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Thank you.

- How Memphis will reopen,
tonight on Behind The Headlines.

[intense music]

I'm Eric Barnes with
The Daily Memphian.

Thanks for joining
us as we continue

to do Behind The
Headlines remotely.

I am joined tonight
by Doug McGowen,

Chief Operating Officer
for the City of Memphis.

Doug, thanks for joining
us from City Hall.

- Glad to be here, Eric.

- Along with Bill Dries,

reporter with
The Daily Memphian.

Doug, so let's
start with we're in this

phase of potential reopening,

and the city and county
and the suburbs have

laid out a framework, the
Back to Business framework.

There's a website that has a

tremendous amount
of information,

Backtobusiness.memphistn.gov

Who though is in charge?

I understand and
we'll get into this idea

that there's not a date,

it's data, as the mayor said.

And that it's a
series of metrics that

as we hit them, we can open more

and if we miss them we
have to kind of pull back.

So we'll talk about
that some more,

but fundamentally,
who's in charge

of making that
decision that we've

hit the metrics you
all have laid out?

- Sure, well I think
that it's important

to say that we've had
a great cooperation

of this coalition of
mayors from across

Shelby County and
actually, our region.

Everybody has aligned
and has the intention of

moving forward at the same time

with the same kinds of
restrictions in place

and the same kind of
protocols in place.

If you were to wind the
clock all the way back

to what the authorities are
for each individual mayor,

they all have an
individual authority

and could make their
decisions on their own.

The Health Officer could
make his decision on his own,

the governor has a certain
level of authority, as well.

But what we're trying
to do here is to have

everybody look at the same data

and come to the same conclusion,

and make their
decisions together

so that they use their
collective authority

for what we would say
is a comprehensive

approach to reopening
Shelby County

and the areas
immediately around us.

- Are you worried, though,
that with so many people,

elected officials with
their own constituents,

a tremendous amount
of pressure from some

people to stay closed, from
other people to reopen,

business owners
particularly, and it's just a

tremendous pressured situation.

That that collective decision
making will break down?

- I think that's always a
concern and it's always a risk,

but I look at what
people do rather than

what could possibly happen and
so far we have been aligned.

We've been at this for
almost six weeks now,

and we have had a
consistent cooperation

across all of the
municipalities in Shelby County,

an even our
surrounding counties in

West Memphis, Arkansas,
DeSoto County,

Tipton County, Fayette County.

We've had this
collective effort,

this coalition of the willing

who are coming
together to make sure

we have the best
possible outcome here

in Memphis and
Shelby County region.

- Last thing before
I go to Bill,

again that sense of again
looking at the metrics,

and we'll walk through
some of those metrics

and try to dive into
them a little more.

But that the measurement,

the determination that
all the various metrics

have been hit on any given day,

is that the task
force getting together

and saying, taking a vote?

Or is it that the numbers
are so hard and fast

that it's really,
the numbers don't lie.

- Oh, there's really no vote.

What happens is everyday
we meet as a joint task force,

we've moved those meetings
to three times a week now.

But on that task force call are

all the representatives
that I've mentioned,

in addition to the
Health Department

and so many other agencies.

There's several hundred
people on this call,

including all the
hospital systems,

the social network providers,

the Social Service
network providers,

and all of the elected officials

as well as their staff members

who are delivering the
services each and every day.

We understand that
there is pressure,

but that's just one factor
that weighs into any decision.

The data is the data,

and so what we're really
looking at is to have

a flat or decreasing number of

new cases each and every day,

and we're also looking
for a flat or decreasing

number of COVID-related
hospitalizations,

particularly in our ICU.

That is one data point
that we will look at

to determine whether we are
ready to begin moving forward.

But we also have to look at,

as you've heard on the
daily press briefings,

we have to look at the capacity

of our hospital
system to be ready

to absorb any kind of an uptick

when we do decide to open up,

and the capacity of our
public health system

to put enough testing in place

and enough contact
tracing investigation

and surveillance
capacity in place

to make sure that
we have our finger

on the pulse and can tell very
quickly if things move up.

At the end of the day,
this is a decision

that the health officer and

the elected officials
have to make.

There is no formula that
says 1+1 equals open,

you really have to
take a look at the data

and determine having
balanced all of the factors

that are associated with this,

is it safe and
proven for us to take

the next step and
move into phase one.

There is no easy answer to that,

there is no rote
answer to that,

it is an aggregation
of the information

that says we have mitigated
the risks appropriately,

and the next step is that

we should take...
move into phase one.

- All right, let me
go to Bill Dries.

- Um, Chief,
government and business

and health do intersect,

and they intersect quite often,

but I'd venture to say that they

don't often intersect
in this particular way.

How unique is this
moment in the life

of the city, in the affairs
of the City of Memphis?

- I think it's fair to
say that it's a unique

and globally, Bill,
that we haven't had

something of this
scale and intensity

for more than a
hundred years, really,

and so it is very unique
for us and the city.

I think for the
unprecedented level

of collaboration, cooperation,
and information sharing

that we're seeing is something
that is quite unique.

The openness and
willingness of everybody

to partner, to drop their
various perspectives

and come together
as one unified team

is relatively unique,
but it's also inspiring.

Memphis is a city, as
I've said several times,

and there's a book by
Sir Peter Hall that says,

"Memphis is a city where
anything can be made to happen."

and quite frankly, this
is the epitome of that.

I don't know of
anyplace else that has

a joint task force that
is organized like ours,

that has the number of agencies
that are participating,

and a unity of effort
like is happening

here in Memphis
and Shelby County.

It's something we
can all be proud of.

In this unique moment
we came together

in the right way so
that we can provide

the best possible outcomes
for our citizenry.

- The city got some
good news this week,

$113.6 million in CARES Act

funding from the
federal government,

but there are rules about
how this money can be used,

as is usually the case with
the federal government.

This cannot be used
to fix the holes,

the revenue holes that
are coming in the budget

or the revenue hit that the city

has taken in the
current fiscal year.

What's that money
going to be used for?

- Well that's an
excellent question, Bill.

City Council took
action just on Tuesday,

as you said we had a budget hole

of about $100 million between

this fiscal year and
next fiscal year,

that's what we have forecast.

So we put out to
the City Council

that's a problem that
we need to solve.

We were hopeful that
the federal CARES Act

money could help
us with some of that.

The restrictions that
are on that money mean

it is going to be very limited

for what we can use it
for in our city budget.

It's literally for those
extraordinary expenses

that are over and above what
we had already budgeted for.

But, there will be
some of those revenues

that we can use for those
extraordinary actions

that we took that
we had not planned

in our budget for this
year that ends in July,

and for next year,
quite frankly.

There is new work that
we're going to be doing

that our folks had not
been doing previously

and would be in place of the
work that they were doing.

So we're hopeful that we can use

some of that money to help with

our budgeting needs
this year and next year,

but it will not be a
substantial portion

of that $113 million.

On Tuesday, City Council
allocated $10 million,

and rightly so, and
we are very thankful

for the cooperation
between the City Council

and the administration to do

the right thing
for our community,

that will be a
helpful inject of cash

for our small businesses,

which was predominantly
the purpose of that money,

as well as those social
service provisions

for additional food
for our individuals

in the community who need that,

for additional testing capacity,

for additional, we could use it

for additional testing capacity,

additional capacity for
the health department.

It's not just the city,
the county also got

an inject of some of
those federal dollars,

so together we
are well-resourced

to respond to the
COVID pandemic,

but it certainly does not
solve our budgetary blows

because it cannot be used
for revenue replacement.

- And the $10 million
fund, as the Council

was moving toward that
in some general way,

you were also
looking at a program

that Chattanooga
has which is kind of

the model for how the city's
going to work on this.

And as I understand
it, it's a business

stabilization program
that in normal times

has been used in
Chattanooga for things like

a street closure that
affects a business

or something like that.

Is that kind of
what the principal

of this fund will
be for Memphis?

- We were asked,
obviously, to look at that,

we had been scanning
for best practices

or promising practices
that once the requirements,

or excuse me, the
rules came out for how

that money could be
used from the CARES Act,

and so that was one of the
practices we landed on.

Quite frankly, I also
speak with the other

big four COOs on at
least a monthly basis,

and during this pandemic
we've been meeting

each and every Wednesday
afternoon to compare notes.

One of the notes
that we compared

was "How are you going to
use the CARES Act money?"

and during that
conversation Chattanooga

had mentioned that they had this

business stabilization program.

When City Council
started talking about

adding money for that
we quickly pivoted

to try to get some details.

I will tell you we're
nowhere close to having

the details or the application,

but we will quickly get there.

But it is a model and
it showed some promise,

and was affective in
the Chattanooga context

so like many cities do,
borrowing and adapting

to your own context is important

and it's an easy way to get,

rather that creating
something out of whole cloth,

we thought that would
be a good approach.

Can't say at the
end that it will be

an immediate parallel
or an exact copy

that we will adapt
to our own context

but it's a good
starting point for us.

- And before I send
it back to Eric,

there's been a lot of
infrastructure that's gone up,

there is, for lack of the
better term on my part,

an overflow medical
facility that's now

at 495 Union that was built

in a tremendously short amount

of time than other
infrastructure.

When this is over, or when
the first wave is over,

or we are significantly
past this,

do you think that some
of the infrastructure

from this pandemic
remains and can be used

for some longstanding
problems that we have?

- That's a great point,
Bill, and it does point

to the uniqueness of
the Memphis situation,

so let me talk about
physical infrastructure.

In addition to the
alternative care facility,

which is at the old
Commercial Appeal building

at 495 Union Avenue,

there is also some
systems infrastructure

that was put into place.

So for instance, we have
an EMS surge facility

over at the fairgrounds,
which is unique

and a first of its kind
in the country, as well.

So that's a systems
infrastructure that we'll

be able to put back into place

should we ever need that.

So we'll put that
in our tool kit

and we'll carry that
with us forward.

For the actual overflow or
the alternate care facility,

that is unique
across the country.

Many of the other facilities,

there have been 17 others built,

there will be 26
total that are built,

and ours is one of them.

Many of them are in arenas,

and once this pandemic
is over they will have

to be disassembled and moved out

because those are
revenue generating

facilities for those cities.

Here in the city of
Memphis, at that facility,

there is a long term
lease, an 18-month lease,

and so it will remain as
an alternate care facility

during the period
of that 18 months.

Should we see a second
wave of this pandemic,

should we need to respond
in some other way,

we will have that
facility with us

for at least 18 months.

During that 18
months, we can decide

what we would like to
do with that long term.

The terms of exactly how
that lease will be terminated

and who will pick it up
have not yet been decided

but it does represent
a significant

opportunity for us here.

There are approximately,

yesterday at 10 o'clock
in the morning

they were 45% complete,

they had just started
to two weeks ago.

Today, I anticipate
they are approximately

fifty percent complete
and will come online

in the middle of
May and it will be

an incredible facility,
an incredible asset,

located just adjacent
to the medical center

and so I anticipate that
there will be a great use

of that facility,
irrespective of whether

we put one patient in there
from this COVID pandemic.

- Alright, and over to Eric.

- When we go to, I'm looking at,

Bill mentioned the
business, you know,

using part of that
$10 million for businesses

and it gets me back to the
Back to Business website.

If people Google or search
"Back to Business Memphis"

it should be one of the
first things that comes up.

When I look at that,
it's back to the sense of,

you know you talked
about testing,

and stabilization, and
capacity being good.

How do we know as citizens
or as business owners

or interested people
what we individually

or collectively
can do to continue

to push these numbers
because when I look

at it, and you're going
to be annoyed with me,

but bear with me.

You know, I look at
it and everything on

as we tape this
Thursday morning,

everything's green
and yellow, right?

All the indicators about
you know, daily number

of confirmed cases,
ICU bed utilization,

all of it's green and yellow.

Which when you read the
very helpful narrative

that goes with it,
it says when we're all

green and yellow we can
go into the next phase,

which in this case is
we're in phase zero,

we can go into phase one.

But we're not yet,
because as you said,

the task force meets, it talks,
it makes those decisions.

So how do we know as
citizens and as businesses

if we're doing
enough to help keep

these numbers where
they need to be?

I think that's, you
know what I'm saying?

That part still has
a big gap for me.

- Sure. I think it's a
great point we have done.

I think Yeoman's job of
communicating clear information

when, quite frankly,
the way has not been clear,

there's a lot of
information coming at people

from a lot of different venues,

and so distilling it
down in a way that people

can understand, I
think our team has done

a fantastic job of that.

There is always room to
improve in that messaging

so that people understand
kind of where we are on that.

So we are trying to put
together right now a dashboard

that will give everybody
that single look

and will say "I can
do my own analysis

of the metrics and I can
see kind of where we stand."

So that has been work
that has been going on,

getting that in the right format

that we can get
out to everybody,

I anticipate that will happen
in the next week or so.

But again, it has
been a lot of work,

a lot of data analysis,
a lot of behind

the scenes, and getting
that translated over

into a way that
clearly communicates

where we are to the public,
I think is something

that will come to
fruition very soon.

I will say the daily
press briefings

that we have been giving and
we went to three times a week,

and now we're back to every day.

We have increased
that specifically

so that people
understand where we are.

You've heard Dr. Haushalter,
you've heard myself,

you've heard the
mayors consistently say

that here's where we are,
we have reached a plateau,

we have been on a
slightly downward trend.

Those kinds of things that
you all know where we are.

I would like to just
emphasize that 30 days ago,

or 45 days ago,
we thought we might be

in a very, very different place.

So we are very
fortunate and blessed

as a community that
we have all taken

this collective
action so that we can

be in this place
where we are really

on this tipping
point of deciding

whether to move into
phase one or not.

It could have gone
the other way,

like it did in some
other communities

where we had this
dramatic uptick.

The evidence is what
the citizens are doing,

the compliance with
social distancing,

the compliance with
all of the orders

is working to blunt this,

delay any kind of a
surge that could come,

so we are at a really good point

and as you heard yesterday,
we're within days

of being able to
make a determination

about whether we should move.

- Do you, I mean
this is speculative,

but once we go into phase one,

and as you just said,
could be days away,

and businesses do
reopen and people

get back into some sense
of normalcy, right?

It's not every business opening,

there's still a
lot of distancing,

there'll still be mask wearing,

lot of changes
in phase one.

But the will on the part of all

these various
government entities.

If there is a spike, if there
is an increase in cases,

to shut down, to take
a step backwards.

That's going to be a
difficult decision,

because people will...a
certain number of people

are bursting at the
seams to get out,

to get back to some
sense of normalcy.

Businesses want to operate,
they are in desperate straits.

If we go a couple
weeks, how do you close

them back down if
it comes to that?

- I think we have said
from the beginning,

the thought was is
would be very hard

to close things down and to,

you know, restrict kind
of the operations.

Quite frankly, it's
turned out to be harder

the other way as
to determine what's

the right time to open up.

The data is pretty clear,
when you see an uptick

that you need to take action.

That's why we're monitoring
the hospital capacity,

monitoring the capacity of
our public health system,

so that we can be sure that we

will have all of
the information,

that we won't have
a spike in new cases

or a new outbreak that
we don't know about.

That's what
critically important.

I have heard collectively
across the task force,

a will on the part of
the elected officials

and the health officer,
that should we see

a dramatic uptick that
we will immediately

put back into place the
protocols that we had before.

I think that the will is
there and that will continue.

- All right, let me go back

to Bill for a couple questions.

- You've also had a pretty
unique response here

to dealing with people
who are homeless,

who either have come
into contact with someone

who has the virus, or who
have the virus themselves.

Is any of that solution,
is any of that response

pointed a way toward
a better strategy

after this pandemic for people

who are homeless in our city?

- Well, let me go more
global than that, Bill.

I think coming out of this,

people are learning
lessons that will stick

with us for decades to come.

The delivery of...
the systems of delivery

of services are forever
changed in many ways.

You've seen some
inspiring stories about

how people have pivoted
their service delivery.

I know in the city of Memphis,

our emergency medical
service has changed

and we have advanced
that radar concept

to try to keep the emergency
rooms from being overflowing,

we're sending doctors
and paramedics

on low acuity
calls to get people

to the care that
they need rather than

going to the emergency room.

We think that's a practice
that we'll continue.

We talked about our
EMS surge facility,

again to keep ED's
from being overflowed.

Our Memphis Animal
Services has really made

a gigantic pivot, they have made

such great strides over time,

but now we're in the provision

of service preemptively
to make sure

we have a pet food pantry

so that people don't
get a desperate need.

So we're answering
people's needs

before a safety
net has to kick in,

and the same thing
here with homelessness.

It's really sharpened our focus

on the service delivery
needs for our homelessness,

for the homeless
population that we have.

The good news is
we had many things

in motion before
this pandemic hit,

as you know, we
have talked about

and we're actively building
out a homeless aid facility,

some expanded capacity for

a women's shelter in
the city of Memphis,

so those needs
have been amplified

and our responses...our
focus has been sharpened

on that service delivery
for those populations

to make sure that
we can reach them

when and where we need to.

But there are many examples,

we were talking just recently
about this remote work model,

and there was a worry about
the lack of productivity,

but we're actually
seeing in some cases,

an increased level
of productivity.

So I think it's really going
to change a lot of things,

and it's not just the
immediate responses

that you're seeing, I
think we're going to see,

fundamentally, a shift
in a number of ways

of how we deliver
services more effectively

to those citizens who
need those services.

- What is the discussion
been like since we are a city

with a National Basketball
Association franchise

and a city with a very unique
month-long civic festival.

What has the discussion
been like so far

about how to resume those
large-scale crowd events?

- Robust, we certainly know that

that is a very
special circumstance,

as we talk about getting
back to business,

that is part of our economy.

Those are...though they
are very large parts

of our community,
they are specialty

kinds of businesses and events

and so it requires a
detailed level of discussion,

requires a detailed
level of controls

to be put into place.

It's just, quite frankly,
very hard to assemble

large groups of people
when you still have

a significant number of
cases in your community.

So it requires special
detail for those areas

where large...
where people gather.

So it is an ongoing
conversation,

we are engaged with
all of the parties

that you might imagine
in the city who

put on those festivals
of those sporting events,

and it's an important
part for people

to know as they plan,
what can be done

so that they can
plan either the rest

of their season or the festival,

or are we having to move
into the following year.

So it's an important
discussion for us.

- And I'll throw it to Eric.

- And just with a couple
minutes left, Doug.

Testing, we've had a...
on Behind The Headlines

and on the podcasts and the
stories we do on Daily Memphian.

Talking to a lots
of different people,

Christ Community,
and Church Health,

from various representatives
of the hospitals,

and by and large, testing
capacity right now,

we're not hitting it, right?

I mean we have more
capacity than we're utilizing.

Is it time for the city to begin

to test more people
with no symptoms?

Right now, by and large,

I think Church Health
is an exception,

but by and large most
places doing testing,

you either have to
have some sort of,

some kind of symptoms
before you'd be tested.

Is it time to broaden that net?

- Sure. I think it's
a great question,

certainly there are
symptomatic people

who are not taking
advantage of the testing

for a number of reasons
or maybe distrust,

people don't want to
be seen as positive

and then they can't
go back to work.

There's a lot of
reasons why they

are not taking advantage of it.

There may be just a
simple lack of knowledge,

and so we've tried to
communicate that broadly.

Our testing capacity
has increased

dramatically in the
last several weeks,

and so we do have
adequate capacity

to test those individuals
who would desire

to be tested who
are symptomatic.

But as you said, Eric,
there is a good reason

to test asymptomatic people.

We're starting off
with those people

who are most at risk, the
people who are working,

or are actually employees of

the hospitals and
the nursing homes.

Our hospital systems
have been testing

their frontline workers,
asymptomatically.

They haven't gone
through everybody yet,

but they are doing that
in a proactive manner

to make sure that the
healthcare workers

don't have the disease
that they could pass on.

I know several of our
large hospital systems

are a long way through testing
their frontline workers.

Our nursing home population
and the employees

of the nursing homes,
we are pushing them

to get tested asymptomatically.

And many of the providers
that are coming online,

the Walgreen's providers,
there is a rubric

that they are using that says

if you are symptomatic,
please come and get tested.

And then all the way down,

if you are asymptomatic
and a first responder,

police, fire, or
healthcare worker,

they will do
asymptomatic testing.

So before we go to
more broad ranging

asymptomatic testing,
we want to make sure

that we are fully
meeting the needs

of folks in the community who

are symptomatic and
those first responders.

- The other big
need as we go into

these future phases,
I think everyone agrees

is contact tracing.

Your boss, Mayor
Jim Strickland talked,

was on the show a few weeks ago,

time blurs together
for everyone right now.

Talking about the
city had some capacity

with existing employees
for the contact tracing.

Will the city be
ramping up the number

of contact tracing
individuals it has,

and could that federal
money be put toward that?

- Well, I'll answer the
last question first,

and absolutely, that is
one of the reasons that

the federal money was allocated

was to pay for
additional capacity.

So Dr. Haushalter
at the Health Department

has conveyed to the
joint task force

her needs for
additional staffing.

Obviously as we open
up, folks of the city

who have been volunteering

and helping out over there
doing contact tracing,

and we've had a number
of other volunteers

from other agencies
pitch in and help

with that contact tracing,
we very much appreciate it.

But when we get
back to business,

those folks may have
to go back to work.

So this is an
opportunity to hire

and expand a staff
of permanent folks

who will do that contact tracing
for the Health Department

or the contact investigations,
and more importantly,

equally important
is the monitoring

of people who have been
put into quarantine.

So she needs some
additional capacity,

the federal money can be
used for that capacity.

You heard Mayor Harris
talk yesterday,

and said that some
of the federal money

from the county will
be used to plus up

the capacity of the
Health Department

and we fully expect
that to happen,

and will be underway
very quickly

so that we do have
that capacity there.

- All right, well we are
out of time for this week.

Doug, I appreciate
you joining us

and join us again next week
and stay safe, thank you.

- Thank you Eric,
thank you Bill.

[intense music]

[acoustic guitar chords]