LEMON GROVELEMON GROVE — Lemon Grove will continue holding its City Council meetings virtually, and for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic put a halt on in-person gatherings, the city has also added an option to allow for live comment during meetings.
The move to allow live comments, as well as comments sent in advance via email, will satisfy one of the requirements of Assembly Bill 361, which allows public meetings to be held virtually during emergencies. The council meets on the first and third Tuesdays of each month.
AB 361, signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sept. 16, continues the work of Executive Order N-29-20, which the governor issued in March 2020 to protect public safety during the pandemic. That order, which expired Sept. 30, specified relaxed provisions of meetings under the Ralph M. Brown Act.
AB 361 allows school boards and other legislative bodies to conduct meetings through teleconferencing as long as there is a “proclaimed state of emergency” by the governor. AB 361 will end on Jan. 1.
Among other requirements, AB361 specifies that there must be a public comment period where the public can address the legislative body directly. It also prohibits councils and boards from limiting public comments to only comments submitted in advance and specifies that the legislative body must provide an opportunity for the public to offer comment in real time.
The Lemon Grove City Council on Tuesday unanimously agreed that it is in the best interest of public health and safety to continue to hold public meetings virtually.
Because Lemon Grove, a city of about 26,000 people, has a limited amount of employees at City Hall, City Manager Lydia Romero said she was concerned that there would not be enough staff to manage the technological and other needs associated with online meetings. But Tuesday’s meeting went smoothly.
As part of AB 361, the City Council will be required to reevaluate and adopt a new resolution every 30 days. City Manager Lydia Romero said the item will appear on the City Council’s consent calendar every other meeting for approval.
Romero said Lemon Grove will incur additional, though minimal, costs for a Zoom platform for remote meetings. She said that the video platform will increase overtime costs for “additional staff to assist in managing the technology of the meeting.” Lemon Grove’s Zoom feature allows for persons to raise a virtual hand during designated portions of the meeting to let staff know that they want to speak, and a feature in the technology will allow them to be unmuted. A phone feature for those attending the meeting telephonically allows a caller to dial *9 to be unmuted.
Romero said that hands raised outside of designated public comment portions of the meetings will automatically be put down. Written public comment about issues can still be sent up to 12 hours before the council meetings to the City Clerk at [email protected].
