UPDATE: Municipal council is taking the next step toward a hybrid format of in-person and remote meetings.
On Monday, councillors voted for municipal staff to bring a report to the current council with suggestions on moving forward to a return to in-person or a hybrid format of meetings inside the Civic Centre in Chatham.
Council was expected to return to in-person meetings in September, but after some discussion, council decided to hold off and have municipal staff return with a report including more information on what the modelling shows for COVID-19 in the fall.
Virtual municipal council meetings in Chatham-Kent could be coming to an end.
That will be up for discussion and voting during Monday night's meeting as council considers a return to in-person meetings starting in September.
Their meetings started going online-only on March 23, 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and council has been meeting remotely since then.
According to a report from municipal staff, council members were surveyed about returning to council chambers at the Civic Centre in Chatham and the idea of hybrid meetings with over 80 per cent of councillors indicating they would feel comfortable sitting at their normal seat in council chambers.
Seventy per cent preferred moving forward with some type of hybrid meeting while 58 per cent of council wanted criteria to be eligible to participate virtually including sick or vacation times. A majority of council members (53 per cent) also said they wanted no maximum to the number of meetings they could attend virtually.
"Technical challenges would be experienced with the current equipment within the council chamber if a hybrid approach of virtual and in-person participation were to be permitted... A hybrid approach could be considered again during a budget deliberation or when implementing new software in the council chambers is being reviewed," read the report. "For these reasons, it is being recommended within the by-law that council only be able to participate electronically when there is a state of emergency declared by any level of government, urgent matters or inclement weather as determined by the chief administrative officer and clerk."
Prior to COVID-19, deputations from citizens were read in-person by the individual submitting the deputation during council meetings.
Because of the virtual nature of the meetings over the past two and a half years, deputations have instead been read by the clerk's office during every meeting on behalf of the individual.
The council survey indicated that 65 per cent of councillors would like to see in-person deputations return to council chambers along with other options if citizens could not attend.
On Monday, council approved a by-law amendment to accept deputations read by the person during the meeting as well as continuing with the option to have deputations read by the clerk on behalf of the individual should they not be able to attend in person. Submitted video deputations will also be allowed.
The topic of in-person council meetings was originally set to be voted on during the July 11 meeting, however the meeting ran long and it was postponed until July 25.
