The leaders of Fulton County, which has the highest number of COVID-19 cases in Georgia, decided Wednesday to freeze hiring most new employees, give frontline staff millions in hazard pay and buy pandemic necessities — including two 47-foot refrigerated trailers to expand morgue capacity.
Emergency staff told the Fulton County Board of Commissioners on Wednesday they would now have enough hospital beds, ICU beds and ventilators to face the most likely scenario of cases, based on modeling of the virus’ spread.
The additional hospital beds come from the state and hospitals scouring their facilities and budgets.
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And because so many people staying home, the peak number of estimated cases has fallen, said Doug Schuster, with emergency management firm Emergency Management Services International (EMSI).
Fulton currently has more than 1,800 confirmed cases.
Schuster told commissioners that in late April or early May, when cases are expected to peak, Fulton will have a cushion of 700 empty hospital beds, an extra 121 ICU beds and 43 ventilators in reserve.
Schuster said they have identified 293 extra spaces to store bodies, as they expect five to 11 coronavirus deaths a day for the next month. He said the latest predictions show Fulton running out of space by May 12, but he hopes that will change.
“We’re prepared,” Fulton County Board Chairman Robb Pitts said, flanked by a masked county attorney and a masked county manager. “It is my belief that we are as prepared, if not more so, than any other place in the state of Georgia and possibly in the country.”
Credit: Alyssa Pointer
Credit: Alyssa Pointer
But as they spend $15,500 on trailers for the medical examiner, county officials know they must be careful writing checks with everyone’s money. Especially because Fulton’s finance department predicts the county will spend roughly $35 million responding to COVID-19 over the next few months.
They will pay for those unanticipated expenses with a long list of budget reductions: the freeze on hiring non-emergency employees; pausing new arts programs; halting the 10-year pay adjustments employees were set to get in July; rescheduling studies for new senior centers; stopping any non-essential construction projects; restructuring bonds; and delaying other county initiatives.
Of the estimated $35 million, the Board reserved a third to help seniors, the homeless and small business owners — delivering 10,000 meals in the first week they offered the service and receiving $2.2 in small-business loan applications.
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Commissioners also approved hazard pay of $750 per month for 1,600 county employees at risk of contracting the virus — which comes out to $3.6 million for three months, starting in March.
The county feels it has the short-term covered, but there are still many questions unanswered: Will Fulton need to supplement the Grady Hospital system budget? Will the federal government reimburse Fulton for coronavirus costs? What will this do to the tax digest?
Sharon Whitmore, Fulton’s CFO, said the county is 80% funded by property taxes.
Values are already set for this year, but she said there could be a steep decrease in the amount brought in by 2021 commercial taxes — mostly from the decline in retail and hospitality (think restaurants) in Fulton and across the country due to the virus.
“(There’s) a lot of different impacts of the event to consider and we’re doing that literally as it unfolds,” Whitmore told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution after the meeting.
She said the current plan for the upcoming taxes is to approve values in late May or early June.
Whitmore said the chief appraiser is planning to send out a mass mailer giving property owners the option to get their notice online.
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Commissioner Lee Morris said he worked with state Sen. John Albers, R-Roswell, to help those who missed the April 1 deadline for homestead exemption. Morris said some couldn't pay because municipal offices were closed due to the pandemic, so he and Albers have asked the Attorney General to extend that deadline.
Amid the fast pace of change caused by the virus, another change is happening: Fulton Health is getting a new leader, Dr. Lynn Paxton.
Dr. S. Elizabeth Ford had been interim director of the Fulton Board of Health, juggling the boards of health for both Fulton and DeKalb counties — two of the 18 state-run public health districts in Georgia.
Ford told Fulton commissioners on Wednesday that her DeKalb team wanted her back. Her last day will be May 1. Ford, a Fulton resident, said this was supposed to be a short-term interim post after Dr. Kathleen Toomey was named commissioner of the Georgia Department of Public Health in March 2019.
Ford said Paxton has worked at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and done international medical work.
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