2020/07/20 - Mayor's Column: City Council Returns to In-Person Meetings
“An Open Door to O’Fallon”
A Weekly Note from Mayor Herb Roach
When COVID-19 hit, O’Fallon’s City Government changed in the blink of an eye. City Hall was shut down, many of employees began working from home, and we had to start holding virtual public meetings instead of in-person meetings.
Before COVID, it was required by law to have a quorum present in-person in order to hold an official public meeting. In order to help control the spread of the virus, the Governor declared that public meetings could be held virtually.
Virtual public meetings were something that we had never done before. For many years, we have televised our meetings on tv and over the internet. But, holding a public meeting, fully virtual was a completely different challenge.
Since March, we have been using the online meeting platform Zoom to host our virtual meetings. There was a learning curve as we were forced to learn the new process overnight. However, I am proud of the job this city and its elected officials have done. We have been able to conduct official city public meetings, from home, for over three months.
However, with the State of Illinois now in Phase 4 of the Governor’s Restore Illinois Plan, and City Hall reopened to the public, it is time that public meetings return to in-person attendance.
Beginning on August 3, 2020 in-person attendance will be welcomed for City Council and Committee Meetings. To allow people to also participate virtually, we will also broadcast the meetings through Zoom. The meetings will also continue to be broadcasted on our public broadcasting channels and live or “on-demand” from our website.
To comply with the current Phase 4 guidelines, face coverings are recommended, and seating will be at least six feet apart. Due to this, capacity will be limited. We have to have enough room to accommodate 14 Aldermen, the City Clerk, City Staff and myself. That leaves ten open spots for in-person public attendance.
If you would like to attend the meeting in-person, you will be required to sign up prior to the meeting. The first ten people to sign up to attend in-person will be permitted into the City Council Chambers during the meeting. Everyone else will have to attend virtually through Zoom.
We want to continue to encourage participation online if people feel more comfortable avoiding in-person attendance. The virtual meetings performed well over the past few months and they helped encourage public attendance. We all live busy lives and cannot always make time to attend meetings in-person. So, continuing the virtual format, in combination with in-person attendance may make it easier on our residents to become involved in their city government.
As residents of O’Fallon, you should always be able to reach out to your elected officials and ask questions about what is happening in O’Fallon. Having open communications is important to me and something I care very deeply about. Thank you for reading, and please remember, my door is always open (virtually, at least)!