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The Tempe City Council will resume meeting in the Council Chambers, located at 31 E. Fifth Street, at its upcoming Oct. 14 meeting.
It’s been more than 18 months since the COVID-19 pandemic started and the Tempe City Council moved its meetings to a virtual system for health and safety reasons.
This will be the first in-person meeting with the full Tempe City Council since Corey Woods became Tempe’s mayor and Council member Doreen Garlid was elected. It is also Vice Mayor Randy Keating’s first in-person meeting as vice mayor. They were sworn in virtually in July 2020, along with reelected Council member Joel Navarro.
“I’ve been grateful for our online meeting system that has allowed us to continue to conduct city business, but it will be great to have our council back together in person and be able to interact with our residents again at meetings,” said Tempe Mayor Corey Woods. “Allowing both in person and virtual attendance allows us to be accessible to all of our residents’ preferred ways of participating.”
To make it easier for people to provide feedback on issues, on Oct. 14, the City Council will discuss offering public comment at both the beginning and the end of each meeting. This consideration is a recommendation by Equity in Action, a group whose purpose is to increase the participation of underrepresented residents in Tempe’s planning and decision- making processes to receive more input from the widest possible array of Tempe residents.
Masks and social distancing are required to attend in person.
The city will also continue to offer virtual participation options. Visit tempe.gov/clerk for meeting agendas and to register to participate online. Public comment cards may be submitted online up to two hours before any council meeting. People may also watch meetings live on tempe.gov/Tempe11 or on Cox cable channel 11.
Lindsay is a Phoenix native and is thrilled to be reporting in her hometown.
After spending several years in advertising after college, she switched gears and graduated with her master’s degree in journalism at Arizona State University in 2019.
When she’s not writing, you can usually find her reading a book or playing with her family’s dogs.
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