By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Hutchinson City Manager Jeff Cantrell said City Hall is closed right now and recent experience has shown him the reason why.
"We had a brief period where we lost two or three key positions at City Hall," Cantrell said. "It was not really in response to, or a causal factor with the public having access to the building. This was three or four weeks ago. It was eye opening to see how big of an impact that had on our internal process flow in the operations. It just almost shut us down. So, when the case count started going back up again, we had a new opinion as to how serious an event that would be for a City Hall that is, what I would call, minimally staffed."
It's difficult to strike the balance between not spending too much government money on employees in good times and having the replacements in case of illness.
"Everybody for the last 30 years has seen the benefit of cross-training," Cantrell said. "We're appreciative of that and we understand that and we do that, but you still have to have a body count that's sufficient enough to maintain the daily operations."
It does appear to be the will of the governing body, though, to allow for the public to comment in person at council meetings.
"Just like historically has been allowed, people walk up to the podium and give their two cents and have that dialogue with the governing body," Cantrell said. "That is going to happen at the very next meeting. We anticipate that being offered long term. I think it would have to be a real bad situation before that would be shut off again."
That said, the intent is to require face coverings for those who want to attend in person and comment and it is up to the governing body as to their comfort level if someone appears to be ill or is unmasked when they come to the meeting as to whether or not it will go forward as scheduled.