SUBJECT:
Title
Board of Trustees In-Person Meetings
Body
DEPARTMENT: Administration
PRESENTERS: Malcolm Fleming, Town Administrator
Gabi Rae, Communications and Community Engagement Director
Heidi Leatherwood, Town Clerk
Denise Jakan, Information Technology Director
Amy Teetzel, Administrative Operations Director
TIME ESTIMATE: 15 minutes
only required for non-consent items
STAFF RECOMMENDATION:
Recommendation
Discuss and decide when the Board will return to in-person meetings and, if the Board desires hybrid meetings, confirm procedures for hybrid meetings.
End
SUMMARY AND BACKGROUND OF SUBJECT MATTER:
Due to the ongoing pandemic, the Board of Trustees has held virtual meetings since March 2020. The virtual meeting format is easier to facilitate and more convenient for all participants to attend. However, the lack of face-to-face interaction in virtual meetings has undermined collaboration and at times contributed to miscommunication. With vaccination rates increasing, Covid transmission and positivity rates on the decline, and the Board recently voting unanimously to rescind the requirement to wear masks indoors in public places in areas of Erie located in Weld County some Board members have asked to return to in-person Board meetings.
When the State lifted restrictions on in-person indoor meetings in June 2021, on a trial basis the Board held several hybrid meetings with some Board members and staff in-person and some Board members, staff and most of the public participating via the Zoom meeting platform. Staff was eventually able to facilitate the hybrid meeting format effectively. However, when fewer than four Board members attended in-person the full benefits of being in-person were lost and the additional staff resources required to facilitate the hybrid meeting was wasted. For those reasons, staff asked the Board to hold hybrid meetings only if at least four Board members would attend in-person. Further complicating matters, not knowing far in advance if at least four Board members would attend in-person made public notice and planning meeting logistics difficult. In the fall of 2021, the Delta variant made Covid cases surge and the Board resumed having virtual only meetings.
Staff asks the Board to determine when to resume having Board meetings in-person, and if the Board wants to meet in a hybrid format, to confirm the guideline of having hybrid meetings only when at least four Board members have confirmed at least two weeks before a meeting they will attend in person. Furthermore, because frequent switching from virtual to hybrid creates confusion for residents and adds significant additional workload for staff, staff recommends waiting until new Board members are seated in April to resume hybrid meetings.
Board Priority(s) Addressed:
ü Engaged and Diverse Community
ü Small Town Feel
ü Effective Governance
ü Environmentally Sustainable
ü Fiscally Responsible
ATTACHMENTS:
None.