The City of Sacramento is reminding the public that in-person meetings have returned to City Hall for all its legislative bodies, including the City Council.
Following the onset of the pandemic, the City developed multiple strategies to facilitate the public’s participation in government meetings while also adhering to COVID-19 rules and regulations.
As the pandemic has subsided, the City has been returning to its pre-pandemic operations by phasing out virtual meetings and holding in-person meetings for all its boards, commissions and committees.
City Council and other meetings returned to in-person in August 2022. Council Chambers, which was initially limited to half capacity during in-person meetings, has since resumed full capacity.
In addition, Zoom comments, which were launched in spring 2020, have been discontinued in favor of in-person comments and eComments, which were the standard before the pandemic.
“For more than a year, the City has been taking steps to return to the way we did business prior to the pandemic, and this is another part of that evolution,” said City Clerk Mindy Cuppy.
Cuppy said recent Zooms calls involving racist comments and comments unrelated to City business also a were a factor in making this change.
Members of the public interested in making eComments can do so once an agenda is published to the City’s “upcoming meeting” webpage. This process remains active until the meeting is adjourned, and comments can be viewed in real time.
City staff also compiles and distributes an eComment report the day of each meeting to each legislative body and posts that report to the meeting’s agenda.
All eComments are made part of the permanent legislative record.
The City remains committed to protecting the health and safety of the public and its employees and will continue to follow all guidelines set forth by the California Department of Public Health and Sacramento County Public Health.