SUPERVISORS TALK JUNE 15 REOPENING
The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors considered how to resume county operations following the state’s anticipated reopening next month during the board’s meeting Tuesday.
Supervisors heard several items related to reopening, including how meeting proceedings may change and whether or not county employees will be required to return to the office following the June 15 reopening.
Humboldt County Public Health Officer Dr. Ian Hoffman said the state updated its guidance on COVID-19 workplace health and safety standards last week.
“In certain workplaces where people are entirely vaccinated, they could forego masking and distancing in those environments if all employees had proof of vaccination status,” Hoffman said. “There will be masking requirements for those who do not have vaccination status.”
Hoffman noted the guidance did not address meetings, stating because it is a public space everyone in attendance would need to be vaccinated or have proof of a negative test before
attending.
“Until the (Bluprint for a Safer Economy) retires, I think that in-person Board of Supervisors meetings would be extraordinarily difficult,” he said. “We don’t have confirmation exactly what that’s going to look like after (June 15). What we’re hearing is that many of those restrictions are going to go away and become purely recommendations.”
“Our recommendation would be, let’s watch and see what happens,” said Humboldt County Public Health Director Michele Stephens.
“Board members can certainly meet in board chambers, it’s just a matter of whether or not the public should be coming in. It’s the issue of distancing and masking,” she said. “There are boards that have continued to have in-person meetings despite what the precautions should be and so I think our recommendation would be masking and distancing and board members certainly could be in-person but it would be advised to wait until June 15 to see what the governor does with the tier system and any other prevention measures that are in place.”
Third District Supervisor Mike Wilson noted that it might not be necessary to shift to in-person Board of Supervisors meetings if the public cannot attend.
“It just seems a bit more awkward than what we’re already doing now. If we are putting people in the room, then we really would have to be masked the whole time as far as I can understand, at least in terms of the recommendation and current context,” Wilson said. “That would be interesting and, quite frankly, a bit uncomfortable, but a lot of workers work all day in masks … but that’s out of necessity to provide a specific service. I don’t know if having us all in the same room provides a specific service under these conditions.”
Responding to Wilson’s comments, 2nd District Supervisor Michelle Bushnell noted children and teachers are required to wear masks all day.
“While wearing a mask might be inconvenient, our school-aged children do it all day long, our teachers do it all day long and any worker right now does it all day long,” Bush- nell said. “Although it is inconvenient for the Board of Supervisors, our entire community is doing it.”
First District Supervisor Rex Bohn suggested community members could participate in an in-person public comment session if they could prove vaccination status.
Humboldt County counsel Jefferson Billingsley said he is unaware of any other California county that has pursued such a strategy and said he would look into it further.
“You’re talking about public participation, so not exactly a private business, but I will look into that,” Billingsley said. “… You want to have an avenue for public participation remotely. Currently, we’re under that population threshold but I don’t know if that legislation will change or what your board’s opinion on that, it’s another item for discussion.”
Fifth District Supervisor Steve Madrone said he respected every person’s right to choose to get the vaccine he noted, “I very much wish everybody would get vaccinated.”
“I think that there’s been a lot of things we’ve learned through this pandemic,” Madrone said. “One of them is perhaps shaking hands, it’s just a really bad idea no matter whether we’re in a pandemic or not. When you look at our families and the fact that I know in my family nobody’s been sick for 14 months…that’s just phenomenal, right?”
Madrone added, “I think Oriental societies had it right … bow, fold your hands, present yourself.” (No supervisors during the public meeting commented on Madrone’s use of “Oriental” in reference to Asians, usage widely considered outdated and offensive. Over the last 20 years, the federal government and at least two state governments — New York and Washington — passed laws to eliminate use of the term in government communications.)
Supervisors ultimately approved two of the five items in staff’s recommendation and agreed to adopt a resolution to approve California Supplement Paid Sick Leave to include a grace period and sunset date of Oct. 30 and to direct Human Resources to a new bank of leave hours in accordance with Senate Bill 95.
Supervisors chose to mull over the remaining recommendations and reconvene ahead of the June 15 reopening. Supervisors unanimously passed staff’s recommendation in a 5-0 vote.