New Health Orders and Impact on County Services

Message from Helen Robbins-Meyer, Chief Administrative Officer

Our County health officials today announced new measures intended to slow the spread of the coronavirus, which causes COVID-19. The updated closures and restrictions will add to the impact on our community and on our workforce. You can see details of the order on County News Center. But I want to talk about how these actions will continue to affect our operations.

We provide essential public services, often to our most vulnerable residents. Those must, and will, continue. How we do that will have to change, because we need to follow the social distancing guidelines from our health experts.

This may look different in each department and from location to location as each unit figures out what works best. But we are open for business, even if on a limited basis.

We are going to transition to as much telework – working from home – as possible. Some of that started with last week’s order closing schools. And today, with the recent guidance measures for those over 65 years old, we transitioned many of our employees to telework immediately. Departments are working out how they can do the same and keep their operations effective.

I’ve said several times recently that this public health crisis will require great flexibility on everyone’s part. You have demanding work normally, and these circumstances are making it even more challenging. This is our time to come through for our residents, who are anxious and looking to us for stability and help. Please be ready for more changes we’ll need to make so that we can keep serving our customers, while remaining safe ourselves. Continue to take care of yourself, and if you’re sick, please stay home.  We need you, but we need you well.

Thank you for your dedication.