Local districts and authorities

Summary

Local school boards, park boards, library boards, housing authorities, convention-center authorities and municipally owned utilities issued instruments of their own during every claimable quarter, and those instruments limited commerce, travel and group meetings for the employers that depend on them. Second quarter of 2020: the Board of Education of the City of Chicago adopted on March 25, 2020 Board Rule 2-4.2 (Emergency Authority in the Event of a Declared State of Emergency) and Resolution 20-0325-RS1 authorizing emergency expenditures and actions in response to COVID-19 (Ex. 001-002); the Los Angeles Unified Board of Education on March 10, 2020 adopted Board Report 308-19/20, declaring that emergency conditions exist at every District school and office and authorizing the Superintendent to take 'any and all actions necessary,' including 'the relocation of students and staff' and 'provision of alternative educational program options,' and to contract without bids under Cal. Pub. Cont. Code § 20113 (Ex. 028); Houston ISD closed 'all schools and district offices beginning Friday, March 13 until Monday, March 30, 2020' (Ex. 045); Prince George's County Public Schools closed March 16 through March 27 and then through April 24, 2020 on the State Superintendent's announcements (Ex. 011-012); the Chicago Public Library was 'closed from noon March 21 through May 30' (Ex. 009); the Chicago Park District suspended 'all regularly scheduled Chicago Park District programs' effective March 15, 2020 'until further notice' (Ex. 064); the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board closed its recreation centers and program buildings and cancelled 'all classes, programs and events' through May 3, 2020 (Ex. 040); the Javits Center recorded 'no events since March 10th and... no events scheduled through the end of June' while the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built a medical station in its halls (Ex. 054-055); the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority's Boston Convention and Exhibition Center became the 1,000-bed Boston Hope facility (Ex. 043); the Orange County Convention Center listed its show cancellations and opened as the State's drive-through testing site (Ex. 037-038); CPS Energy suspended 'energy disconnects' effective March 11, 2020 (Ex. 041), SMUD suspended power shutoffs for residential and commercial customers from March 13, 2020 (Ex. 019-021), LADWP 'deferred disconnections for non-payment' from March 24, 2020 (Ex. 060), the City of Austin 'suspended all utility disconnects for non-payment' from March 13, 2020 (Ex. 071), EBMUD announced 'no disconnections to water service' during the health emergency (Ex. 076); NYCHA suspended all non-emergency repairs, annual inspections and skilled-trades work in occupied units and closed its playgrounds (Ex. 068); HACLA closed its offices 'to walk-in traffic until further notice' (Ex. 070). Third and fourth quarters of 2020: Fairfax County's School Board on July 21-22, 2020 fixed a fully virtual opening of the 2020-21 year on September 8 (Ex. 050) and on November 16, 2020 paused the return of further groups (Ex. 051); Houston ISD required families to elect in-person or virtual instruction for the second six weeks beginning October 19, 2020 (Ex. 046); PGCPS opened the year in distance learning on August 31, 2020 (Ex. 013); the Chicago Board amended its emergency resolution on June 24 and September 23, 2020 (Ex. 003); SMUD extended its shutoff suspension to January 4, 2021 and then to April 30, 2021 (Ex. 022-023); First and second quarters of 2021: the Chicago Board ratified the return-to-in-person agreement with the Chicago Teachers Union on February 24, 2021 (Ex. 004); PGCPS began two-day hybrid instruction on April 8, 2021 with a distance-learning option through the end of the year (Ex. 014-015); the Pennsylvania Convention Center Authority issued its Re-Activation Framework (Ex. 035-036); the Javits Center's halls housed the State vaccination center from January 13, 2021 (Ex. 056); McCormick Place announced on May 26, 2021 that it was 'moving closer to reopening' (Ex. 026); SMUD extended its shutoff suspension through June 30, 2021 (Ex. 024); LADWP resumed in-person customer programs on June 28, 2021 after a suspension 'since March 2020' (Ex. 061). Third quarter of 2021: the Chicago Board adopted Resolution 21-0728-RS7 continuing its COVID-19 emergency authority for FY22 on July 28, 2021 and a Remote Education Policy on a final basis on August 25, 2021 (Ex. 006-007); Houston ISD proposed on August 5 and adopted on August 12, 2021 a mask mandate for 'students, staff, and visitors at all schools, buses, and facilities' regardless of vaccination status, opened a virtual academy on August 30, and on September 27, 2021 announced a Travis County injunction allowing it to continue the mandate (Ex. 047-049); the NYC DOE announced on August 26, 2021 that 'all DOE staff and contractors in DOE buildings are required to have their first dose by September 27th' and universal masking (Ex. 008); Fairfax County Public Schools required all employees to be vaccinated or submit routine negative tests (August 23, 2021) and required proof of vaccination for athletics (August 30, 2021) (Ex. 052-053); PGCPS opened September 8, 2021 with universal masking and a vaccination-or-weekly-testing rule for every employee (Ex. 017-018); the Los Angeles Unified Board adopted on September 9, 2021 the resolution requiring COVID-19 vaccination of all students twelve and older who access in-person instruction, reciting the District's existing requirement 'for all employees to be vaccinated' (Ex. 031-032); LADWP's shutoff moratorium continued through the quarter and was extended by its Board to March 31, 2022 (Ex. 062); McCormick Place, 'closed since March of 2020,' reopened in July 2021 (Ex. 027); the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center hosted its first public convention since the pandemic on September 3, 2021 (Ex. 044). Every one of these authorities acted under a statutory grant of power over the commerce, meetings or premises it limited, and each instrument reached the education, child-care, hospitality, events, contractor, utility-customer and workforce functions of the employers around it.