Memorandum
Date: January 5, 2021
To: The Honorable Lake County Board of Supervisors
From: Moke Simon, District 1 Supervisor
Subject: Consideration of Temporarily Closing the Board of Supervisors Chambers for in-person meetings
Executive Summary: (include fiscal and staffing impact narrative):
COVID-19 cases are on the rise in Lake County and throughout California. In recent weeks, there have been a number of positive cases identified in County facilities and action has been taken. As visible community leaders, it is our Board’s responsibility to model appropriate caution for local residents and businesses. You will recall that we closed our facilities during the shelter in place order in Spring 2020. We later reopened our Board Chambers to the public on 06/20/20. With increasing concern, we reconsidered a proposal to revert to virtual meetings on 07/14/20 and determined to stay the course, keeping the Chambers open. Unfortunately, the rate of infection in the community changed significantly in the Fall and is worsening as we enter the Winter of 2020.
Allowing members of the public in the Board Chambers invites the kind of large gatherings we are seeking to avoid, in order to slow the spread of the virus. It has been obvious that most people remain most comfortable participating remotely, as we have consistently had far more zoom participants join our meetings than we had in-person participants, even before the pandemic.
At this time, continuing to host the public in the Chambers, with some people on-site, with recirculating air, for extended periods of time, despite being socially distanced, has the potential to place members of the public, our employees and ourselves at unnecessary and avoidable risk of contracting the virus. As you are likely aware, based on similar concerns, the courts have suspended jury trials and our County neighbors to the west have been conducting virtual Board meetings for months - with their chambers and County offices closed to in-person service.
It is my recommendation we revert to virtual Board meetings only for the time being and continuously re-evaluate pandemic conditions in Lake County with plans to reopen, returning to our hybrid mode, with both in-person and virtual participation, as soon as reasonably possible. Our meetings would be accessible in ZOOM, for all who want to directly participate, and via Facebook, Granicus and on PEG Channel 8, for those that prefer to view only. Members of the public with no internet access can call in to participate or listen via ZOOM. Bottom line, we can make the public’s business very accessible to the public, without creating unnecessary public health risk. In my opinion, that’s exactly what we should do for now.
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Estimated Cost: ________ Amount Budgeted: ________ Additional Requested: ________ Future Annual Cost: ________
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☒ Well-being of Residents ☒ Public Safety ☐ Infrastructure ☐ Technology Upgrades
☐ Economic Development ☐ Disaster Recovery ☒ County Workforce ☐ Revenue Generation
☐ Community Collaboration ☐ Business Process Efficiency ☐ Clear Lake ☐ Cost Savings
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Recommended Action: By motion, take action to temporarily close the Board of Supervisors Chambers for in-person meetings effective with our January 12, 2021 meeting, with said closure to be re-evaluated weekly.