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Clintonville to open City Hall

Guidelines established for staff, facility rentals

By Bert Lehman


The city of Clintonville has taken steps to open city facilities amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The council also set COVID-19 guidelines for its employees.

The city council approved the measures when it met June 9.

The measures included City Hall opening to the public on June 15, opening city rental facilities to the public and making special event permits available. The council also passed COVID-19 Operational Safety Procedures, which included guidelines for city employees.

During the discussion, Ald. Brandon Braden said he was in support of the COVID-19 Operational Safety Procedures, but had an issue with requiring members of the public to wear a mask at a city meeting.

“While I feel that we should be examples of following CDC guidelines, I feel that if a member of the general public wants to come to our meeting and they feel uncomfortable wearing masks, or they don’t want to wear a mask, that we shouldn’t be saying, ‘You have to leave,’” Braden said.

He recommended the guidelines state that masks are “highly recommended,” but not mandatory.

Mayor Richard Beggs said he would also hate to force someone to leave a city meeting because they were not wearing a mask.

He also told the council most areas in City Hall where city employees would interact with the public are now protected by glass.

“The only one that doesn’t have one is the court office,” Beggs said, where he noted there are “very few” visitors.

The procedures also stipulate that the temperature of employees be taken when they arrive at work for the day, as well as after lunch.
Ald. Jim Supanich questioned taking the temperature of employees after lunch.

“I gotta think that if you have a guy on the streets with hot tar on a 90-degree day, he’s going to be a little warm at the surface when he comes in,” Supanich said. “I don’t know what the value of doing it after lunch is.”

City Administrator Sharon Eveland said other places are taking temperatures in that manner.

“It’s just a double check to make sure that somebody hasn’t been developing something throughout the day,” Eveland said. “And keep in mind, that a (high) temperature alone does not mean we’re going to send people home.”

The procedures also require any city employee to report personal travel for recreation or non-essential purposes to their department head or the city administrator if the travel requires the use of public transportation, involves close contact with anyone outside the employee’s household or involves activities with more than nine people for a single purpose.

Employees will be required to report the location or locations they plan to travel to, dates of the travel and activities they will participate in.

“If the travel is to a stateside location deemed a ‘hot spot’ or to a foreign country with a CDC-issued Level 3 Travel Advisory, the employee will be required to self-quarantine for 14 days upon return. If the employee participates in any activities that the city administrator deems risky in relation to the spread of COVID-19, the employee must self-quarantine upon return,” according to the procedures document.

Unless an employee uses paid benefit time, the quarantine period will be unpaid.

In a June 9 memo to members of the council, Eveland said she worked with city department heads, the city attorney and the Waupaca County health officer when developing the travel guidelines.

“The intent behind this policy is not to police our employees personal time and travel but simply to ensure we are not permitting unnecessary risk to other employees and the community, and we are looking more at what the employees will be doing and how they will be traveling and less at where they are specifically going,” Eveland said in the memo.

The council approved the procedures after a to change from requiring masks to strongly encouraging masks.

City Hall

The council also agreed to open City Hall with summer hours, starting June 15.

At the time of the meeting, City Hall was closed to the public, but appointments were being taken if someone had something that had to be done in person.

Eveland asked the council if it wanted to open City Hall to the public.

“I’m not aware that there’s any tremendous unworkable solutions that have existed over the past couple of months, but from my viewpoint it’s time to open up,” Beggs said.

Clerk/Treasurer Peggy Johnson said city staff is ready to open City Hall to the public.

“We feel very much the customer service portion of our job needs to return,” Johnson said.

City facility rentals

The council approved to start allowing city facility rentals to take place, excluding ballfields, starting July 1.

Renters must follow Waupaca County Health Services guidelines.

Eveland said because of past state restriction and county health orders, all city rentals were canceled through the end of June.

She recommended the city make facility rental decisions on a month-by-month basis.

Beggs said the easiest way to do that would be to extend it to the July city council meeting.

“I have a problem with that, though,” Ald. Steve Kettenhoven said. “For people that rent the facilities and send out invitations and so on, for whatever it may be, and then all of a sudden it’s canceled, how are they supposed to inform all of those people,” Kettenhoven said. “I think if we’re going to allow bars and restaurants and everything else to open up, and people to be packed into those units, we shouldn’t have a problem with our facilities here.”

Eveland said when the city has taken reservations for any of its facilities, renters were informed there is no guarantee the facility would be available because of the COVID-19 situation.

“If we’re going to open City Hall to public access, then I think we certainly need to start making some reasonable accommodations to allow people to enjoy the rest of the city,” Ald. Brad Rokus said.

Ald. Tammy Strey-Hirt agreed, adding that the city needs to allow residents to make their own decisions about using city facilities.

Beggs acknowledged her point, but said the city “doesn’t want to be in the position of facilitating the spread of COVID-19, so we’re trying to find that nice dividing line.”

Eveland said she has heard a lot of talk from other city administrators and lawyers of municipalities about potential liability if cities allow gatherings and use of facilities when the city knows there is a public health risk.

City Attorney Keith Steckbauer said there is always a fear of litigation, adding that the city has sovereign immunity.

He also said it would be difficult for someone to prove he secured an illness due to negligence of the city.

“I just don’t really believe that we would have significant responsibility,” Steckbauer said. “I don’t know from a legal perspective that we’d have significant risk there. But I just caution the council, you need to be leaders more so than followers.”

Special event permits

The council also approved allowing the issuance of special event permits as long as they fall within the guidelines issued by the Waupaca County Health Services.

Ald. Ben Huber voted no.

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