‘Business as usual’: Many Sacramento city employees still working during coronavirus outbreak
It’s been a week since Sacramento County issued a mandatory “shelter in place” order to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, but Ignacio Moreno still has to report to work every day to trim trees around the city of Sacramento.
After work, he returns home to his wife and 12-year-old son, who suffers from severe allergies and asthma attacks, potentially placing him in a high-risk category for contracting the virus.
“It’s business as usual,” said Moreno, who’s worked for the city for 24 years. “I’m afraid of bringing something home to my wife and my son and them catching it. Heaven forbid if something were to ever happen to them.”
In addition to tree trimmers, the city is directing its building maintenance workers, construction site inspectors and code enforcement officers to still report to work as usual, despite state and county orders directing everyone to stay home unless their jobs are “essential,” said Laura Trapp, business administrator for Stationary Engineers Local 39.
“The Department of Public Works and the Community Development Department have chosen to completely ignore the shelter in place mandate and put their entire workforce at risk of exposure,” Trapp wrote in an email to the City Council and Mayor Darrell Steinberg Thursday on behalf of the city’s largest union. “These two Departments continue to run full crews, full-time, even though workloads have diminished significantly.”
Trapp asked the city to instead place those employees on rotating on-call shifts, as the city’s Utilities Department has done.
City officials said they would look into the claims, but defended the city’s response to the virus thus far.
“The safety of our employees and communities during this public health crisis is our highest priority,” city spokesman Tim Swanson said in a statement. “All City employees performing essential functions, as defined by the County of Sacramento’s public health order, who are not able to telecommute, have been educated and trained on how to use proper social distancing, enhanced hygiene techniques and personal protective equipment.”
Swanson added that city “departments have modified work environments to create social distancing, including eliminating shared vehicles and varying work schedules. City employees performing non-essential functions have been sent home. The City will investigate any and all claims about an unsafe work environment, especially those related to COVID-19. This is an evolving situation, one that we are examining constantly to ensure our employees are safe and able to continue delivering essential services during this difficult and unprecedented time.”
“We’ll look into any claims that employees are being exposed to risk, but we feel the city is responding well to the needs of this public health crisis,” said Steinberg’s spokeswoman Mary Lynne Vellinga. “We’ve set up over 1,000 employees to telework. For the people that are considered essential workers, the city has made accommodations so they can maintain a safe physical distance from one other.”
Councilman Eric Guerra said he had concerns after receiving the email. He planned to talk to City Manager Howard Chan about it and also contact the League of California Cities to learn the best practices during this unique situation.
“I don’t think we need to be putting any employees in situations where they can be in harm’s way,” Guerra said. “We have to take every precaution even though we’re learning day by day.”
West Sacramento has sent all its code enforcement officers home and those employees are receiving normal pay, said Paul Hosley, city spokesman.
The city is also only sending out only half of its 22 public works employees who staff the water treatment plant, corporation yard and perform other tasks, Hosley said. Those workers are on duty from roughly 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and then they are on call.
”It eliminates half your people and you’re still able to get the job done,” Hosley said.
Sacramento crews still working
On Thursday afternoon, Moreno was out with a crew on an assignment trimming sycamore trees near 17th Street and Broadway.
The majority of Moreno’s assignments since the “shelter in place” order was issued have been similar - routine pruning, trimming and loading brush into a chipper, he said. There have been few emergency assignments, such as removing downed trees from roadways, he said.
His crew of four tries to follow the social distancing guidelines from experts of staying six feet from other people, but some tasks like roping down limbs over roofs and loading brush into a chipper require them to be just two or three feet apart, he said.
The city has provided Moreno and the tree trimmers with hand sanitizer, but not masks, he said.
“We should have them if we’re gonna be out here,” Moreno said.
Other employees told Trapp they had not been given hand sanitizer or sanitizing wipes, she said.
“This is irresponsible, against the CDC’s recommendations, and shows a severe callousness towards employees’ health and safety,” Trapp wrote about the lack of sanitation supplies and masks.
Bathrooms are also a problem. The tree trimming crews typically use restrooms in the city’s community centers, but the city closed those facilities last week. Most restaurants are also closed, leaving only the park restrooms, which are not very clean and are used by many, Moreno said.
A code enforcement officer told Trapp they must drive about 30 minutes back to the office to use the bathrooms and wash their hands.
“The risk of community spread is outrageous because these departments won’t limit their staffing,” Trapp said.
The city has also directed its building maintenance workers to keep coming in, Trapp said. Those workers handle light bulb and keyboard replacements at City Hall and other city buildings, but with most employees working from home, there are few jobs for them to do, Trapp said.
The city has about 12 tree pruners, seven tree maintenance workers, 22 code enforcement officers and 21 construction inspectors, according to an employee roster.
“We all come in at the same time, we all leave at the same time, we all congregate at the same area and a lot of the guys have wives and kids,” Moreno said. “That’s been our biggest scariest thought is bringing it home to our families.”
