(Posted April 7, 2020)
By Andrew Garrett, Staff Writer
London city council continued to implement social distancing as a means to prevent the spread of COVID-19 during its regularly scheduled meeting on April 2. Council dispensed entirely with meeting in person this session, choosing to utilize Zoom, a video conferencing platform, to conduct city business virtually online.
The program allowed for an increase in safety for council members while still giving the public a way to view proceedings. However, there are some kinks to work out as city leaders get used to using the technology. Nearly a third of the meeting went unrecorded and is unavailable for view. What did make it can be found posted to the city’s Facebook page, “London Ohio Government Services,” rather than its usual spot on the city’s official website at www.londonohio.gov/.
Council passed several pieces of legislation, including:
- an ordinance amending the city’s policy and procedure manual regarding overtime compensation for employees of the street and police departments. The manual currently provides for an accrual of 106 hours within a 14-day period and is now amended to reflect a possible accrual of 212 hours within a 28-day period, allowing for some flexibility within the pay period;
- a resolution authorizing a warrant for payment for an outstanding debt in the amount of $10,567.74 to Jacobs Engineering Group for construction completed on the East High Street water plant;
- a resolution authorizing a payment to Allstate Exteriors in the amount $41,252.81 for renovations made to the city building in 2019;
- a resolution authorizing a transfer of funds and increase in appropriations in the amount of $174,151. The funds were held as a bond for Allstate Exteriors during renovation work on the city building and will now be released back to the company; and
- a resolution authorizing the transfer of $4,650.46 originally put in the donation line to the police department.
Council’s next regular meeting is set for April 16.
