The Long Beach City Council will transition back to in-person meetings tonight, but it could still be a while before all other city commissions and council committees join them.
City Council meetings have been held virtually since an odd meeting in January, when the public was abruptly forced to watch the meeting from the lobby due to a spike in COVID-19 case rates.
However, the City Council is scheduled to vote on a revolving resolution next week that will allow all other legislative bodies in the city to continue to meet over Zoom or other internet-based software.
The ability to continue to meet virtually is possible thanks to a recent state law that allows legislative bodies to meet virtually through the end of 2023 if a state of emergency exists and they make the meetings accessible to the public through teleconferencing or other means.
The Jan. 5 meeting fell on a day when the city announced over 2,700 new cases of COVID-19, but things have changed considerably since then. The March 11 case count, the last day the city has provided data for, showed just 58 new cases in the city.
Some legislative bodies, like the city’s Civil Service Commission, have already started to meet in person, and others are scheduled to meet in person for the first time in months, like the city’s Airport Advisory Commission.
Most of the city’s more powerful commissions, like the Harbor Commission and the Parks and Recreation Commission, have continued to meet virtually.
Long Beach has not repealed its state of emergency and an effort by California Republicans Tuesday to have the two-year statewide emergency repealed was defeated in a committee hearing.
The agenda item points to a March 10 memo from Dr. Anissa Davis, the city’s health officer, who recommended that meetings be held virtually “to the extent possible” and suggested that a hybrid approach, where some members of the public could attend in person with infection control measures in place, could serve as an alternative.
The memo said a hybrid meeting should include mask-wearing, physical distancing, no intimate forms of greetings like hugging or kissing and regular cleaning of high-touch surfaces to help reduce transmission.
For City Council meetings, masks will be “highly recommended” for the general public regardless of vaccination status, according to city spokesperson Kevin Lee. Unvaccinated city staff will be required to wear a mask while vaccinated staff members will have the option to wear a mask or not.
The city lifted updated its health order at the beginning of March to allow all residents, regardless of vaccination status, to go without wearing a mask in most indoor settings.
Editors note: A city official said that the Planning Commission will begin meeting in person starting at its first April meeting. The story has been updated.
Everyone can now go maskless indoors, and other big changes to the city’s health order