Palo Alto Urges Residents to Watch Council Meeting From Home

PALO ALTO, CA — The city of Palo Alto is advising residents to submit comments via email and to watch Monday night's City Council meeting instead of attending in person as the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic forces continuous closures and cancellations.

Although a news release didn't say the public would be barred from the meeting, it was implied that not attending would be preferable.

In addition, city officials said the Emergency Operations Center will be opened Monday and modified to ensure social distancing with a key priority of maintaining essential services such as police and firefighting.

"These new actions seek to slow the spread of COVID-19 in our community, enhance customer service and maintain essential services," City Manager Ed Shikada said in a statement.

"Activating our emergency operations center will focus coordination with community and business strategic partners, help our staff teams continue to provide essential services, and continue our coordinated public safety response because of the heightened public health emergency we are all facing."

The call center is expected to be operational sometime early this week, following a meeting of the Citizen Corps Council.

Mayor Adrian Fine will convene the meeting, which is expected to include council members, Stanford University and Healthcare, Palo Alto Medical Foundation, Palo Alto Unified School District and other local business and volunteer organizations.

Palo Alto residents are advised to email city.council@cityofpaloalto.org to submit comments for the council meeting and to watch online or on local cable channels 26 or 29.

Other Palo Alto city service modifications can be found online.

Copyright 2020 by Bay City News, Inc. — Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.