By Robert Haugh

Mayor Lisa Gillmor was the only Councilmember to be in the chambers for yesterday’s City Council meeting. The others called into the meeting to maintain social distancing.

Only a few City staff members were in the chambers and they were at least 10 to 15 feet away from Gillmor.

You’ll notice that Assistant City Clerk Nora Pimentel and City Attorney Brian Doyle are both wearing masks. Gillmor took her mask off to conduct the meeting. She also suggested that for public health reasons, people wear masks in public.

Gillmor mentioned that some websites provide directions on how to make your own. Here’s one from Yahoo! It has a lot of good recommendations including this:

Unsure of what fabrics to use? Scientists say a simple light test can help you choose which of your options is the best mask material. “Hold it up to a bright light,” Segal told The New York Times. “If light passes really easily through the fibers and you can almost see the fibers, it’s not a good fabric. If it’s a denser weave of thicker material and light doesn’t pass through it as much, that’s the material you want to use.”

The Council handled mostly routine items last night. They made one important change to residential eviction moratorium. That was adopted as an urgency item two weeks ago to deal with the COVID-19 crisis. It’s been extended from May 8, 2020 to May 28, 2020. That makes it more consistent with county and state moratoriums.

The Council is also meeting this afternoon. We’ll cover that in a report Thursday.