During their Oct. 26 meeting, Bethel City Council voted to adopt new rules that bar the public from attending meetings in person. They also laid out stipulations for council members. Once the rules went into effect, a council member was newly out of compliance and had to leave the meeting midway through.
Under the new rules, only council members, the city clerk, the city manager, one member of the media, and one invited department head can attend Bethel City Council meetings.
Attending council members must wear masks at all times, and can’t have food in the meetings. If council members have traveled out of town within the past 10 days, they must either be vaccinated or present a negative COVID-19 PCR test.
City Clerk Lori Strickler said that Mayor Mark Springer proposed these rules as a way to limit the number of people in the chambers during the COVID-19 pandemic. This was the council’s first meeting back in Bethel City Hall since May, when they were displaced because of roof repairs. Over the summer the council had been meeting in the ONC multipurpose building, which Strickler said was a larger space that was better for social distancing.
Council member Mary “Beth” Hessler voiced opposition to the resolution as a whole, and wanted to either strike or amend various parts of it, including a rule that says council members have to wear masks during meetings. All but one of Hessler’s proposed amendments were not seconded by fellow council members, meaning that her amendments were dismissed without being discussed by council members or brought to a vote.
However, one amendment Hessler proposed was added to the legislation. The original language in the resolution had said that council members who had been traveling out of town in the past 10 days could only come to meetings if they were vaccinated against COVID-19. Hessler is the only unvaccinated council member. She wanted to amend the resolution to add that unvaccinated council members could attend meetings after traveling if they presented a negative COVID-19 test during the meeting. The council agreed with Hessler on this point, but then further amended it to require council members to show a PCR test, rather than a rapid test. Although she had originally proposed the amendment, Hessler voted against it.
Hessler said that her opposition to the amendment was in part because under it she would need to be removed from the meeting as she had recently been out of town. She said that she had a negative COVID-19 test, but that it was a rapid test rather than PCR.
The council voted to adopt the new resolution 6-1, with Hessler being the only dissenting voice. Then the city clerk requested a 10 minute break so that Hessler could drive home and rejoin the meeting via Zoom. Hessler never rejoined.
Once the council reconvened, it voted to allow Bethel City Manager Pete Williams to divert some of the city’s American Rescue Plan Act Funding towards a new wastewater lift station, and towards the purchase of more $100 gift cards for the city’s COVID-19 vaccine incentive program.
