How Schaumburg, Hoffman Estates leaders honored social distancing while meeting
Problem: How does a municipal board hold a needed meeting and fulfill its pledge of transparency in a locked building, while also social distancing in a room whose camera for broadcasting or livestreaming can't be moved?
Two of the Northwest suburbs' largest villages - Schaumburg and Hoffman Estates - innovated solutions to that challenge this week after some sharing of ideas between their mayors.
"(Schaumburg Mayor) Tom Dailly and I talk every day," Hoffman Estates Mayor Bill McLeod said, citing the common issues faced by the similar and interlocked villages.
Hoffman Estates held a brief village board meeting Monday just so trustees could ratify a declaration of emergency regarding the COVID-19 outbreak and temporarily relax restrictions on certain types of liquor licenses so that restaurant patrons can take beer and wine off premises.
Most trustees called into the meeting, following loosened rules related to social distancing protocols in Illinois.
Sitting at the dais were only McLeod, Trustee Michael Gaeta and the village's two attorneys, all separated by at least one empty seat between them.
Village Clerk Bev Romanoff and Deputy Village Manager Dan O'Malley sat elsewhere in the otherwise empty council chamber.
A phone number was read multiple times during the live broadcast so that residents could weigh in as usual during the public comment period on each agenda item, though no one did.
While there is a larger room in village hall to which more portable video equipment could have been taken, McLeod thought the arrangement solved the problem efficiently. The importance of both agenda items justified the meeting, especially helping shuttered restaurants continue to serve customers, he added.
"We're trying to keep our businesses afloat, with whatever income they can earn," McLeod said.
In Schaumburg, the social distancing at Tuesday's regularly scheduled village board meeting was handled by having three trustees move from the dais and sit at individual tables in front. That created space between everyone, all of whom remained within view of the board room's fixed video camera.
Village Manager Brian Townsend and Village Attorney Lance Malina were the only staff members present, sitting where the audience normally does.
Townsend posted comments online explaining the situation during the livestream on the village's YouTube channel. The same comment board was made available for the public to weigh in when appropriate, but no viewers did.
The meeting deferred all but the most critical business before the board, Dailly said, and ended just under 11 minutes after it began.
While Schaumburg trustees also were offered the option of calling in, all chose to be present under the arrangements that had been made, Dailly said.
The need for some sort of alternate arrangements was brought to the attention of Communications and Outreach Director Allison Albrecht just a few days ahead of the meeting, she said.