After a year and a half of holding virtual meetings, Kingston city councillors appear in no rush to see each other in person any time soon.
They have opted to continue to meet in a virtual format for at least another six months due to lingering concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic and the extra cost of renovating the historic council chamber in city hall to make it safer for meetings.
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Coun. Ryan Boehme led the charge to stick with the status quo of electronic meetings in the midst of the pandemic’s fourth wave.
“This format has worked quite well. I feel the public has actually engaged a lot more.”
City staff presented three options for councillors to consider earlier this month: continue meeting electronically, meet in council chambers with clear physical dividers between desks and mandatory masks, or a hybrid of the two options allowing each councillor the option to meet in person or virtually.
Councillors haven’t met face to face since March 2020, when the pandemic lockdowns first began.
Councillors haven’t met in person in the 19th-century council chamber at city hall since March 2020.
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Boehme says there’s no need to rush back to city hall to conduct municipal business.
“The fact that we’re basically within the fourth wave, I don’t think a move back to the in-person chambers or the hybrid move at this point makes a ton of sense.”
Council voted 9-4 to stick with the status quo of holding council and committee meetings from the comfort of their homes or offices for safety reasons.
The option to resume face-to-face meetings in council chambers was deemed problematic due to the 19th-century configuration of the room and the lack of physical distancing between seats for politicians, staff and the public gallery.
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Under this option, staff said special dividers would have to be installed between the 12 seats around the horseshoe while only a limited number of municipal staff would be allowed to attend in person. In addition, any council watchers or delegations would continue to participate through virtual means, and councillors would have to wear three-ply surgical masks except when speaking.
It would also cost more than $66,000 to undertake the necessary safety and technology upgrades for the council chamber, according to a staff report.
The cost of upgrading the council chamber to add public safety measures is about $66,000, an expense councillors don’t want to make at this time.
City of Kingston
The cost factor weighed on the minds of politicians pondering whether it’s a good investment of tax dollars at this time.
“I don’t want to spend $66,000 to go to council and sit in a booth (with dividers). It’s not like we can talk to each other the way they used to,” said Coun. Lisa Osanic.
Coun. Bridget Doherty says she supports ongoing virtual meetings until both councillors and the public can attend meetings in person.
“Really, these meetings are for the public. I don’t really see the purpose of us getting behind the partitions and the public still can’t participate unless it’s done virtually.”
But others, including Mayor Bryan Paterson, spoke in favour of the hybrid meeting model, noting many other workplaces have already started moving in that direction.
“It’s a step-by-step process to get to normal. It’s just a question of when we’re going to spend this ($66,000 on chamber upgrades).”
In the hybrid meeting model, councillors could participate in each meeting either in person or via electronic means.
A limited number of city staff would attend in person and support the meetings, and members of the public, including delegations and presenters, would have to participate virtually.
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Coun. Wayne Hill views the move to hybrid meetings as a show of confidence in existing public safety measures, a return to normalcy for the civic government, and reflective of what others in the community are already doing, such as children returning to schools.
“We can demonstrate to people we are leading by example that vaccinations work,” he says. “It’s an important symbol to do the kind of things that (others in the community) are doing.”
While Paterson predicts it’s just a matter of time before council makes the investment in council room safety upgrades, the majority believe it’s fiscally and socially prudent to wait a few more months before deciding when to take their seats around the horseshoe.
City council is expected to revisit its virtual meeting policy early next year. Until then, the seat of local government remains an empty chamber.
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Keeping the stay-at-home model essentially means that every councillor, staff member or public member will continue to participate solely through electronic means.
The motion adopted by council is to remain in place for up to six months following the end of the city’s pandemic state of emergency, and some suggested the current procedures can be reviewed in January or February of 2022.
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Osanic says she actually prefers participating in council debates from home, adding that the return to council with plastic dividers is akin to spending five hours in a phone booth.
She also remarked that her personal at-home desk offers more space to lay out documents than the old narrow council desks, and it hasn’t impacted her workload.
“For me, productivity has actually increased. I haven’t had anyone say, ‘Hey, you’re slacking off Lisa.’”
Others, like Coun. Gary Oosterhof, say city hall is the seat of local government and that’s where elected leaders need to be.
“I’m eager to get back to city hall. I really do miss the old building, the experience and the engagement.”