WEEKLY BRIEFING
APRIL 10 , 2020
IN YORBA LINDA
A Message from the Mayor View an informative message from Mayor Beth Haney about how the City is responding to the COVID-19 crisis while continuing to serve Yorba Linda residents and business community. [ City of Yorba Linda ]
City Council Meeting Recap The Recap from the City Council meeting on Tuesday, April 7, 2020 is now available online .
To view the April 7 Meeting Agenda, please click here .
The video recording is available here .
The next regular meeting will be held on Tuesday, April 21, 2020 at 6:30 p.m. in Council Chambers at City Hall. [ City of Yorba Linda ]
Support Yorba Linda Eateries Open for Take-Out Support our local restaurants by utilizing their Take-Out & Delivery options since on-site dining is no longer an option. To view the updated list of Yorba Linda restaurants that provide Take-Out, curbside pickup or delivery, please visit Chamber’s Shop Local website  or City’s Support Yorba Linda Eateries page .
Offer to Help Yorba Linda Chamber Members As you may know, the recently enacted CARES Act established a new program, known as the Paycheck Protection Program , which is an SBA loan up to 2.5 times the average monthly payroll. This loan should be able to be forgiven if the employer uses it to keep employees paid and for other necessary payments, such as rent, utilities, or mortgage interest. Since the loan amount will be based on the average payroll, employers are going to have to pull some important payroll reports and to make the necessary calculations. Many business owners are unsure and do not know how to do this. Coastal Payroll Services, the new member of the Yorba Linda Chamber of Commerce, is offering to help other members to pull their payroll reports, no matter where they do payroll. Many payroll providers have long hold times (4-5 hours) while Coastal Payroll are well versed in pulling payroll reports with appropriate filters on almost all of the payroll systems. If you have questions or need help with PPP, call Coastal Payroll Services at (714) 747-8309 or email at jking@coastalpayroll.com . You can also watch the Coastal Payroll COVID-19 Town Halls here. [ Coastal Payroll ]
COUNTY & STATE REGULATIONS
A Message from the Orange County Treasurer-Tax Collector- 2nd Installment Due date is April 10 The State has not changed the April 10 deadline, and the Treasurer has no authority to make this change. If not paid by April 10 at midnight, a 10% delinquency penalty plus a $23 fee will be added to the amount due. Late penalties, costs and other charges may be cancelled under certain limited conditions when a taxpayer is unable to pay by the April 10 deadline.
To pay after April 10, you have two remaining options:
1) After April 10, if you are a homeowner, small business or other property owner with significant demonstrated economic hardship due to COVID-19, you can request a penalty cancellation as soon as you are able to make the base property tax amount.
2) After June 30, if you do not meet the criteria above for significant economic hardship due to COVID-19, you can sign up for our 5-Year Payment Plan.
Orange County Health Officer Issues Face Covering Recommendations for Essential Businesses On Thursday, April 9, County of Orange Health Officer Dr. Nichole Quick issued a recommendation strongly encouraging all employees at essential business to wear a face covering while at work and all residents engaged in essential activities outside the home to do the same. In addition, effective immediately, all essential businesses as identified by the State of California  should maintain a healthy work environment as recommended by CDC’s Interim Cuidance for Businesses and Employers to Plan and Respond to Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) . [ County of Orange ]
Create a Family Plan During Covid-19 The County of Orange is encouraging residents to create a family preparedness plan in the event they are impacted by COVID-19. Family preparedness is a mainstay of planning for emergencies such as earthquakes and fires, and they are equally important during a health pandemic. Here are some important things to consider when putting together a family plan. [ County of Orange ]
Reps. Cisneros and Gallego Introduce Legislation to Cover All Coronavirus Treatment and Testing Through Medicaid On Tuesday, April 7, Reps. Gilbert R. Cisneros, Jr. (CA-39) and Ruben Gallego (AZ-7) introduced the Emergency Medicaid for Coronavirus Treatment Act, which would ensure that every American is automatically eligible for Medicaid if they are diagnosed with COVID-19 or any other illness that rises to the level of a presidential national emergency declaration. The text of the bill can be found here . [ Office of Rep. Gilbert R. Cisneros, Jr. ]
OSHA Issues New Enforcement Guidance on Respiratory Protection On April 3, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (“OSHA”) Directorate of Enforcement Programs issued a  new memorandum and interim guidance  (“Enforcement Guidance”) on enforcement of the respiratory protection standard in light of the severe shortages in respirator availability. The new OSHA’s Enforcement Guidance expands the agency’s discretionary enforcement policy to all industries , including specifically healthcare personnel (“HCP”) and workers in other industries who are facing respirator shortages due to the coronavirus pandemic (e.g., construction). [ The National Law Review ]
Cal/OSHA Guide to Safety/Health Requirements During COVID-19 Outbreak The state Division of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH), commonly known as Cal/OSHA has compiled and posted extensive guidance recommendations and requirements from many sources to assist the employer during this time. To access the guidance on requirements to protect workers from coronavirus, start at the Department of Industrial Relations website , and click on the bold banner declaring “Cal/OSHA Safety Guidance on Coronavirus.” [ HR Watchdog ]
Required FFCRA Documentation, Recordkeeping for New Federal Paid Leave (COVID-19) The new FFCRA regulations require employees to provide notice to their employers of their need to take either paid sick leave or expanded family and medical leave, and the notice must include the following information:
·     Employee’s name;
·     Date(s) for which leave is requested;
·     Qualifying reason for the leave; and
·     Oral or written statement that the employee is unable to work because of the qualified reason.
Employees must also provide additional information specific to the qualifying reason for leave (find the list of qualifying reasons here ). [ HR Watchdog ]
Discounted All-in-One Posters for Your Remote Employees Employers should be mindful of the various notices required under federal, state or even local law. Your posting requirements must still be met, even in situations where an employee works remotely from home. CalChamber’s all-in-one 2020 California and Federal Labor Law paper poster contains the 18 different employment notices every California employer must post in each workplace or job site—including where employees work remotely 100% of the time. Now through April 30, 2020, CalChamber is offering 50 percent off paper posters in English or Spanish: $14.25 each with priority code (REW). Note: If you have employees who work 100 percent from home and never report to a headquarters or other location, you’re required to mail hard copies of mandatory employment notices to the employees’ homes. [ HR Watchdog ]
Orange County COVID-19 Public Information Hotline and Health Referral Line: 1 (833) 426-6411 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturdays.
Orange County Economic & Business Recovery Call Center : (714) 480-6500, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday
California Toll-Free COVID-19 Hotline : (833) 544-2374, from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. 7 days a week
BUSINESS & ECONOMY
Fed Pulls Out $2T Lending Bazooka to Boost Businesses The Federal Reserve on Thursday unveiled emergency programs that could dole out more than $2 trillion in loans to businesses of all sizes, as well as to struggling city and state governments. Under that program, the Fed will buy up to $600 billion in loans from banks to medium-sized businesses that had up to 10,000 employees or $2.5 billion in revenue in 2019. The Fed will also bolster the $350 billion that the relief package set aside for government-backed loans to small businesses by lending to banks that put up those loans as collateral. [ Politico ]
Want a Virus Disaster Loan Fast? Easy, If You’re in California Businesses in all parts of the country were eligible for the SBA economic injury disaster loans, but the data shows most of the money went to just one state: California, which got $239 million. A handful of smaller states, including Connecticut and Maine, divided up most of the rest. Texas, the second-most populous state, got just six loans worth less than $1 million dollars in all. The disparity arose because some states were earlier than others to declare disasters. Under the rules for these loans, the SBA began accepting applications only after a state’s governor declared a disaster. California, Washington, Connecticut and Maine acted earliest. [ Bloomberg ]
Hurry Up and Wait? Why Relief to Small Businesses Has Lagged Speed is of the essence if a federal relief program for small businesses is going to be effective in combating the damage wrought by the coronavirus lockdowns. Yet, days into the program, many Main Street businesses are still waiting for the cash infusion necessary to stay alive. Others say they haven’t even been able to apply for loans under what’s called the Paycheck Protection Program. The problems range from the technical to the bureaucratic, although the Small Business Administration says it has corrected those on its end. Here are some questions and answers about the snags the program faces, and what options owners have. [ Associated Press ]
US Agriculture: Can It Handle Coronavirus, Labor Shortages and Panic Buying? The short answer is that U.S. agriculture is strong enough to handle it, with farmers still farming and no major shortages in sight, experts say. But because consumers recently have changed the way they buy and consume food, various snags in the food supply chain have led to disruptions, including truckloads of raspberries getting turned back from market and dairy businesses dumping thousands of gallons of milk. [ USA Today ]
Telework Best Practices As a work-from-home workplace model has its own set of challenges for employers, CalChamber Executive Vice President and General Counsel Erika Frank and employment law expert Jennifer Shaw discuss remote work best practices, such as ways to ensure workers are taking mandated rest breaks, reimbursing Internet fees and other expenses, establishing COVID-19-specific policies, and maintaining a harassment-free environment. [ California Chamber of Commerce ]
How to Lock Down Your Zoom Meeting Now That Trolls are 'Zoom Bombing' Within the Zoom settings a host can "lock" the meeting to prevent anyone else from joining, even if they have the ID and password. Zoom has recently publicized a suite of options to handle trolls, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit focused in privacy and civil liberties, has compiled a list of tips to safeguard privacy. [ KQED ]
IMPORT/EXPORT
U.S. Economy Will Eventually Reopen But with Big Changes The Trump administration is aiming to reopen the U.S. economy when the nation’s top health experts give the go-ahead, but Americans’ lives will be drastically different, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said on Tuesday. [ Reuters ]
U.S. Stops Issuing Passports Except in Emergencies The U.S. State Department won’t be processing new passports and renewals except for emergency cases because of the coronavirus pandemic, the agency’s website said. Americans are being asked to wait to apply or renew until the agency resumes “normal operations.” Passport applications received on or before March 19 will be processed. Travelers who paid extra for expedited service can expect to receive their passport in the next two to three weeks. [ Los Angeles Times ]
IMF Policy Tracker: Policy Responses to COVID-19 The IMF policy tracker summarizes the key economic responses governments are taking to limit the human and economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The tracker includes 193 economies. [ International Monetary Fund
EU Commission to Unveil ‘Exit Strategy’ as Countries Move to Lift Corona Measures The European Commission was forced by angry EU governments on Tuesday to drop plans to present a "roadmap" for ending the coronavirus lockdowns. Governments made clear that the plans from President Ursula von der Leyen's Commission would send a dangerous signal when they are still urging millions of citizens to stay at home to save lives. Adoption of the plan has now been postponed until "after Easter," the Commission's chief spokesman Eric Mamer announced on Tuesday evening.
[ Politico ]
Overflowing Oil Tanks Have Traders Eyeing Rail Cars for Storage Oil companies are turning to rail cars to stash the crude they can’t sell, as the world runs out of places to store a growing glut of cheap barrels. With oil for May delivery trading at a steep discount to future months more firms are hoarding barrels rather than sell at a loss. But crude tanks and supertankers are filling up fast, with the world projected to run out of storage space by the middle of the year. In Canada, tank-tops could be breached within two to three weeks, while U.S. stockpiles last week rose for the 10th week, increasing by the most in three years. [ American Journal of Transportation ]
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