VACAVILLE ACTED QUICKLY TO ADJUST CITY OPERATIONS
Once the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic, the impacts became immediately evident in cities throughout the world. They saw it in the long lines outside grocery stores, and they saw it in main streets which were as empty as the “basic needs” aisles of many stores. They saw it in their doctor visits, and they saw it when they noticed their children listening to their teacher from a laptop.
The pandemic also impacted things behind the scenes, particularly in local government. Once the Vacaville City Council ratified an emergency declaration at its March 24 meeting, both City Hall and the council itself quickly changed operations.
For city workers, this meant having as many employees as possible working remotely to allow for social distancing, per Kris Concepcion, the city’s fire chief and
interim communications and media officer. City Hall was also closed to walk-in traffic.
“We’re encouraging our residents and businesses to interact with City Hall online as possible,” he said.
These have included utility bills and other payments. However, for those who are unable to make payments online, Concepcion said the city accepts them by appointment.
“It really has taken getting used to,” he said. “This couldn’t have been anticipated and has really changed the way we do business. We prefer to do business in person and face to face, and I think most people prefer that, but we’ve had to adjust and adjust quickly because of the rapidly changing environment that has been presented by the pandemic.”
Concepcion said the biggest challenge is that some employees have been unable to do remote work and that certain actions, such as plan checks, are better suited to in-person work.
“It’s always better when you’re standing right next to each other reviewing plans back and forth,” he said.
One of the biggest changes in city operations has been how city meetings have been conducted. With the Council Chambers closed for inperson meetings, which has shifted members of the City Council, Planning Commission and Parks and Recreation Commission to follow the lead of many in 2020 and hold them over Zoom. A livestream is also posted to YouTube.
This has provided its own challenges, Mayor Ron Rowlett said, although he is grateful the meetings are
able to be held.
“I am very thankful to city staff for making our virtual council meetings go as smoothly as possible,” he said.
The benefit, he said, is that it has allowed Vacaville residents to view and participate from the safety of their homes. To that end, it also has allowed for increased participation, with public comments often totaling an hour or two as callers have spoken their minds on issues facing the city.
However, Rowlett said it has presented an issue, in that some of the calls have been more inflammatory in nature.
“The drawback is that people, I believe, say things over the phone that they might not say in person, face to face,” he said. “We don’t want to censor public comment, but at times I wish we had the ability to bleep out foul language and hate-filled rants.”
Since the stay-at-home order, four new council members have been elected and the city began its switch from an at-large to a by-district system, which will be completed with the election of a District 2 representative on May 4. This new council has not met all at once in person yet, but Rowlett hopes to see the council return to the Chamber soon.
“We need to discuss the council’s comfort level with meetings in-person,” he said. “Our county is doing great job getting those vaccinated who choose to be vaccinated, and I do believe optimistically that we will see a
rapid recovery back to normal before summer.”
As for whether or not the council will continue to provide Zoom as an option for viewing, Rowlett said that is something he and the council will discuss.
“When we are able to open City Hall to full capacity, I would like to have our community members speak at the podium,” he said.
In terms of the city as a whole, Rowlett said the coronavirus has impacted the city in a big way.
“Families have lost loved ones, businesses have struggled to stay open and we have all felt a bit isolated from the community and missed the social aspects of life that this pandemic has kept us from,” he said.
Rowlett said one of the city’s most valuable resources has been the funding from the federal Coraonvirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, which the council has used to finance an economic recovery strategy, housing support and the Senior Hot Meals Program, in which the city has partnered with local restaurants to deliver meals to home-bound seniors.
“We have been able to get money to local businesses in need on a city level,” he said. “CARES Act funding for the county has allowed for Public Health to track and attack this virus and keep our numbers relatively low.”
Since the start of the pandemic, Concepcion said, the city has a COVID response team that serves as an extension of the Emergency Operations Center and meets regularly to get information on the latest updates, financial impacts and changes to permitted activities. Because of constant
updates at the start of the pandemic, Concepcion said the team used to meet every day. Over time, the meetings were cut back to twice a week and now meets once a week, and Concepcion also provides a COVID update at every City Council meeting.
Even as the numbers decrease, Concepcion said the team will continue to meet and will do a thorough after-action review once the pandemic is over to determine how to move forward. This will include reviewing the changes the city operations over the last year and determining what, if anything, the city would like to continue to implement in the future.
“There are some things that work a little bit better and more efficiently, and some things that don’t work as efficiently,” he said. “We’re gonna take a look at all of those things and adjust as best we can with the thought in mind that we want to conduct business with our residents in the most efficient way possible.”
Rowlett said he is looking forward to a swift recovery.
“I miss being out in the community,” he said. “There are so many people that I haven’t seen in person in almost a year. There are people I will never see again because they lost their fight against this virus. This last year has been extremely challenging, we have learned a lot and lost a lot. I hope that we will come out of this with a greater understanding of the importance of community and the need to take care of ourselves and those around us.”