City Council May Hold Discussions on Opening Meetings to the Public

The City Council could soon have a discussion on once again opening council chambers to the public during meetings on Monday nights.

On Monday, the City Council once again renewed the resolution that allows the council and its subcommittees and commissions to legally meet remotely as part of Monday’s consent calendar.

However during that item City Manager Cynthia Kurtz informed the City Council that next month the item will not come before the council as a consent item.

“What we would like to propose to the council is that we extend this resolution for one more month,” Kurtz said Monday night.

“The council would then have a discussion on another extension or opening the meetings once again.”

The Omicron variant has largely waned and many school districts and states are relaxing their mask mandates.

The public has not been able to attend City Council meetings since March 2020 when the pandemic began.

On Monday Huntington Hospital reported eight patients in the Intensive Care Unit and 20 patients overall battling the pandemic.

On Tuesday, the state lifted its requirement that unvaccinated people wear masks in most indoor settings — joining the vaccinated population that had its mandate lifted two weeks ago.

Pasadena, however, will not immediately lift its indoor mask mandate for unvaccinated people. Local health departments have the ability to maintain stricter requirements that state minimum standards.

The city did, however, loosen mask resquirements for vaccinated people, weho can now enter most public places without a face covering.

Masks continue to be required for everyone at certain indoor settings including health care facilities, transit centers, airports, aboard public transit, in correctional facilities and at homeless shelters and long-term care facilities.

The state will lift its requirement that students and staff wear masks indoors at schools at 11:59 p.m. March 11, making face coverings “strongly recommended” but not mandated, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Monday. The Pasadena Public Health Dept. has not yet determined if Pasadena will follow suit.

According to City News Service, on Friday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced new standards that rely largely on COVID hospital numbers to govern whether masks should be worn.

Those new standards — while resulting in mask recommendations being lifted for much of the country, still classified Los Angeles and San Diego counties as having “high” virus activity and urged that people continue to wear masks.

Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer has said that the county’s indoor mask-wearing rule would remain in place until the county’s level of COVID transmission rate falls to the “moderate” level as defined by the CDC and remains there for two weeks or COVID vaccines have been available to residents under age 5 for at least eight weeks and no emerging COVID “variants of concern” have been identified that could spark another surge in cases.

According to Ferrer, reaching the CDC’s “moderate” level of transmission requires the county to have a seven-day cumulative infection rate of less than 50 per 100,000 residents. Ferrer said that is expected to happen by March 16, meaning the indoor mask mandate would be completely lifted by March 30.

On Sunday, county officials announced the number of COVID-positive patients in hospitals has fallen below 1,000 for the first time since December.