Sacramento City Council, public to return to chambers for council meetings
Sacramento (July 20, 2022) - The Sacramento City Council will return to its physical chambers in City Hall on Aug. 9 after more than two years of virtual meetings, Mayor Darrell Steinberg announced Tuesday.
Residents will be able to attend in person starting Aug. 16. Masks will be required, and the chambers will be kept at half capacity. “We will adapt week to week depending on Covid cases,” the mayor said.
Mayor Steinberg said the Zoom commenting system will remain for those who prefer to make comments remotely. As always, Council meetings will continue to be livestreamed.
“We have been and are continuing to do our very best to balance the fact that COVID continues and in some ways is increasing,” Mayor Steinberg said. at Tuesday’s Council meeting. “It’s time, at least slowly, to try to get back to where we were.”
Members of the Sacramento City Council have been meeting virtually since the end of March 2020 when the public health order from the County of Sacramento required that indoor meetings meet specific social distancing requirements that were not possible within council chambers. Councilmembers Mai Vang, Katie Valenzuela and Sean Loloee have never sat at the dais together.
Mayor Steinberg also mentioned that he and the council were continuing to work with City Manager Howard Chan on how City of Sacramento staff will interact with city council and provide reports at meetings.
According to the Sacramento County website there is no current public health order in place. The current seven-day average for coronavirus cases in the county is 498 new cases per day — less than a tenth of the peak of more than 5,000 cases a day in January. You can get more resources on coronavirus vaccines, treatments and testing here.
In order to run the meetings effectively, City Clerk Mindy Cuppy and her staff have been in person in council chambers despite all other participants being virtual.
