— by Minor Lile, Orcas Issues reporter –

At the June 9 County Council meeting, Public Health Officer Dr. Frank James advised the Council that he would like to wait until at least June 24 before applying to the State to move to Phase 3 of the Safe Start re-opening process.

The County’s application to move from Phase 1 to Phase 2 was approved by the State on May 23. The guidelines for moving to the next phase require a minimum of three weeks between phases. According to these criteria, San Juan County is eligible to apply for moving to Phase 3 as soon as this Saturday, June 13.

Dr. James told the council that in his view there are just too many unknowns to move forward on June 13. He said, “On June 3 we opened up transient accommodations, it will be about three weeks from that date until we know the implications of that decision and whether it is safe to move ahead.”

He also pointed to the potential impact of the recent large-scale protests in nearby counties related to the Black Lives Matter movement and the death of George Floyd. As a result of those demonstrations, he said, “there is almost certainly going to be a significant rebound in cases (in those counties) and that’s where most of our tourists come from.” Dr. James also said that the nine Counties that have already moved forward to Phase 3 are not tourist destinations in the same way that San Juan County is.

In response to Dr. James comments, all three Councilmembers expressed varying degrees of surprise, frustration and sympathy. Just prior to the meeting, Dr. James had emailed the Council members and the Board of Health to share his thinking. But as Jamie Stephens said, receiving such an email at 8:57 for a 9 a.m. meeting felt like being blind-sided, even though the intention was to avoid doing that.

Stephens said that he was ‘very disappointed’ in Dr. James ‘thought process’ and pointed out that ‘until there is a treatment or vaccine, we are going to have risk in the community’, but that in terms of the number of positive cases and other criteria ‘nothing had changed’ since last week, “when you (Dr. James) said you were comfortable moving forward.”

Stephens also noted that some of the counties that have already moved to Phase 3 do attract tourist activity and in that regard are not so different than San Juan County. He also took issue with Dr. James’ statement that at least three weeks are necessary to assess the impact of moving to Phase 2 and allowing transient accommodations to be occupied up to 50%. He pointed out that the State’s criteria is 14 days and questioned Dr. James about the premise that 21 days are a more appropriate time frame for assessment.

Dr. James responded that the standard time frame for assessment is two transmission cycles, or 28 days, and that the time frame has been shortened to a single transmission cycle because of the significant pressures that exist to reopen the economy. He added that the balancing the health of the economy and public health is a delicate balancing act. And that in this regard, it would be detrimental to move forward too quickly and then later need to retreat to an earlier phase.

Councilmember Rick Hughes said that he was also disappointed and questioned why Dr. James had supported moving quickly to Phase 2 if that meant moving more slowly to Phase 3. He added that he considers it likely that the State would authorize moving to Phase 3 if the County were to apply on June 13, “but now we are talking about five weeks instead of three to request that step.” Hughes also summarized the safety protocols and procedures that are in place, including testing, availability of personal protective equipment, and contact tracing capacity and said that in his view the County is as well prepared as any in the State.

Hughes added that, “we are threading a needle at a time when our businesses are at great risk,” and that in his view it is appropriate to move forward as soon as possible by applying and giving the State the ability to decide if San Juan County is prepared to move ahead to Phase 3. He noted that the ferry system has recently announced that it is planning to continue with limited sailings based on the winter schedule through the summer and that this, along with the likelihood that people are going to be less inclined to travel, will restrict the amount of travel to the islands. He recommended continuing with plans for Saturday’s meeting, noting that ‘there is a lot of time between today and Saturday’, and asking Dr. James to continue to consider the overall situation.

Councilmember Bill Watson also shared his thoughts. He said that he understood Dr. James logic and had many of the same thoughts. His conclusion is that there is ‘no right answer’ and that he wanted to recognize the ‘significant individual responsibility’ that Dr. James carries, and “I want to respect that. I’m not sure what my answer would be if I were in his position.”

The process of requesting a variance to proceed from one phase to the next begins with a letter of request from the County Public Health Officer. That letter must then be approved by both the County Board of Health and the County Council before the request can proceed. The next step is to complete the formal application materials, which are then forwarded to the WA State Secretary of Health for review.

At the conclusion of the discussion, the Council agreed to continue to move forward with scheduling a joint meeting with the Board of Health for 9 a.m. on Saturday June 13, with the understanding that if there is no action to be taken at the meeting, it can be cancelled or postponed to a later date.

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