Watch meetings on reopening restaurants, rental assistance and changes to policing (updated)
A body camera is seen as work by a patrol officer in North Charleston, South Carolina. (Photo: Ryan Johnson via Wikimedia Commons)
Reopening restaurants into parking lots and streets
License Commission, 4 p.m. Monday. The commission gets back to work (remotely) after a long Covid-19 hiatus to talk about reopening eateries, mainly outdoors to allow for social distancing and avoid more infection. There are three restaurants – Naco Taco, Summer Shack and Forage – getting hearings as they seek to serve in parking lots rather than the streets and sidewalks others will likely be using. The City Council talks about the latter topic later in the day.
Watch the meeting here.
Affordable housing, police funding and racism
City Council, 5:30 p.m. Monday. The expansion of outdoor dining services during Covid-19 is due for council attention, and the city seeks another $185,000 appropriation for the costs of running the temporary homeless shelter at the War Memorial Recreation Center. The council is also bringing back the Affordable Housing Overlay Zoning Petition that roiled the city so much last year. The other major topics relate to racism and the most recent spate of deaths at the hands of police and others, including a call to shift the upcoming $4.1 million police budget increase to public health and safety measures and discuss the use of body cameras by city police officers.
The meeting will be televised and stream online. Sign up for public comment here to get instructions about how to use the necessary Zoom video conference platform. Links to the meetings are here.
Update on June 8, 2020: With nearly 400 residents signed up to give public comment, the council set aside the entire night to hear it and added a special meeting at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday for the agenda items.
Emergency rental assistance program discussions
Community Preservation Act Committee, 6 p.m. Wednesday. The committee could use its funds for a temporary emergency community housing rental assistance program during the Covid-19 crisis. This hearing will gather public comment on the idea and consider approval. The committee also plans to discuss its meeting processes and anticipated revenues for the next fiscal year.
Sign up for comment and watch here, or get information on other approaches here.
