Recommendation to Approve Findings to Allow City Meetings to be Conducted via Teleconference. (City Clerk 10022020)
Thank you. Okay let's do five. I as quickly as possible Councilmember Harry Spencer, you pulled it. Anything you want to say? Thank you. Yes. So this is in regards to continuing to have virtual meetings for the council as well as all of our commissions. And I did want to ask the city attorney in regards to what are the requirements that we have to find in order to do that? Because there was common in regards to just doing it forever. If I understand correctly. Mr. Shin as a council member under AB 361, we have essentially, I believe, and the SINCKLER can help me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure we have until we could do this for as long as January 20, 24 or 23, for some period of time, we're able to do this certainly through the share and the findings that the city has to make is contained in the staff report, which is that they're still in a state of emergency as declared by the state of California, by the governor. That remains true. And then the second finding is a local finding, which is that local officials continue to recommend measures to promote social distance distancing or and that as a finding you're essentially making tonight in approving this item. Thank you. And I wanted to share. So I've been trying to well, I've actually had some people that have a different opinion of we should be meeting in person. And City of Hayward started doing a hybrid with where they have some members or my understanding as members of the council or the commission. But they also allow Zoom. And so it's a hybrid. And I would like to add my understanding on that one is that they do require a proof of vaccination to be in the bill in the chambers. And then my understanding is that Vallejo staff resume in-person November 16th and that they require everyone to wear masks inside. And I think I've heard from other constituents that they think that in-person meetings are, in fact, preferred than the zoom. And so I would like us to look at doing a hybrid and what the requirements of that would be as we know that other cities are starting to do that. And for the members of the public that are listening and also many of us are actually here in city hall right now, I am member de SOG is the mayor, is our city manager. I believe you're here and our assistant city manager. You're here. I believe I think I think that's is as you know and I and I'm not quite sure about our attorney, but many of us are here. We are in different rooms. And I think that and I would like to know from our attorney, looking forward, if we have council members that or commissioners that I don't want to say something, that they have to give out their home address of wherever they're going to be. If we stop this, could they then use a room in the city hall as we're using right now, if they have concerns of being around others, what that would look like to try to figure out a way to offer more more of a hybrid, a hybrid model and so on. So I will not I would be voting no this time, but when this comes back, I would like to have more information about what other cities are doing for their for their council meetings and other public meetings like this as and then, you know, what could we do to facilitate that? I have had some people don't feel comfortable or in fact don't have the means to be online like this. And they have either poor Internet or they don't have Internet. So they are actually denied the opportunity to participate in these meetings. Now, they may have a phone, they have the phone, but some people sadly do not feel comfortable calling in like that. And so they would prefer coming in and being able to have the ability to participate in these meetings as they used to. And so I do think it's important to include all of our members of the public and not just those that happen to have reliable Internet service or the ability to use the phone to call in so that we are, in fact, trying our hardest to include all members of our public. So I wanted to share that information I look forward to, because this item comes back every month. So I look forward to getting more information from staff what we could do to accommodate all members of our public. Thank you. Your music. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Herrera. Spencer. Any further comments saying then may we have a roll call vote on item five? Please. We need a motion for. A motion and. I'm going to move approval with with with the direction that we continue to put this consent and just move forward for the rest of the year. All right. We had a motion and we have a second. Vice Mayor Vella has got her hand up to second. Okay. Maybe we have a roll call vote now, please. Oh. Come in. Oh, I'm sorry, Councilor. It's a comment. Quick comment. I'm going to support the the matter that's before us. But I think the point that council member Harris Spencer is right on. I think we should start moving towards a hybrid model to the extent that it's safe and we can meet and as a council and public and for those who can, me I'm sure if other cities are figuring out ways to have a hybrid model, we can figure that out, too. Thank you. So I'll just throw in my comment that just what I'm hearing from public health officials is that this may not be the time to rush in to more indoor gatherings. We are seeing some surges and we're about to go into both the Thanksgiving and the December holidays. So I we will keep an eye on things. We'll keep an eye on our numbers of the cities that you mentioned that have gone back to hybrid or all in-person models. Our COVID vaccination rates and COVID cases are much better. And I mean, there's a lot of factors that go into it, but public health and safety comes first. But we, you know, will weigh all those things. I'm just not sure that as we go into the winter months is exactly the time to to loosen up. I know some of the boards and commissions I sit on are waiting out, you know, getting to the end of this year and going to reconsider in January. But. Okay. Any further comments? Vice mayor. You know, one of the things that California Department of Public Health that a mayor continues to raise is the fact that, you know, our our COVID surge last year really started with Halloween and continued and really started to spike drastically around Thanksgiving and was uniquely and distinctly American. And our surges were different from that of the rest of the world. And it really coincided with those holidays in particular. So I think, you know, now is not the time to say the pandemic is over. And we do know that the rates, to your point, are increasing. And we also know that the governor earlier this week, I think yesterday issued some more emergency declarations and in fact, is asking for out of state health, health, official health, state for health workers. So, you know, I don't think we're quite through this, but I certainly think and take into account the comments about how we function and how government functions in a post-COVID world. So I'm going to continue to support this at this time. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Harry Spencer. Thank you. I want to underscore that at no time did I say the pandemic is over. I absolutely do not believe that. And I think it's unfortunate to hear such comments. I do think, though, that many of us do not stay in our homes 24 seven and that at some point we do, in fact, need to figure out a way to support open government and a hybrid model. I think that's a good compromise that other cities are doing. But I but I absolutely agree the pandemic is not over. And I think at some point, if anyone tried to fight it, that's what I said. Thank you. Thank you. Councilor Desai. Just quickly, two points. One is I got to hope that the vaccine counts for something so that 2021 and going forward after October is different from Halloween 2020. So I'm putting face faith in science. I hope it works. And the second point is, you know, I see how regularly, at least in Washington, D.C., Congress seems to be holding committee meetings. And granted, you know, in those rooms there is a lot of space. But I think if they can do it, figure it out in Washington, DC or Vallejo, which kind of figure it try to figure it out in it are not going to be tomorrow or the next month, but maybe sometime soon. I think residents kind of want to see a path forward in terms of getting back. But if it's a hybrid model, great. Great. Let's take a vote. Calls for an X, Y. And Z, because I know that we've been talking and actually there was a polling for a free workshop, a council workshop. And I think it's be a great conversation for an in-person council workshop when, when and if that is held. Absolutely. Yeah, I agree. I think that there are some things we can do spread out and yes, that's one of the best is not before a threat assessment. Let's vote. Madam Clark. Quick. Quick. Before I. Ever censor. No, not quite. Hi. Fella. I there is the Ashcroft high that carries 4 to 1. All right. Thank you. Okay, so then we have dispensed with our consent calendar. Correct? Correct. So we are moving on. We have nothing under item six this time. So we are moving on to item seven A and I'm hoping that we've got all of our staff is ready to come in so we can keep moving. The staff in and I can read the title while we're doing it. That's a great. Recommendation. Authorize the city manager to execute an agreement and the amount not to exceed $2,536,047, with the Bay Area Community Services for Emergency Homeless Housing Services for up to two years. A recommendation authorize the city manager to negotiate Mexican agreement with Alameda County in an amount ranging from 30000 to 45000 in homeless emergency aid program. Interest funds to assist with the remodeling repair of city owned housing is emergency homeless and adoption related resolution. Thank you. And so I think we have as is Ms.. Butler and Ms.. Maxwell are you the team is going to present.