Willmar rescinds local COVID-19 emergency

Shelby Lindrud, West Central Tribune, Willmar, Minn.
·2 min read

Jun. 25—WILLMAR — Just over 15 months after the Willmar City Council originally passed the resolution declaring a local emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the council approved a motion to rescind that order during Monday's council meeting.

"I think this is a happy agenda item," said Robert Scott, city attorney.

The motion to rescind the resolution passed unanimously, with Councilors Andrew Plowman and Julie Asmus absent from the vote.

The emergency resolution was passed in the early days of the pandemic, to set the city up to be able to quickly and efficiently respond to the challenges such as remote working, virtual meetings and the ability to apply for emergency aid.

"All that is necessary to respond to the rapidly changing, at times, public health emergency," Scott said.

However, now that new cases in Kandiyohi County are down to low single digits if there are new cases at all, the council, including the mayor, agreed the time was right to let the local emergency expire.

Allowing the order to terminate won't have any major impacts on the city's operation or ability to apply for state funds, Scott said.

"Most of the city operations have returned to a default stage of normalcy," Scott said.

Rescinding the emergency order did also terminate the council's ability to hold hybrid meetings, which allowed people to attend meetings either in person or virtually, as well as canceling the emergency ordinance to allow businesses to use public right of way to conduct business, for example by having outdoor dining.

"In the mayor's judgment, the outdoor use of the public right of way has been a positive and necessary response to the lingering effects of the pandemic," Scott said.

The council voted unanimously to continue allowing both items, tying them to the state peacetime emergency order, which is still in place.

When the state emergency order is allowed to expire, the two resolutions passed by the City Council will also expire and things will go back to how they operated before the pandemic.

For virtual meetings, that means the council will have to follow the more stringent requirements laid out in the Open Meeting Law.