Coronavirus Hit Local Government Also

Coronavirus And Local Government

by Bill Gouveia for the Sun Chronicle

As the effects of the coronavirus continue to be felt across the world, it’s time to start thinking how it will affect our lives here in the Sun Chronicle area.

I’m not talking about the testing aspect, or the ability to get supplies, or even the economic impact on local businesses and families — as serious as those things may be.

For just a minute, I’d like to focus on an under-appreciated yet very dangerous aspect of the coronavirus pandemic: The effects it can have on local government, the officials who serve in and work for it, and the people who participate in it.

We all have to be cognizant of the danger to first responders as this contagious virus works its way around the planet. Public safety personnel are the people who come when we call, who often put their lives on the line for the rest of us. It’s one thing to ask them to battle what they can see, but now more than ever they also have to beware of things they can’t.

But the danger doesn’t stop with them, it gets spread to the people working back in the stations. The dispatchers, the mechanics, the clerks and all the other support staff who allow the police and firefighters and emergency personnel to do their job. They become exposed, and they bring that danger back home to their own families and friends.

In fact, the people who work in your city and town halls face tremendous exposure just for doing their jobs. They interact with a wide swath of the public, and as a result can become infected.

For just a second, think of those who chair or serve on local boards and committees.

They hold public hearings on many matters, interacting with crowds and gathering facts and opinions. Sitting in meeting rooms where others have been, at the same tables and chairs. Exchanging papers and exhibits and microphones.

And for those communities with open town meetings — how will those be handled in light of the coronavirus pandemic? If you think about it, that’s quite an opportunity for the virus to spread.

You gather a few hundred people (depending on a lot of conditions) in a school gymnasium or auditorium, in relatively close quarters. You have many of them sharing microphones and standing in line to get to them. You have people checking in attendees as they enter. You have tellers tallying ballots, or mingling among the people as they count those who stand to vote.

Already there has been legislation drafted to extend the time frame during which town meetings can legally be held, in an attempt to perhaps outwait the virus or let mitigation and containment efforts progress. Not to exaggerate the threat, but how much risk is acceptable for ordinary citizens to assume in order to participate in their local government?

Municipal government may rate fairly low on the priority list of things the average citizen worries about given the pandemic today. But let’s remember those governments are made up of people who work to represent us all. They are our friends, our neighbors our family.

They are us.

Bill Gouveia is a local columnist and longtime local official. He can be emailed at billsinsidelook@gmail.com and followed on Twitter at @Billinsidelook.