masks and gowns. “Nothing’s been constant. It was very hard to continuously adapt.” FLOOD OF FACTS Part of what’s overwhelming about the coronavirus is that there’s just so much new medical literature about it, especial- ly because everyone in the world is researching COVID-19, Islam said. But it also offers opportunity for new collaboration, said Dr. Bela Patel, executive director of critical care at Memorial Hermann Hospital-Texas Medical Center in Houston. Many physicians in the Houston region have joined a group using a messaging app to exchange new ideas about COVID treatments, Patel said. “The medical community has been very eager to learn and learn how to manage these patients,” Patel said. Doctors have changed practices quickly as more research has come out this year, which is strange for physicians, she said. “We want a very high level of evidence before we start changing practices,” Patel said. “We’re used to having a slow pace of change. This has been very unusual for us.” CONTACT TRACING One of the most important tools in fighting the virus is stopping it before it can spread too widely. That’s where contact tracing comes in, said Randy Valcin, director of public health surveillance programs at the Galves- ton County Health District. Valcin’s team calls everyone in the county who has tested positive and interviews them about who they’ve seen and who they might have infected. It’s especially key to catching people who don’t have any symptoms, and could spread the virus without ever knowing they have it, Valcin said. “You have so many people out there who have no clue they have COVID-19, but they are infectious,” Valcin said. “They are going to infect more people.” Valcin estimates about 40 percent of patients have been asymptomatic, he said. Valcin’s team encourages people who have come into contact with someone who tested positive to isolate and be tested, he said. The contact tracing program has grown more robust since March. At the beginning, the program relied on health dis- trict staff, but now, the district has state funding, Valcin said. PHOTO BY STUART VILLANUEVA Nadim Islam is an emergency room physician and chief medical officer of Houston Methodist Clear Lake Hospital. All the change and uncertainty surrounding COVID-19 can take a toll on physicians, Islam said. Anu Puliyampallil, a registered nurse, monitors dialysis for a COVID patient in the intensive care unit at Memorial Hermann Southeast Hospital. PHOTO BY JENNIFER REYNOLDSTEXAS CITY OFFICE 7111 Medical Cnt., Suite 105 In the Medical Arts Pavilion by Beeler Manske 409-938-1700 LEAGUE CITY OFFICE 3891 E. 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DOCTOR BURNOUT For doctors, the beginning of the pandemic was especially terrifying because experts knew so little about how bad the virus was and how it was transmitted, Islam said. Physicians are normally careful about sanitizing when they leave work, but people are even more cautious now, he said. “They’re trying to be very meticulous at work about how they change their clothes,” Islam said. During the early days, physicians working directly with patients stayed in RVs behind their homes or in hotel rooms or even sent their families away because they were afraid of spreading the virus home, Islam said. All of that change and uncertainty can take a toll, and can certainly be an issue, Patel said. “When people get tired, they could make errors and we certainly don’t want that,” Patel said. “We worry that when people get tired they stop paying as much attention to their own practices and may make subconscious error.” Now, people know a lot more about the coronavirus and how to treat it, Nishi said. But less than a year in, there is still much more to learn. “What we think we know is probably going to be com- pletely upended in the next year or so,” Nishi said. “Unfortu- nately, we don’t know the truth until after a long journey. We have just now begun that long journey.” Claudia Carpio, a nurse practitioner in the intensive care unit at Memorial Hermann Southeast Hospital, checks on a COVID patient. PHOTO BY JENNIFER REYNOLDS18 | THE DAILY NEWS | LATITUDE 29 | 2020 STRETCHED TO THE LIMIT NONPROFITS, CHARITIES STRUGGLE IN FLOOD OF NEW CLIENTS Story by ANGELA WILSON M.I. Lewis Social Service Center food pantry assistant Madison Yarbrough, left, and pantry supervisor Carrie Cobb stock shelves in the center’s food pantry. PHOTO BY STUART VILLANUEVA2020 | LATITUDE 29 | THE DAILY NEWS | 19 FOR THE PAST SIX MONTHS , several nonprofits and charities have stepped up and have been helping those affected by the coronavirus pandemic. As of Sept. 15, in the United States there have been more than 6.5 million cases of COVID-19 and 194,092 deaths, according to the U.S. Centers for Dis- ease Control and Prevention. And, in Texas, 663,445 cases, of which Galves- ton County accounts for 11,280 cases or 1.7 percent with the unfortunate count of more than 150 deaths. Meanwhile, millions of Americans and thousands of county residents have lost their jobs in an economic swoon caused both by the virus and government restrictions imposed to help mitigate its spread. At same the time, living expenses soared for many with schools closed, forcing parents to seek child-care services they typically didn’t need. It has been a formula for severe economic stress even for fairly well-sit- uated people. The most vulnerable of those who’ve found themselves in need of help because they’ve lost their jobs have in increasing numbers turned to county aid organizations, which have contin- ued to offer support even though their own resources have been stretched to the limit. The Galveston County Community Action Council, which helps county residents with assistance for rent and utilities, received $1.5 million for its Comprehensive Energy Assistance Program, and $1.3 million for its Com- munity Service Block Grant through the coronavirus relief bill, Executive Director Robert Quintero said. “In addition to us helping residents with utility and rental assistance, we’ve also been able to help families with school supplies and uniforms,” Quin- tero said. Because of COVID-19 safety pro- tocols, clients aren’t able to come to Galveston County Food Bank staff, from left, Kristy McCoy, Julie Morreale, Brenda Garner, Amanda McCarty, Rita Boyer and president and CEO Donnie VanAckeren. Robert Quintero, with the Galveston County Community Action Council, checks an application dropbox outside of the council’s offices at the Island Community Center in Galveston. With the coronavirus pandemic, Quintero’s staff places a rack with applications and the dropbox outside the community center each day. PHOTO BY STUART VILLANUEVA PHOTO BY JENNIFER REYNOLDSNext >