COVID-19 is breaking a tradition at Santa Barbara City Hall.
The swearing-in of new Santa Barbara Mayor Randy Rowse will place outside on the steps of the City Hall building on Jan. 11.
The ceremonial items, including the swearing-in of Rowse and councilmembers Meagan Harmon, Eric Friedman and Kristen Sneddon will occur outside, but the rest of the meeting will move inside the City Council chamber and be closed to the public. Harmon,who recently had a baby, will participate for the rest of the meeting remotely.
“The chambers will be closed to the public, but staff and Council will be together, distanced and masked,” said Acting City Administrator Rebecca Bjork.
The exact scenario of the meeting, however, is still in a state of fluidity.
She said going forward staff is looking to create a scenario where meetings could be held in hybrid form, both in-person and remotely.
“We are doing work in our council chambers that will allow us to do hybrid meetings,” she said. “If that work can not be completed on time, we may have to revert to a virtual meeting. Also, if the county or state modify their health orders we may have to revert to a virtual meeting.”
Current public health orders allow indoor, in-person meetings open to the public. Some other governing bodies, like the County Board of Supervisors, have been holding them for months, while others continue to hold meetings by video conference or in person for members but closed to the public.
Rowse said he’d like to return to in-person meetings, but everything is dependent on Santa Barbara County Public Health orders.
“The desire is to go back in person for council and staff,” Rowse said. “We will see what happens. If something pops up where we can’t do that, then we can’t do that.”
Rowse said his preference is to hold the swearing-in ceremony outside on Jan. 11 because it is safer.
“This Omicron thing is popping up,” Rowse said. “The numbers are going up so quickly.”
On Wednesday, more than 800 new positive novel coronavirus cases were reported in the county, including 251 within the city of Santa Barbara.
Next week’s City Council meeting will be the last one for outgoing Mayor Cathy Murillo, who ran unsuccessfully for re-election in November.
Harmon, Friedman and Sneddon all won re-election in their City Council district races.
“While the decision to hold the mayoral and council swearing in outside on the steps of City Hall was made in response to COVID-19 safety concerns, I’m very excited about the change and what it symbolizes,” Harmon said.
“I believe that an outdoor ceremony — one where everyone in our city is welcome and can safely participate — reflects this new council’s collective desire to improve communication and community engagement. This outdoor ceremony is a very small, but meaningful, way of beginning the work of ensuring all residents of this city feel invited into their local government. I am looking forward to the event, and hope the outdoor swearing-in is here to stay.”
Santa Barbara City Council meetings typically start at 2 p.m. on Tuesdays. The schedule and agendas can be found here.
— Noozhawk staff writer Joshua Molina can be reached at jmolina@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.