Newark City Council considers where, how to have safe meetings in July

NEWARK -- City council meetings will continue to be available to the public only on YouTube during June, but the plan for July has not been determined.

The last in-person city council meeting at the Newark Municipal Building was on March 16. Since then, council committees and full council meetings could only be seen on YouTube, to prevent the spread of the deadly coronavirus.

Council members discussed meeting options with Law Director Doug Sassen and Licking County Health Commissioner Chad Brown at Monday night's Rules Committee meeting, but no decisions were made.

“We are authorized by the General Assembly and attorney general's order to continue these virtual meetings as long as Ohio remains under state of emergency," Sassen said. The order continues until the end of June, and could be extended or ended, he said.

The meetings could return to the Newark Municipal Building or move to Newark High School Commons.

Council members Jeremy Blake, D-2nd Ward, and Spencer Barker, R-at-large, visited with Newark High School Principal Tom Bowman and Newark City Schools Superintendent Doug Ute on the possible use of the school building.

“It would allow city council to have a larger space and allow for public comments," Blake said of the high school option.

Blake said the school district would not charge the city for use of the building, but there would still be costs involved for the city move its meetings there.

Barker said, "If we would go somewhere else, we’d need a recording system. We need to set up a camera. Need masks at all times and temperature checked. We’d be responsible for any security. In my opinion, it's a significant cost to move the meeting location. Just the soundboard required would be $3,000 to $4,000.”

The law does not require the public to be able to comment during the virtual meetings, except for public hearings, such as zoning changes. But, the public cannot be shut out of in-person council meetings. For public hearings, affected residents are provided a phone number to call if they choose to comment.

The council chambers includes seats in the front of the room for the 11 council members, the mayor, law director and council clerk. To comply with social distancing rules, some of those 14 would need to be seated in the public seating area.

Microphones would need to be re positioned and cleaned after each speaker if multiple people are using the same microphone, and the podium should be moved to the back of the room to limit movement, city officials said.

Service Director Dave Rhodes said he and Council President Don Ellington met with Richardson Glass about hanging up partitions in council chambers, but don't yet have a price estimate for that. There is room for about 11 people, socially distanced, in the pubic seating area, Rhodes said.

Mayor Jeff Hall said, "In council chambers, social distancing can be a challenge. Zoom has been very good for us. It's amazing what we're able to accomplish with that. This would have put us at a standstill 40 years ago."

Brown told council he would visit both council chambers and the high school to offer his advice on the options, but said, "As long as you guys can socially distance, we’re fine with either option."

Sean Fennell, D-7th Ward, said, “Masks, I think we need to consider that. How and what we do does set an example for the community, and choosing the option that is safest.”

Brown told council, "It could be a recommendation for public to wear masks, but not a requirement. At the Board of Health meeting, we all wore masks except when speaking, but we were 6 feet apart. We don’t require temperature checks at our building.”

The next meetings on YouTube will be June 15. The committee meetings begin at 5:45 p.m and the full council at 7 p.m. The meetings can be viewed by visiting www.youtube.com and typing Newark City Council in the search box.

kmallett@newarkadvocate.com

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Twitter: @kmallett1958