HOW LOCAL MUNICIPALITIES ARE HOSTING REGULAR BOARD MEETINGS DURING QUARANTINE

By DEBRA HAIGHT
BCR Correspondent

Each week brings more changes as people in Southwest Michigan, the state and the nation try to cope with the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. Last week, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer issued a number of executive orders, ranging from asking people to stay home to postponing the tax filing deadline.

For local governments, the rapid changes in orders and directives from state and county officials kept them scrambling to figure out how they were going to adjust. Many municipalities had already locked their doors to the public the week before, and the pace of closures accelerated with the governor’s stay home, stay safe order last Monday, March 23.

Berrien Springs Village President Jesse Hibler noted the week before that the village’s

goal was to make sure everyone stays safe-from village employees to residents. “We don’t want people to be fearful that local government is shutting down,” he said.

Hibler said that the village has put an information box outside the hall and has also posted notices at the hall that will be visible to people on the outside.  He urged people to make payments either online or by using the outside drop box.

The information box will have updated information and give people to leave questions which village officials answer. It also has information from the Berrien County Health Department about the virus and the location of hospitals and emergency services.

With the stay home, stay safe order going into effect at midnight on March 23, Berrien Springs was among the municipalities that outright cancelled all council and committee meetings for the month of April. Others changed how they’re meeting in response to another Whitmer executive order which allows for remote participation in public meetings.

The cities of Niles and Buchanan were among the municipalities trying to figure out how to hold their regularly scheduled council and commission meetings. In Niles, officials solved the problem by moving the meeting to the utilities building on South 15^th Street and having people sit six feet or more apart.

Buchanan city officials went a different route. They decided to hold their meeting remotely with commissioners and residents

participating by Zoom or by phone. City Manager William Marx said the March 23 meeting went well with residents tuning in and three people offering comments.

He described the experience as similar to “the old time party lines” with computers and the internet in addition to telephones. “We are using the recommended Zoom Platform as our service provider and we are very pleased,” he said. “This is all new territory for us and I expected it to be very cumbersome but it actually flowed very well.”

“The Commission’s phone conference style meeting actually went very well,” he said. “The public called into listen on the published numbers and the Clerk can see the phone numbers of the callers who call into the meeting.”

“The public can listen and at the two opportunities for the public to make comments the Clerk arranges the attendees to speak,” he added. “The normal three minutes are available for comment.  I believe we had three public comments at the Commission meeting.”

People can visit the www.cityofbuchanan.com website to see the details of how to tune into the city commission’s meetings.

At the county level, the Berrien County Board of Commissioners cancelled their March 26 board and committee meetings. The holding of future board meetings will be evaluated each week to see if they need to be held.

County officials closed county facilities to the public on March 23 but noted that many county services are still accessible to the public via phone, email and the internet. People can access a detailed contact list for county departments at the www.berriencounty.org website.

The Berrien County Health Department’s COVID-19 Response Hotline is 1-800-815-5485.

The governor’s stay home, stay safe order of March 23 prohibited in-person work that is not necessary to sustain life. Individuals living in Michigan are ordered to stay at home and all public and private gatherings occurring among persons not part of a single household are prohibited.

While the order required numerous businesses including restaurants to close to dine-in services, other businesses considered “essential” have been allowed to remain open. Those include ones involving health care and public health, necessary government activities and financial institutions.

In Berrien County, Prosecutor Michael Sepic

advised local law enforcement to use warnings to accomplish compliance with the governor’s stay home, stay safe order. Citations for failure to comply could result in misdemeanor charges for technical violations or even felony resisting and obstructing police charges if people refuse to cease and desist.

People can visit the www.michigan.gov/whitmer website to find all of the COVID-19 executive orders.