Hilton Head council to resume in-person meetings after months online. What to know
The Town Council on Hilton Head Island is returning to in-person meetings this week after months of virtual discussions amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The council has been meeting virtually since last August, which is when the delta variant hit the Lowcountry and a group of anti-mask activists derailed an in-person meeting at Town Hall.
Mayor John McCann in a phone call Monday said the council is now resuming in-person meetings because the number of new COVID-19 cases is dropping and residents want to return to council chambers.
The council is holding a workshop at 10 a.m. Tuesday to discuss the mid-island tract, among other things. Seating for the public will be limited to 30 chairs, Town Clerk Krista Wiedmeyer said. Residents will not be required to wear face coverings in Town Hall, spokeswoman Carolyn Grant said.
The workshop also will be livestreamed on the Beaufort County Channel.
Town Council members, McCann said, will be meeting in-person for the foreseeable future, but the elected officials may return to virtual discussions if coronavirus trends “get bad” again. (The town’s COVID-19 state of emergency is still in effect, Wiedmeyer said, which allows the Town Council to meet virtually)
The council had originally expected to return to in-person meetings in January. The region’s omicron surge, though, put that plan on hold, McCann said.
“My concern always has been, ‘I don’t want to get anybody sick,’” the mayor said.
Ward 4 representative Tamara Becker, reached by phone Monday, said she was excited to return to in-person meetings. Having public feedback at such meetings, she said, is when local government works best.
Residents, she said, can react to council decisions. It’s a form of accountability, Becker said.
“It’s definitely time” to return to council chambers, she said.
(Becker last fall had publicly argued that the Town Council should resume meeting in-person to discuss a new strategic plan for the Office of Cultural Affairs. The plan sparked a fiery debate over critical race theory, racial equity and diversity training.)
The council, meanwhile, has faced some criticism on social media in recent months for meeting virtually. Other local governments have continued to host in-person meetings throughout the latest phase of the pandemic.
The Hilton Head council had opted to go virtual last summer amid a surge of COVID-19 cases that coincided with a chaotic council meeting that was inundated with mask mandate opponents.
McCann, after that meeting, expressed concern about Town Hall security.
“We were sitting ducks,” the mayor said at the time.
McCann in October said he needed reports on COVID-19 and Town Hall safety before returning to in-person meetings.
Town Manager Marc Orlando then announced in November that residents would have to go through a metal detector for in-person Town Council meetings. He also said a security guard would be on hand.
The council last August unanimously approved a plan to spend $1 million in federal American Rescue Plan funds to bolster Town Hall security and technology systems.
Wiedmeyer, meanwhile, added that the government also is working “slowly but surely” to return town boards and commissions, such as the Design Review Board, to in-person meetings.
This story was originally published February 7, 2022 at 3:02 PM.
