Parties Offer Different City COVID-19 Resolutions

Democratic and Republican City Council members are proposing two different proposals on city employees working at home during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Yesterday, April 6, 2020, after Ald. Aram Ayalon (D-3) took Republican Mayor Erin Stewart to task over keeping City Hall open in an opinion article published in the CTMirror, Stewart announced that, “City Hall will close to the public on Tuesday, April 7 and remain closed to the public for two weeks.”

But the announcement Stewart distributed yesterday said that, “all offices remain open,” and she said that, “Staff will remain here to assist you for all of your needs.”

On the agenda of the upcoming meeting of the City Council are two separate resolutions concerning a decision by the city about City Hall employees working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic. The two proposed resolutions appear to start with three identical paragraphs, with all seven of the Democratic Council members sponsoring one and all eight of the Republicans sponsoring the other.

The Democratic Council members are proposing a resolution that would provide that, “Mayor Erin Stewart would provide the appropriate devices and technology to allow where-ever possible for city employees to work from home.”

Meanwhile, the Republicans have proposed a resolution saying, “that the Common Council encourages the leadership of city unions to work with Mayor Erin Stewart to ensure that essential City of New Britain operations continue throughout this unprecedented time.”

In his opinion article published in the CTMirror yesterday, Ayalon had noted that, “A resolution encouraging the mayor to allow city employees to work from home and to work out any impediments is currently being blocked by the Republican majority on New Britain city council.”

The Council’s Republican majority had reportedly been considering substituting their own resolution for one proposed earlier by Democrats.

Now two resolutions, that apparently start the same but conclude with different actions, are both on the agenda of the Council meeting this Wednesday.

The Republican’s proposal says that, “the City of New Britain is committed to continuing to provide essential services to our residents and has gone above and beyond in enacting numerous proactive measures in ensuring City employees remain safe in providing such services.”

The Democrats’ proposal says that, “in response to the public health threat of COVID-19, the Governor of the State of Connecticut issued on March 12, 2020 a request that all state and private employees work from home if possible.”

The Democrats’ resolution adds that,

the mayor of New Haven, like many other Connecticut mayors and first selectpersons, declared that starting in March 22 “City employees that are not critical to operations will be notified that they should not report to work,” and that the mayor’s team “will be evaluating our employee safety and operations protocol, in addition to increasing options for teleworking where possible.”

The two resolutions are on the agenda of the Council meeting on Wednesday, April 8, 2020.