As confirmed cases of COVID-19 continue to spike in Arizona, some businesses and municipalities, including the city of Sedona, are re-evaluating their operating hours.
After being closed for nearly two months, city hall reopened with limited hours to the public in May — 8 a.m. to noon, Monday through Thursday. These hours, however, may not remain.
“Everything right now is predicated on worsening conditions of the pandemic,” City Manager Justin Clifton said. “With that in mind, we did emphasize to our staff to maintain a minimum office presence to serve customers and complete work that can’t be completed at home. This is different than where we were a few months ago when most departments were targeting 50% staffing levels.
“My hope is that those revised protocols will help us to keep our limited open hours. That said, we continue to encourage people to conduct city business by phone or online whenever possible.”
Following a pair of meetings in which they met in council chambers, the Sedona City Council has returned to conducting business via video conferences. Clifton said that like the direction to further reduce staff in the office, the change back to virtual council meetings — and Planning and Zoning meetings — was made in light of the higher risk of COVID-19 spreading.
“Back when COVID-19 indicators were improving, it made sense to us to resume in-person meetings,” Clifton said. “With numbers worsening, we not only had to consider what protocol was safest but also had to face the likelihood that conditions could remain as they are for many months. So it made sense to us to try and further refine how we can conduct remote meetings.”
Clifton added that not only does this make sense from the perspective of preventing the spread of COVID-19, but it’s also a better format for dealing with quarantines, isolation or other circumstances where spread is either suspected or confirmed.
“With numbers increasing and likely elevated risk for the foreseeable future, it becomes more and more likely that councilors or key staff are not able to attend in person due to some COVID-19 related precaution,” he said. “Resigning ourselves to conduct meetings remotely puts us in a better position to have full participation if and when that happens.”
The city’s decision to offer limited business hours to the public differs from the plan of Yavapai County.
As of Monday, July 6, all county buildings were once again closed to the public due to the recent spike in COVID-19 positive test results.
A press release stated that this does not mean that the county employees are not still working.
Instead, it means that if residents need to meet with someone in person they will need to contact the department, and wearing a mask upon arrival is strongly recommended. Masks are optional in Yavapai County.
“Once again we are closing our doors to the public but are still here to serve the public,” the Yavapai County Board of Supervisors chairman said in the release. “Last time we had to close our doors, we were still here taking calls and meeting people at the door when necessary and it worked well. We know this will be an inconvenience but also know this is being done to stop the spread of COVID-19 and protect you and those who serve you.”
There are signs on the front doors with the phone numbers for each county department located within each building. Phone numbers for each department can also be located at Yavapai.us.
Court proceedings in Superior Court and Justice Courts in Yavapai County continue to be conducted in a manner that provides for the safety of the participants and court personnel and promotes social distancing, as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the county release stated.
