March 19, 2020
Special Edition: EIA Closes Office – Continues Work Remotely; Coronavirus/COVID-19 EIA Specific Resources, Coverages, and Regulations
We realize many of you are in the midst of making real-time difficult decisions about how to provide necessary services to your constituents, while protecting the health and safety of your employees. To that end, we wanted to provide the following information related to Risk Control, Claims/Coverage Issues including Employee Benefits, and Regulations that effect you as a public agency and member of the EIA.
EIA Closes Office – Continues Work Remotely
Today, the Sacramento County Health Officer Issued COVID-19 Ordering that all individuals living in Sacramento County stay at their place of residence except for essential activities starting tomorrow, March 20, 2020. Therefore, the EIA office will be closed for anything other than essential activity beginning tomorrow through April 7, 2020 and possibly later. In accordance with our Business Continuity Plan, staff has implemented remote work options for employees through that time. Our plan enables us to continue all business functions remotely.
If you have any questions, please contact us.
Employment Practices Coronavirus Webinar
This webinar on March 24th by the Eyers Law Group will focus on what public entities and school districts must know about the Coronavirus outbreak, including strategies to prepare for workplace disruption, illness and quarantines, leaves, accommodations and compliance with federal and state regulations and emergency declarations. If you are unable to join us on the 24th, the webcast will be available on demand on EIAtv.
New Coronavirus (COVID-19) Micro Course
Our LMS partner, TargetSolutions is now offering a short 9-minute course, which is titled “Coronavirus 101 - What You Need to Know.” The complimentary training is now available for assignment inside the platform and features critical information about the coronavirus for general industry employees, including:
- How coronavirus spreads
- How to recognize symptoms
- How to prevent and treat the virus
- What to do if you become sick with the virus
If you are not currently using TargetSolutions, you can still access a free version of this course available on the Vector Cares webpage.
Coronavirus (COVID-19): Coverage Thoughts
Unfortunately, from an insurance standpoint, there is no way to fully quantify the impact of the Coronavirus until an actual loss/claim arises. It is important to understand that in the current insurance market, most carrier/policies do not contemplate coverage for disease-related exposure as potential losses are unquantifiable from an underwriting perspective and, would present a potential for devastatingly large losses across the entire insurance industry. From the carriers’ perspective, if all economic losses were insured/insurable, it would be commercially unviable for the carriers to remain in business. With that said, there may be coverage available through the EIA’s coverage programs, and each potential claim should be considered on a case by case basis. A full discussion on Workers' Compensation, Liability, Property, and Medical Malpractices is on the EIA website.
EIA Employee Benefits Programs Response to COVID-19
If you are a Member of the EIAHealth and Employee Benefits programs, which includes Medical, Dental, Vision, Life/Disability and EAP, we ask that you please pay close attention to the communications coming directly from your Alliant Service teams. A summary of pertinent items of which you should be aware has been posted to the EIA website. If you have further questions or are not receiving communications, please reach out to Sidney DiDomenico by calling 916-850-7300.
Governor’s Executive Order Regarding Public Meetings
How Brown Act Provision changes impact your EIA Committee participation.
In an effort to comply with social distancing and in-person meeting directives from the CDC and the State, the EIA has recently moved regular EIA Committee meetings to WebEx. This will continue into the foreseeable future until group gathering restrictions/recommendations change. Relevant to this practice, last Thursday, March 12, 2020, Governor Gavin Newsom issued an Executive Order stating that if certain conditions are met, then various provisions of the Brown Act are suspended “during the period in which the state or local public officials impose or recommend measures to promote social distancing, including but not limited to limitations on public events.”
Some of the Brown Act provisions that have been suspended include ones related to our members’ participation in our committee meetings. While the Governor’s Executive Order remains in effect, EIA Committee members do not: (1) need to post the EIA Committee agenda at the member’s teleconference location; (2) make their teleconference location accessible to the public; or (3) allow members of the public to address the committee at each teleconference location.
Should any of the public meeting requirements change as it pertains to our members’ participation on EIA Committees, we will provide further updates. Should you have any questions about this, please contact Mike Pott, Chief Legal Counsel, at the EIA.
|