Centerville Mayor and Council met on Tuesday to discuss a state of emergency ordinance to help control the spread of COVID-19. The meeting was closed to the general public, but was streamed live on the city’s official Facebook page so that the public could view in real-time.
Sections 1, 3, 6, 10, and 11 of the transcribed ordinance had no changes and council agreed to allow them to remain as written.
Mayor John Harley began with the reading of Section 2, entitled Declaration of Public Health State of Emergency. The primary discussion point was to arrive at an agreement of how long the state of emergency should remain in place.
In response, Councilman Cameron Andrews said, “I don’t agree with anything that we’re doing today, but if it passes like I feel like it’s going to pass, April 7—which will be the date of the next council meeting—we could re-entertain it again.”
“The only [ordinance] that I know that’s currently in place is Perry’s, which says April 19,” Tydings informed. “I don’t know what the significance of that date is. I was speaking to their city attorney on the way here. I don’t know what Warner Robins’ says.”
In his voiced opposition, Andrews stated, “I’ve got a feeling that we’re doing this just because there is some peer pressure out there among other governments. It seems to me like there’s this domino effect of everybody just freaking out and, ‘Oh, God, we gotta do this.’ I know there’s a problem out there,” Andrews continued. “I get that. But there are some other things we can do to stop the restaurants from doing what they do… We’re the ones who authorized them to do business. Their business licenses reside with us. We can make the decision on what we’re going to do with that. We can make a decision on some things that we have in this (ordinance) without saying that a state of emergency exists within the city of Centerville.”
Referencing neighboring cities and their ordinances, Mayor Harley said, “Perry has put theirs out, and I think that Warner Robins may have just put theirs out. We are all cities by ourselves, but [Centerville is] surrounded on three sides by Warner Robins, and… my support is for consistency. If we do the same thing they’re doing, people can’t say, ‘All right, we can’t do it in Warner Robins, so let’s go to Centerville and do it.’ That’s my thought on the process.”
Throughout the meeting, Tydings reminded council that the principal focus was to do whatever was necessary to stop the spread of the virus.
After some further discussion—including Andrews’ additional concern that declaring a state of emergency will mislead citizens into feeling that something is being hidden from them (which Andrews said couldn’t be further from the truth—council agreed to the adhere to a 14-day period from the date of the meeting, which would make April 7 the current end-date of the state of emergency.
Section 4 (initially entitled Utility Services) was revised with the title Police, Fire and Utility Services to clarify that the police and fire departments, in addition to the utility services, would continue doing normal operations. With some input from City Director of Operations Mike Brumfield, the section was updated to state, “For the duration of the declared emergency, the City will not disconnect any public utility service provided by the City on account of nonpayment. After the conclusion of the declared emergency, utility customers will have a period of sixty (60) days to make such payments.”
Sections 5, entitled Classification of City Services, was revised to add the statement “within 24 hours,” so that the amended statement read: “For the duration of the declared emergency, the Mayor shall be vested with the following discretion and authority, to wit: To contract for and expend non-budgeted sums and services, as may in his discretion be required to meet the demands upon government and services of the City for the duration of the declared emergency, including therein authority to spend such sums from the reserves of the City. Any such non-budgeted expenditures shall, within twenty-four (24) hours, be reported to the entire Governing Authority of the City.”
Section 7, entitled Eating Establishments received input from Centerville Police Chief Chuck Hadden as it included wording regarding the sell of beer and wine as a part of take-out meals since eating establishments were being mandated to discontinue their dine-in option. Hadden stated that as long as the take-out beverages were in sealed, unopened cans or bottles, it would not violate laws that prohibited drivers from having opened containers of beer and/or alcohol in their vehicles. Director of Economic Development Kate Hogan shared that there were three establishments in the city that were still allowing people to be seated in their dining areas, but were implementing the social distancing (six-feet of separation) recommendation by seating patrons at every other table. The restaurants named were O’Charley’s, Waffle House, and Your Pie.
Additionally, it was brought to the attention of council that there were some restaurants that were only authorized to sell beer and alcohol for consumption inside their establishment and the inability to sell due to closing their dining area would result in a loss of revenue. After some discussion, the decision was made that all restaurants must cease dine-in services, but could continue take-out, drive-through and delivery. The section regarding the service of drinks was amended to state: “If a restaurant is licensed to sell beer and wine for on-premise consumption, such restaurant, during the effective dates of this ordinance only, shall be authorized to sell unopened bottles or cans of beer or wine for take-out consumption off-premises. No liquor or distilled spirits by the drink may be sold for the duration of the emergency as established herein.”
It was agreed upon by council to revise Section 8, entitled Closure of Certain Businesses, to make the language less broad and specify which businesses were mandated to close due to the increase chances of drawing groups of 10 or more people and the improbability that they could maintain the social distancing recommendation. One point of discussion was whether the ordinance should require the closure of Houston County Galleria mall. Hogan reported that most of the stores housed in the mall had already closed, and some of the smaller businesses that were still open were asking the city to close the mall to relieve them of paying rent. As long as the mall remained open, they would be required to pay rent, and with the reduction of business due to the current state of affairs, some were struggling to make rental payment. If the mall closed, they would not be required to pay normal rental fees. The section was amended to state, “Houston County Galleria Mall, gyms, fitness centers, indoor amusement facilities, bowling alleys, pool halls, theatres, massage parlors, nail salons, hair salons and barber shops, and any other similar facility must close and remain closed for the duration of this emergency.”
Section 9, entitled Personal Distance was revised to include laundry mats as an establishment, in addition to grocery stores and pharmacies, that could remain open during the state of emergency as long as they posted signage on entrance doors directing customers to maintain at least a six-foot distance from others, if possible.
Section 12, entitled Curfew was revised to state, “No curfew is imposed at this time.”
Council agreed to revise Section 13, entitled Procurement, to add, “Actions taken under the provisions of this Section shall be reported in writing to the Governing Authority within 24 hours of the same. The provisions of this Section shall not change any current RFP process that is taking place for projects within the City of Centerville.”
Section 14, the final section, stipulated that after its adoption, the revised declaration and ordinance “shall become effective at 8:00 p.m. on March 24, 2020 and remain in effect until 8:00 p.m. April 7, 2020.”
A copy of the full Ordinance can be downloaded from the City of Centerville’s website by clicking the “COVID-19 Update” link at www.centervillega.org.
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