Galesburg City Council members who have an emergency, personal illness or job-related excuse could soon be allowed to request remote attendance at meetings.
The City Council will consider on first reading Monday an ordinance amending Chapter 30 of the Galesburg Municipal Code regarding the attendance of members of the City Council or other City Commissions via electronic means. The City Council meets at 6 p.m today (Monday) at City Hall.
The ordinance provides for a member of the City Council, or of any commission of the city, to attend and participate in any open or closed meeting of the public body via electronic means, provided that such attendance is in compliance with the stipulations of the ordinance and any other applicable laws.
According to City Clerk Kelli Bennewitz, the city currently does not have a policy for remote attendance at meetings.
Bennewitz tells WGIL, “Since the Governor’s Disaster Proclamation ended on May 11, fully remote meetings are no longer allowed. In order to allow a member to attend remotely, we needed to have a policy or ordinance on the books.”
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She said the ordinance being proposed would not only apply to the City Council but any other board or commission of the city.
Interim City Manager John Schlaf and Bennewitz recommend approval of the ordinance.
The law states that a member of a public body may attend a meeting by telephone or video conference in accordance with, and to the extent allowed by, the rules adopted by the public body. If a quorum of the members of a public body is physically present at the meeting, a majority of the public body may allow a member of that body to attend the meeting by phone or video conference if the member is prevented from physically attending because of: (1) personal illness or disability; (2) employment purposes or the business of the public body; (3) a family or other emergency.
“During the pandemic of course, we did have Council members and other members of commissions regularly call in for meetings, which at that time was allowed,” Bennewitz said. “Since then, we have only had one instance of a Council member calling in for a meeting because of a work obligation.
“We have had Council members ask about remote attendance in the past and several have since requested that an ordinance be brought forward.”
The frequency of remote participation also is capped, and no member shall be approved to attend a meeting remotely who has previously been approved for remote attendance in the three months prior. The member participating remotely shall be permitted to participate in the same capacity as those members physically present and is subject to all general meeting guidelines and procedures.
