Mayors 3/26/2020 Board Meeting Comments:

Conducting a virtual meeting is new.  We have set this virtual meeting up with the intent to allow the board to continue to conduct business while allowing the public to join in and listen.  It will not be perfect and there will be times of confusion and/or times where the technology may not work as planned.  Please be patient and understanding.

To try to minimize any confusion, I plan on moderating the meeting with a little more of a classroom style.  That is, please do not speak until called upon.  Otherwise, we’ll just be talking over each other and no one be able to understand each other.  If this happens, I will ask our meeting host, Dave, to mute everyone and we will wait until all conversation stops before continuing.

For board members and administration.  During times of discussion and debate, I will assure that everyone has an opportunity to ask questions, follow up questions, statements, etc…  I ask that when any one of us has the “virtual” floor and is speaking, all others, please hold your comments & questions.  I suggest you write them down.  Then, when whomever is speaking concludes, I will call upon each of you for any comments or questions.  I will continue to repeat this until there are no further comments or questions or if I determine we are repeating ourselves, getting off topic, or otherwise being nonproductive. Pretty much the same as any board meeting. 

For the public participating.  There is only one time during the meeting that you have to provide your comments: during the public comment portion of the agenda.  You will be muted otherwise.  During the public comment portion, everyone who wishes to provide comments will have 3 minutes.  Please keep your comments appropriate.  I plan on reading comments submitted prior to the meeting first; these will most likely be emails.  Then, those of you participating via the zoom app on your computer or smart phone, please “raise your virtual hand” or send the host a “chat” and then I’ll call upon you in order received.  Please state your name before you provide your comments.  Finally, for those participating via your phone, I’ll have the host unmute the audience, understand that is everyone, and we’ll try our best to allow comments, one at a time.  Please state your name before you provide your comments.  If it becomes unmanageable and it’s obvious we will not be able to conduct further comments productively, I will have the host mute the audience and let the conversation end and then I’ll try to continue by calling upon the last person.  If that doesn’t work, then I will most likely move on to the next agenda item, have the host mute the audience, and end the public comment portion of the meeting.

Okay, now that we have the logistics of a virtual meeting set I want to state how blessed and proud I am of our community.  How we are helping and assisting each other while doing our part to slow the spread of COVID-19 is awesome.  Please stay diligent as we have not yet seen the spike of this disease.  I’m hopeful that it will not hit our community in a manner that it has large metro areas like New York City, but there are no guarantees it won’t.  Don’t let your guard down…it’s too early.

I strongly suggest everyone utilize the CDC, IDPH, and/or your personal health care provider for specific methods of prevention, diagnosing, and/or treatments.  They are the experts!  This is the time for prudence, not panic.  I for one am trying to balance science & statistics with what too many factions of the press and social media are saying. This isn’t easy.  

However, a good friend of mine shared: “One thing I do know is we are not descendants of fearful people!  We’ve beat bigger things than this—and we’ll beat this too!”

So what has the Village done, is doing, or will be doing related to COVID-19? Before I answer that question, I want to share a quote from Benjamin Franklin that very accurately reflects my approach and is more applicable now than ever; “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!”

With that in mind, first and foremost, I have directed the Village Administration to make our police protection, safe drinking water, sewage disposal, and the health of our citizens our absolute #1 priority.  Nothing should put this priority at risk.  This means all other decisions, actions, and expenditures will only be considered if they do not put our police protection, safe drinking water, sewage disposal, or health of our citizens at risk.  Again, continuity of these critical services and the health of our community is priority #1.

This is why we are meeting tonight, so that further actions that require board oversight and approval can be voted upon to assure the continuity of our critical services.  Our police chief, director of public works, and administrator will provide more details in their reports regarding the actions we have taken and plan to take including how to keep our employees healthy to assure they are available to continue to serve the public.  Speaking of employees, I want to take the time to recognize and complement all of the Village employees on their continued dedication to serving the citizens of Heyworth and their flexibility to adapt to these challenging circumstances.  I couldn’t be prouder of them.  They are a key reason why my anxiety is low enough to get a good night’s sleep.  For this, I’m very thankful and feel very blessed.

I also want to compliment the department heads on how thorough they have been in reaching out to other key local service providers such as Fire/EMS, OSF, IGA, Dollar General, and Area Disposal.  They also reached out to other local providers such as the Heyworth School, Ameren, MediaCom, Casey’s, and Huck’s.  In addition, Village officials continue to be in regular contact with the State of Illinois, the Illinois Governor’s Office, the Illinois and McLean County Public Health Departments, and the Illinois Emergency Management Agency (IEMA) in order to receive and communicate up-to-date information related to COVID-19 considerations.  

As always, I look forward to the board Q&A on each of the action items to assure alignment to our priorities.  Oversight is a crucial component and responsibility of the Trustees.  I do, however, want to make a few comments regarding action item 5.6 regarding mayoral authority to declare a local state of emergency.  I’m very conflicted and have struggled greatly with this one.  On one hand, consolidating power and decision making goes against what I strongly believe is what makes our country and constitution so great…keeping the power where it belongs, with the people.  On the other hand, I will not put our #1 priority of police, water, sewer, a public health at risk.  One present risk to our #1 priority is “if” there is action the board must approve but there are not enough board members available to vote, what do we do?  Me taking unilateral action to assure our #1 priority is met without board knowledge and approval is the last thing I would do.  Therefore, I landed with the action before you which I asked Geoff to draft to reflect that it is only about continuing our critical services in the event the board cannot meet.  Unlike what you may have read or heard about other communities, I specifically directed that the other authorities related to guns, gasoline, and curfews not only be eliminated but that they are clearly identified as not having the authority.  I also directed that it has a specific time period and if the board CAN meet then it expires.

Let me be very clear, this action item tonight is NOT a declaration of a local state of emergency.

In addition, I want to also clearly state that if this action is approved, I don’t foresee or anticipate it ever being declared.

So why do it?  I go back to Ben’s quote; “if you fail to plan, you are planning to fail”.

Also, Murphy’s Law is an adage that states; "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong".  I for one, do not want to temp Mr Murphy.

Thus the contingency plan to assure the continuity of police, water, sewer, and health of our community

What’s next?  There will be a need for the board to keep its April meeting schedule not only for any future actions related to our critical services but also due to certain deadlines requiring board action, similar to the aggregation action item tonight.  The items I’m currently aware of that have deadlines are the next fiscal year’s budget, collective bargaining agreements, and the rezoning matter.

The administration has also started, but due to priority #1, has not had the time to sufficiently analyze the following items: 1) considerations of cancelling public events such as; Hey Days, 4th of July celebration, Market on Main, or the Music Festival, and 2) options available to assist our local businesses beyond what the Federal or State may be offering.

Take care and be safe,

Todd Zalucha, Mayor