This COVID-19 operational update is for the fourteen days from Thursday October 8 through Wednesday October 21.
The City’s requirement for employees and members of the public to mask while inside our municipal facilities remains in place, and hand sanitizer stations have been conveniently located just inside the entry doors of our municipal buildings so as to seek to maximize their use as soon as people enter.
In response to a few citizen inquiries, we have posted the Centers for Disease Control guidance on Halloween Activities on the City’s web site.
In accordance with the authority granted the City Manager in Section 11 of the West Melbourne Emergency Masking Ordinance No. 2020-05, I have administratively extended the City Council’s Emergency Masking Ordinance to midnight on Monday October 26. Tomorrow, I will evaluate the need to extend the requirement another week to Monday November 2, and more likely than not I will probably approve the extension.
It is important to note that the City Council’s emergency ordinance allows for these administratively approved one-week-at-a-time extensions so long as there is an active COVID-19 emergency in the State of Florida. Governor DeSantis last extended the COVID-19 state of emergency via Executive Order Number 20-213 on September 4. The extension is for 60 days to November 3. A copy of the order is attached. Presuming that tomorrow I extend the requirements of the ordinance for one additional week, unless Governor DeSantis extends the declared statewide COVID-19 emergency past November 3, by its own terms, the Council’s emergency masking ordinance will sunset at midnight on Monday November 2. On the other hand, if Governor DeSantis extends the statewide COVID-19 emergency, the opportunity to continue one-week-at-a-time administrative extensions of our local ordinance will remain in place.
As required by the emergency ordinance, each time I have administratively extended for one week the sunset date of the ordinance, this determination has been filed with the City Clerk and posted on the City’s web site. Each time the sunset date has been extended, this information has also provided directly to the identified ‘essential businesses’ by members of the City’s Police Department.
Over the past two weeks, I have participated in COVID-19 conference calls with the Brevard County Emergency Operations Center. I had a County, City and Town Manager COVID-19 conference call on October 15, and I have scheduled the next Space Coast County, City and Town Manager COVID-19 conference call for Thursday morning November 5. In these calls, the municipal and county managers share current information and planned actions related to each local government’s evolving responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.