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Cities scrambled to prepare to meet in person. DeSantis is letting them stay virtual.

City managers across Miami-Dade County scurried to put up Plexiglas dividers, space out chairs and even scout larger locations for local government officials to meet amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The clock was ticking until an emergency order allowing local government officials to meet and vote virtually was set to expire at 12:01 a.m., October 1.

But hours before his order was set to run out, Gov. Ron DeSantis further extended a March 20 executive order that permitted local governments to use technology like Zoom or Webex to hold public meetings online. Elected officials can continue to meet and vote virtually until November 1.

“I think there’s a collective relief. We were all very worried with so many things happening all at once,” said Ramiro Inguanzo, president of the Miami-Dade County City and County Management Association and assistant manager for Bal Harbour Village. “This gives us respite ... it gives cities the opportunity to really be prepared.”

Inguanzo said many cities, Bal Harbour included, were set to experiment with hybrid meetings, where elected officials and staff attend in-person while members of the public make comments and give presentations virtually. Coral Gables experimented with this model at its last meeting, which Vice Mayor Vince Lago called a success.

At the next meeting, interested parties will be able to appear in person for a limited time to present on a specific issue. They will also have the option of attending virtually.

“We’re just not going to allow people to jam the chamber,” Lago said.

Returning to the dais

The governor’s decision to renew the order came as a shock for many local officials, who had heard rumblings from Tallahassee early last week that municipalities would need to return to in-person meetings in October.

Last week, the Miami-Dade County League of Cities even sent a letter to DeSantis, asking that the order be extended in the county through at least December. Pinecrest Mayor Joseph Corradino and Doral Mayor Juan Carlos Bermudez pointed out that Miami-Dade County had been one of the hardest hit counties in the United States.

“During this pandemic, you have wisely recognized that not all communities are impacted in the same fashion by this virus,” they wrote. “While some counties may well be ready to resume normal in-person public meetings, there are others, like those of us in Miami-Dade County, that believe it is still too early.”

Bermudez, a member of the League of Cities executive board, said he is supportive of DeSantis’ extension.

“I think right now it’s difficult to have full-blown meetings,” he said.

Bermudez added that, on a call with Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez on Wednesday morning, the mayors of some smaller cities expressed concerns about returning to in-person meetings in cramped council chambers, asking whether the county might be able to help provide larger meeting spaces.

On Wednesday before DeSantis announced the extension, Miami Lakes Town Manager Ed Piedermann said he had asked the town’s emergency manager to work with the town attorney on logistics for the next council meeting on Oct. 20. Potential steps included the installation of Plexiglas in the council chambers and limiting the maximum occupancy of the room.

“It’s not wasted time and energy because at some point we’re gonna have that transition,” he said. “If it’s not this month, it’ll be next month.”

There’s a hybrid meeting model

In Bal Harbour, the 1940s-era chamber was retrofitted to hold one-fifth the amount of people who can typically fill the room. Coral Gables ordered Plexiglas dividers and required all officials to wear masks. Cutler Bay set up a station to perform temperature checks on those who enter the town chamber.

In places like Homestead, officials were eager to get back to in-person meetings. Mayor Steven Losner said “there is a whole different dynamic when elected officials have to look at each other” and that he feels vote outcomes have been affected by the virtual setup and is suspicious of who may be influencing votes behind the scenes.

“It’s an entirely different vibe online,” he said. “There may have been more in-depth conversation in person. When others have their cameras turned off, we don’t know who is in the room, whispering in their ear.”

He added that the city would likely go a “hybrid” route and allow people to make public comment online or come to the chamber for specific presentations.

If and when DeSantis pulls the plug on virtual meetings, Miami Beach is expected to adopt a hybrid meeting model that would require a majority of commissioners to appear in person while still using Zoom to connect with other members and the public.

On Tuesday night, as Mayor Dan Gelber presented the plan to commissioners, some said they would volunteer to appear in person.

“Count me in for being physically present,” Commissioner Ricky Arriola said. “I think if we’re advising people that masks and social distancing are safe then we should practice that and not be afraid to show up to a meeting where we can be up to 6 feet or more apart with masks.”

Faced with the prospect of an expiring order, the city administration planned to implement the new plan on Friday for its Board of Adjustment meeting.

Just north of Miami Beach, the Town of Surfside was making preparations for an in-person commission meeting Oct. 13.

Some cities, like Florida City, never took advantage of the virtual opportunity the emergency order provided.

Some governments had already decided on moving meetings to a larger location to accommodate crowds while adhering to social-distancing guidelines. The Miami-Dade County School Board took up this model earlier this week, holding its meeting in its downtown auditorium with board members on stage and interested parties spaced out.

The Miami-Dade County Commission planned to temporarily abandon its chambers in downtown Miami for a more spacious meeting area on the stage of the Miami-Dade County Auditorium on Tuesday, Oct. 6.

The county’s building department says the current chambers at the Stephen P. Clark Center — unused since March — are too cramped to allow for social distancing between commissioners.

“The biggest challenge is having enough space for the elected officials at the dais,” Tara Smith, director of Internal Services, told commissioners Wednesday during an online meeting held hours before the governor’s quorum waivers were set to expire. “We can accommodate the public in a socially distanced manner... with overflow in the lobby.”

Smith said her staff was preparing a plan to extend the elevated dais where the 13 commissioners and their staff sit during meetings that can last eight hours or longer in the windowless chamber.

She said keeping a six-foot buffer between commissioners would only allow 11 of them to sit there. Commissioner Rebeca Sosa, 64, noted the commission has to pay to rent the auditorium and other larger spaces — a PortMiami terminal was also suggested as available for temporary chambers — and said she “prayed” the county would have more time to get ready for in-person meetings that can keep attendees safe.

“I’m going to be very frank publicly. I have underlying conditions,” she said. “I’m not going to risk my life.

The city of Miami had made plans to carefully reopen Dinner Key to the public, with capacity limits, tents outside to accommodate social distancing, and screening for symptoms for everyone coming inside.

Inside City Hall, the dais where commissioners sit has already been outfitted with Plexiglas panes between each seat, creating a physical barrier between the city’s top officials when they meet in person again.

If the order was not extended, the city was ready to also end the COVID-era practice of allowing the public to submit comments for commission meetings via video and voicemail before the meeting.

Pinecrest officials were also scouting other, more spaced-out locations to hold meetings, like the Pinecrest Gardens and the village’s community center.

Keeping it virtual

Cutler Bay Mayor Tim Meerbott said the Zoom meetings have gone quite smoothly, and that the town plans on installing extra cameras so that future hybrid virtual meetings with in-person council members can run smoothly.

Some cities north of Miami-Dade have decided to keep meetings completely virtual by way of ordinances. Resolutions passed by the city of Boca Raton in March note that the Sunshine Law does not expressly prohibit remote electronic participation nor suggest that an elected official is not “present” when they access a meeting virtually. Boynton Beach passed an emergency ordinance with similar language.

Miami Herald reporter Joey Flechas contributed to this report.