REPORT TO THE CITY COUNCIL
June 11, 2020
FROM: MAYOR LEE BRAND
Office of the Mayor & City Manager
WILMA QUAN, City Manager
Office of the Mayor & City Manager
BY: TIM A. ORMAN, Chief of Staff to the Mayor
Office of the Mayor & City Manager
SUBJECT
Title
Action pertaining to COVID-19 response and the Mobile HeaL Project:
1. Adopt a finding that approval of this grant agreement is covered by the common sense exemption set forth in CEQA Guidelines Section 15061(c)(3) on the basis that it can be seen with certainty that there is no possibility that it may have a significant effect on the environment.
2. Authorize the City Manager to develop and sign a grant agreement with UCSF Fresno for a $5 million Mobile HeaL Project
3. ***RESOLUTION - Adopting the 57th amendment to the Annual Appropriation Resolution No. 2019-133 appropriating $5 million from the City’s Coronavirus Relief Fund to fund the Mobile HeaL Project. (Requires 5 Votes) (Subject to Mayor’s Veto)
Body
RECOMMENDATIONS
The Mayor and City Manager recommend the Council authorize the City Manager to enter into a grant agreement with UCSF Fresno to conduct health screen and mobile testing related to COVID-19 in underserved areas of the community and to approve the 57th Amendment to the Annual Appropriations Resolution No. 2019-133 to fund the project.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
COVID-19 is responsible for a worldwide pandemic with devastating impacts for communities across the globe. In the City of Fresno, underserved and vulnerable populations have been particularly impacted by COVID-19. The Mayor along with the Mayor-elect and the City Manager have met with Dr. Michael Peterson of UCSF Fresno to discuss the local impacts of COVID-19 and potential responses. The fruit of the City’s discussions with UCSF is the attached UCSF Fresno Mobile HeaL Grant Proposal for COVID-19 related health screening and mobile testing in the form of the Mobile HeaL Project.
The Mobile HeaL Project is the result of the efforts of and collaboration by UCSF Fresno and the City to improve the City’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic in areas of the City that need help the most.
BACKGROUND
The Administration believes a mobile testing program that travels to neighborhoods, schools, churches and other locations throughout Central, Southwest and Southeast Fresno to provide COVID-19 testing and basic health screening is an appropriate response to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the City’s vulnerable populations. Dr. Kenny Banh of UCSF Fresno launched HeaL Mobile Clinic in the fall of 2018. The proposal you have before you today takes the program and expands it, in direct response to the ensuing pandemic, to provide COVID-19 testing in addition to medical screenings and education. When the program is up and running at its peak, three mobile testing units will be deployed throughout the City.
The program will help to identify underlying health issues that increase individuals’ risks for infection and contraction of COVID-19 and identify more serious consequences of the infection (diabetes, hypertension, lung and heart disease) using point-of-care testing and screening evaluations. Individuals who are symptomatic and test positive for COVID-19 will be connected to health care providers using telehealth capabilities built into the mobile testing vehicles. UCSF Fresno will also develop strategic partnerships with federally qualified health centers to link symptomatic individuals, and others with serious issues, to appropriate care providers.
Additional details regarding the budget for the UCSF Fresno Mobile HeaL Grant Proposal are included in the UCSF Fresno Proposed Budget attached to this staff report.
City Controller Michael Lima has reviewed this program and believe it is an eligible expense for reimbursement from the City’s Coronavirus Relief Fund established and funded by the federal government’s CARES Act.
ENVIRONMENTAL FINDINGS
Pursuant to CEQA Guidelines Section 15061(c)(3) CEQA does not apply to projects that are covered by the “common sense” exemption; meaning they do not have the potential for causing a significant effect on the environment. Where it can be seen with certainty that there is no possibility that the activity in question may have a significant effect on the environment, the activity is not subject to CEQA.
Here the grant program supplies additional funding to an existing mobile health screening program to provide COVID-19 testing in addition to medical screenings and will provide for the addition of up to 3 vehicles to the program. Because this is an expansion of an existing mobile health program; because the addition of three or fewer vehicles to City of Fresno roadways is a negligible addition to traffic; and because this program proposes no new physical construction or modification of stationary facilities, it can be seen with certainty that this approval will not have a significant effect on the environment. Therefore, it is exempt from the requirements of CEQA pursuant to CEQA Guidelines Section 15061(c)(3) and no further assessment is required.
LOCAL PREFERENCE
Not applicable.
FISCAL IMPACT
This plan will not negatively impact the General Fund. If approved, the grant of $5,000,000 provided for the HeaL Mobile Project will be distributed from the City’s Coronavirus Relief Fund monies pursuant to the CARES Act.
Attachments:
57th Amendment to the Annual Appropriations Resolution No. 2019-133
UCSF Fresno Mobile HeaL Grant Proposal
UCSF Fresno Proposed Budget