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As COVID Cases Ease, Jurisdictions Debate In-Person Meetings

Some officials are urging a return to city council meetings with an audience in attendance, while others are testing a hybrid approach of in-person and online meetings as pandemic restrictions ease nationwide.

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(TNS) — Bellingham officials are urging a return to City Council meetings with an audience in attendance, and Whatcom County is testing a hybrid approach of in-person and online meetings as pandemic restrictions ease nationwide.

New coronavirus infection rates are falling rapidly as the COVID-19 omicron variant wanes after it surged in December 2021.

Washington state is ending its indoor mask mandate on March 21 — two years after Gov. Jay Inslee issued the first pandemic restrictions in March 2020.

"We are recommending that you resume in-person meetings at your March 28, 2022, council meeting," said a memo to the City Council from several department heads.

"At that time, council can choose to meet in a hybrid setting. Appropriate technology has been installed that will allow council members to participate remotely. We also recommend that testimony for public hearings be conducted in-person," said the memo, which was included with the council's Feb. 28 meeting agenda.

More city employees will be returning to their offices on March 21, and its workforce is nearly 100% vaccinated, due to an order from Mayor Seth Fleetwood.

"All our plans are made with the knowledge that the situation is dynamic," the memo said. "There are many logistics involved with returning more than 100 employees to in-person work. We will keep lines of communication open for changing circumstances and move forward with flexibility, patience and kindness as our guiding principles."

City Council members were urged to let appointed boards and commissions continue meeting remotely, however.

"Vaccination requirements apply to city volunteers, including board and commission members," the memo said. "We are developing our system for recording and monitoring compliance with this requirement. We will be better prepared to consider resuming in-person board and commission meetings once this is in place."

Two years meeting online

Bellingham's City Council last met in person on March 23, 2020, to consider emergency pandemic measures that some people falsely claimed were unconstitutionally limiting certain freedoms.

Frequent initiative supporter Tim Eyman, who at that time was a Republican candidate for governor, forced a delay in the meeting as he challenged the council's consideration of updated emergency pandemic powers.

In December, 2021, as the omicron variant caused a dramatic spike in COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations and deaths, the city canceled plans for more workers to return to city offices in January.

County testing hybrid model

Whatcom County will test a hybrid approach allowing a mix of in-person and online participation in its afternoon committee meetings March 8, the County Council clerk told The Bellingham Herald.

"We are hoping to go with at least a couple test hybrid committee meetings (to be announced) on March 8 so we can try out the very simple system we currently have set up in the chambers," council clerk Dana Brown-Davis said in an email.

"If all goes well on ( March 8), we will likely schedule all meetings as hybrid for March 22," Brown-Davis said.

© 2022 The Bellingham Herald (Bellingham, Wash.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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