TO:
Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
THROUGH:
Bruce Moe, City Manager
FROM:
Lisa Jenkins, Human Resources Director
Briza Morales, Risk Manager
Alexandria Latragna, Policy and Management Analyst
SUBJECT:Title
Consideration of Including Contractors and Volunteers in a COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate (Human Resources Director Jenkins).
DISCUSS AND PROVIDE DIRECTION
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Recommended Action
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends that the City Council discuss and provide direction regarding including contractors and volunteers in the City’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
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FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
Should Council direct the creation of a mandatory vaccination policy for contractors and volunteers, staff will return with the proposed emergency order/policy, as well as related costs.
BACKGROUND:
On March 13, 2020, the City Council adopted Resolution No. 20-0039, proclaiming the existence of a local emergency due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Staff continues to monitor the pandemic and review information provided by health experts from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (LACDPH), California Department of Public Health (CDPH), and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). COVID-19 daily cases and community transmission remain high; from December 8-December 14, Los Angeles County had 10,987 new reported cases.
The spread of COVID-19 is a substantial risk to the health of our employees and the public. The City is committed to protecting the health and safety of its employees and the public we serve. Vaccinations are an effective safety measure to decrease community transmission, hospitalizations, and deaths. At this time, the current COVID-19 vaccines are effective at helping to reduce the risk of getting and spreading the infection and also of getting seriously ill if fully vaccinated, including against the current variants of the virus that causes COVID-19.
According to the CDC, as the virus spreads, it has new opportunities to change and may become more difficult to stop. Last month, the LACDPH received information of its first case of COVID-19 with mutations consistent with the new Omicron variant, further reinforcing the need to get vaccinated or boosted. Although no vaccine is 100 percent effective at preventing illness in vaccinated people, the currently authorized COVID-19 vaccines remain the best form of protection against COVID-19.
On September 21, 2021, City Council directed staff to research, draft, and implement a policy requiring City employees to become fully vaccinated and submit proof of such vaccination. Subsequently, staff drafted and implemented a COVID-19 vaccine mandate policy for City employees, distributed it to City employees, and began meeting with labor associations for the required impacts bargaining.
On November 2, 2021, City Council directed staff to return with a discussion related to an emergency order to potentially include contractors and volunteers, along with City employees, in the COVID-19 vaccine mandate. Subsequent to November 2, the City Council moved back the effective date of the vaccine mandate for City employees to June 1, 2022, as a result of the impacts bargaining with the City’s labor associations. All affected City bargaining units have agreed to the impacts of this policy mandate, in conjunction with the postponement of the implementation deadline. The vaccine mandate policy for City employees has been finalized, and staff is returning to Council to seek direction regarding including contractors and volunteers in the vaccine mandate.
Staff has researched how other jurisdictions are implementing a COVID-19 vaccine mandate and found that the following agencies require volunteers and contractors, as well as their employees, to be fully vaccinated:
City of Los Angeles
County of Los Angeles
Santa Monica
West Hollywood
Hermosa Beach
DISCUSSION:
Contractors
Each department has identified current contractors working on behalf of the City who have in-person interactions with City employees, are assigned to work on City property for the provision of services, or who come into contact with the public during the course of their work on behalf of the City (referred to as “onsite” for purposes of this report). Many of the City’s contractors provide services remotely and would therefore be excluded from the COVID-19 vaccine mandate. Staff conducted a high-level overview and analysis of each department’s contractors to determine the potential impact on services should a COVID-19 vaccine mandate be implemented.
City contracts have been categorized below to assist the Council in their discussion and direction:
a) Contract Instructors: Contract instructors teach recreation classes and camps, and therefore have direct and sustained contact with class participants. Some are sole proprietors and some have employees or subcontractors (camps, sports for tots, etc.).
b) Temporary and Supplemental Onsite Staffing: The City contracts for temporary and supplemental onsite staff to provide inspection services, special event services (CSC), parking enforcement (Laz Parking), code enforcement officers, temporary administrative staffing, etc. It is anticipated that most temporary and onsite staffing agencies could accommodate a vaccine mandate with minimal impact to existing service, although exemptions may need to be considered in order to appropriately staff certain large-scale special events.
c) Ongoing Onsite Maintenance: The City utilizes contractors for onsite maintenance, for example, janitorial services, landscaping services, etc. Staff anticipates that applying a vaccine mandate will possibly result in service delivery changes and unintended costs to the City.
d) Public Works Contractors and Subcontractors: Public Works capital improvement projects involve multiple subcontractors who come into contact with the public or employees in the course of their work. Without amending each current contract and including this requirement in future Requests for Bids, it may be difficult to enforce a COVID-19 vaccine requirement. Additionally, applying this requirement to future contracts will be difficult, limit the pool of qualified bidders, and may result in unintended costs to the City.
e) On-Call Maintenance: The City has on-call contractors utilized for maintenance, delivery, and other services, including HVAC repair, coffee and water delivery, and support for the City’s phone system, etc. Due to the minimal onsite contact and the fact that there is not always a regularly assigned individual under this type of contract, a vaccine mandate may be more complicated to implement and may possibly result in unintended costs to the City.
f) Professional Services: The City maintains professional services contracts that may provide onsite services, from time to time. Examples of these types of contracts are investigation services, legal consultation, auditing and tax professionals, plan review and project management. Many of the vendors working under these types of contracts may be able to provide their professional services remotely, without any reason to be onsite. Staff anticipates minimal impact to requiring those working onsite to be vaccinated. In addition, many of those vendors have mandatory vaccination policies of their own for all personnel.
g) Sanitation and Solid Waste Collection: The last category of services procured by the City relates to sanitation and solid waste collection. The City contracts with Waste Management for solid waste collection and Athens Services for street sweeping and power washing services. Both of these companies do not currently have a policy mandating the COVID-19 vaccine; however, their employees have relatively limited interaction with City employees or members of the public. Staff anticipates that there may be unintended costs associated with implementing a vaccine mandate even for future contracts, further limiting the shallow pool of available vendors.
Volunteers
Staff has identified two primary categories of volunteers that Council may consider implementing a vaccine mandate for:
a.) Board members and commissioners (including task force members): Staff has not reached out to all board members and commissioners to determine the impacts of a potential vaccine mandate. While many of the commissions are still meeting remotely, should Council direct a vaccine mandate, staff will reach out to all boards and commissioners to advise them of this future requirement for onsite meetings.
b.) Volunteers in various capacities who interact with employees or the public as part of their service to the community: The City has volunteers working to support the MB CERT program, Older Adults Program, police volunteers, various Parks and Recreation programs, beach clean-up activities, etc. Due to the high vaccination rate within Manhattan Beach, Staff does not anticipate significant interruptions and impacts from requiring a COVID-19 vaccination for volunteers who are required to be onsite as part of their volunteer service.
CONCLUSION:
Recommendation:
In alignment with the previously adopted policy for City employees, staff recommends mandating that all volunteers, including board members and commissioners, who serve onsite or have contact with members of the public in their capacity as City volunteers, be required to become fully vaccinated by June 1, 2022.
Staff also recommends that the City Council implement a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for future contracts beginning June 1, 2022, for the categories of contractors outlined below, and direct staff to request that current contractors implement a COVID-19 vaccine mandate where possible for existing contracts (staff recommendation included in italics next to category).:
a) Instructors: Required
b) Temporary and supplemental onsite staff: Required
c) Ongoing onsite maintenance: Exempt
d) Public Works capital improvement projects and their subcontractors: Exempt
e) On-call contractors utilized for maintenance, delivery, and other services: Exempt
f) Professional services: Required if onsite
g) Sanitation and solid waste collection: Exempt
If Council adopts this recommendation, a standard provision will be included to each new contract for the recommended categories above, requiring contractor personnel, including subcontractors, to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 prior to interacting in person with City employees, contractors, or volunteers; working on City property while performing services; or coming into contact with the public while performing services. Additionally, as part of the policy, staff will recommend that the CDC, State, LACDPH, protocols to be provided to any contractors “exempted” from the vaccine mandate, based on the work being performed, reemphasizing compliance. Should Council direct staff to implement a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for some or all categories of contractors and volunteers, staff will return with an emergency order/policy for consideration at a future meeting reflecting Council’s direction.
Alternative:
If Council opts to modify the above recommendation, Staff requests direction as to:
• which categories of contractors and volunteers, if any, should the mandate be applied; and
• the effective date.
LEGAL REVIEW:
The City Attorney has reviewed this report and determined that no additional legal analysis is necessary.
ATTACHMENT:
1. PowerPoint Presentation