Grand Forks committee met 17 times, discussing testing and the pandemic's economic impact on the city

Jul. 3--A group that included Grand Forks leaders met behind closed doors 17 times over two months to figure out how best to combat the local effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

Other than an update to Grand Forks City Council members in May and a last-minute amendment to a Grand Forks Public Health spending plan, the Mayor's Economic Response Advisory Group has worked almost entirely behind the scenes. But meeting notes obtained by the Herald paint at least a rough picture of the group's deliberations for the past two months.

From April 20 onward, a collection of business and civic leaders assembled by then-Mayor Mike Brown worried about the region's financial health, the best ways in which to test Grand Forks residents for the virus, and a host of other pressures brought on by the pandemic.

Phil Gisi, a developer who has built and runs a network of senior care facilities, suggested testing Grand Forks health care workers for signs of a prior COVID-19 infection. "Serology" or "antibody" tests like those are a promising way to monitor the virus' spread, and, at the outset of the pandemic, they were more readily available than "PCR" tests, which are the more recognizable nasal swabs that look for signs of the virus itself. Gisi's push to test his employees for antibodies eventually expanded into a large-scale testing protocol and database for area businesses that was touted by Bret Weber, a Grand Forks City Council member who also sits on the advisory group.

Gisi pitched the idea to area businesses last month and said on Thursday that the meeting went well. Thus far, only his companies have signed up for the protocol, which encourages them to use his data to determine how and when to test their employees.

"If they become part of it, great. If they don't, that's fine," Gisi said Thursday. "What I'm trying to do ... is say 'OK, everybody, come up with something. Follow us or do something similar to this.' At least acknowledge that, as an employer, you should be doing something to help mitigate the growth of this disease."

The serology tests, Gisi conceded in an April 20 meeting, aren't perfect -- he said Thursday that certain medications can complicate their results -- but they are "better than nothing," according to the meeting notes, which were compiled by Meredith Richards, the city's director of community development. The notes were provided to the Herald on June 19.

The Herald asked city administrators for the response group's schedule, agendas, meeting minutes and notes on June 8 during a City Council meeting. At that meeting, City Council members in the response group pushed for it to have more input on the local health department's spending plan for $1 million in federal coronavirus aid.

The group also got the occasional behind-the-scenes look at goings-on in Bismarck -- North Dakota Commerce Commissioner Michelle Kommer spoke to members about the then-upcoming "ND Smart Restart" guidelines on April 23, about five days before state government workers published them online.

Kommer also praised the city, characterizing it as "consistently ahead" of others in North Dakota, and said she'd love to use the group as a "sanity check" in the future, according to Richards' notes.

And, naturally, the advisory group, which is comprised mostly of business leaders, worried often about the virus' effects on the economy: rising unemployment rates and their potential effects on the housing and rental market, for instance, and, often, on Altru Health System. Kristi Hall-Jiran, the hospital's chief philanthropy officer, said it was losing $100,000 each day and expected as much as a $65 million loss by the end of 2020, according to the meeting notes. Its operating loss was $18 million pre-COVID, she told group members, warning on May 28 that more "hard cuts" would come. Three days later, hospital leaders announced they were laying off 167 employees.

Mark Schill, a Grand Forks consultant, showed group members data on foot traffic at area businesses. Barry Wilfahrt, the head of the Grand Forks-East Grand Forks Chamber of Commerce, worried on April 27 that hotels and similar industries might not reopen. He said the advisory group needs to consider relief for those industries, according to the meeting notes. City Council President Dana Sande agreed, but said the city should see what others are doing before it intervenes.

Schill indicated that his firm has been analyzing cell phone location data from the previous 12 months and recently bought a one-year subscription to real-time location data, as well. He told Sande he thinks it gives Grand Forks an advantage over the city's competitors.

And group members also flirted briefly with publicizing their work more broadly. Bret Weber, a City Council member, said there was pressure for the group to be more public and asked how other members felt about opening it. Ken Vein, another City Council member, said he felt that would reduce members' "sense of freedom" of sharing information, according to notes taken at a June 18 meeting. Weber agreed.

Brown convened the group in April, and the meeting notes indicate that it met 17 times between April 20 and June 18. The meeting on the 18th was the last time the group met, according to Richards.

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