This week we've been spending a considerable amount of time working to develop a return to the office plan, working with providers on their new approaches to non-residential supports, watching our budget trends now, and studying the data from the state regarding our future budget for next year that starts in less than 60 days.

Planning to Return to the Workplace

The development of the plan for re-entry into our buildings and to the community requires a comprehensive and thoughtful approach that considers everything we can possibly do to ensure our staff remain safe and healthy. Equally as important, our return must not jeopardize in anyway the health and safety of our consumers, our families, Direct Support Professionals, and our entire provider community. Also, Valley Mountain Regional Center is not separate from our local communities, cities, and counties we are closely connected and we must follow the guidelines and recommendations of our health officials in each area. While we'll be driven primarily by state and national policies, our return to the buildings and communities we work in may look a little different in each site depending on the direction from the public health authorities from each county. Here's one of the tools Bud Mullanix, our Director of Human Resources, is using with our insurance carrier to develop our healthy Return to the Workplace.

Here are a couple of examples that we will be basing our policy on from the county specific guidelines where our offices are:

Stockton Office: San Joaquin County Instructions

Modesto Office: Stanislaus County Instructions

San Andreas Office: Calaveras County Instructions

Each of our provider organizations is and will be also in the process of working with their insurance carriers to put in place workplace safety measures to keep consumers and staff safe while providing services in our region. Next week we'll be meeting with the leadership of CLASP to discuss this and other topics impacting them.

The California Re-Opening Plan - Update on CA Pandemic Roadmap

This week the governor held several press conferences and most of them focused on the state's re-opening planning which culminated yesterday in a slight expansion of the policy. One of the more significant parts of the plan included allowing for Regional Variances (originally localities were not able to be less restrictive than the state guidance). These variances would have to meet a variety of conditions such as: (1) no more than 1 case per 10,000 in the last 14 days, (2) no deaths, (3) able to protect essential workers, (4) adequate testing, 1.5 per 1000 residence, (5) 15 tracers per 100,000, (6) Hospitals need to have capacity for 35% surge and a plan to protect workers with PPE, (7) Vulnerable populations (SNF) must have more than 14 day supplies of PPE, (8) Each county must have an ability to capture data reliably and have an ability to revert back, and other provisions. Starting today clothing stores, florists, bookstores, sporting goods, manufacturing, and warehouses can open with restrictions and the next businesses include offices (workers who cannot telework), seated dining, shopping malls, and outdoor museums.

State Budget

Throughout the week this week there were increased reports on the dramatic impact COVID-19 is having on the state budget. Earlier this year in January the governor said if we had a moderate recession our revenues would drop by $25 billion. Now the recession is expected to be significant and by Wednesday officials anticipated a $35 billion deficit (almost twice the size of our $17.9 billion surplus), and by Thursday the governor started projecting a $54 billion deficit with estimates ranging up to $85 billion. The California Budget of $214 billion is by far the largest in the country, ranked 33 in per capita spending, so a $54 billion deficit represents about 25% of the total budget. As of the beginning of this week the governor reported estimating "depression era" unemployment rates and noted 4.2 million people have now applied for Public Unemployment Assistance costing $10.6 billion and the national unemployment is said to be around 14%. However to help put this in perspective the governor said the 2003 budget deficit as a percentage was actually higher than what they're projecting. In addition to the large budget surplus the governor is also anticipating some federal relief to the states which has occurred during national crisis like this in the past.

I find it helpful to remember that our nation and our state has endured pandemics and major economic downturns in the past and we pulled through together. And most heartening, our community has been periodically hit hard financially but together we pulled through that as well. No economic condition can take away the fact that our community is strong and resilient and we won't retreat from the civil and human rights advances we have achieved over the years, we may advance slower but we will not stop the progress of full participation in the community.

Have a great weekend.

Sincerely

Tony Anderson

Executive Director

Valley Mountain Regional Center