Steve Thurston (2021)
Upper left: Nov. 16 city council meeting, with socially distanced seating in the 3rd Floor Music Hall. Lower right: November Planning Board meeting, standing room only.
The gallery seating at Saratoga Springs City Hall meetings will grow to 200, and six of the seats will be reserved for members of the media, says Assistant Chief Aaron Dyer with the Saratoga Springs Fire Department. He will make this recommendation to the city council in an email today, he said. He has been responsible for enforcing health and safety codes in the city council meetings.
In the face of loud, overcrowded city council meetings in the first floor City Council Chamber this summer and into the fall, the city council moved the meetings to the Music Hall on the third floor in October, but then limited access to 50 people.
The situation was very different for people waiting to get into the city council meeting, often queueing in a tightly packed hallway in City Hall. Also, meetings of the Saratoga Springs Planning Board have sometimes crammed 50 or more people into the smaller City Council Chamber over the past couple of months.
Dyer says that the policy has been to follow New York State and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, but he said that he knew it was not always followed.
Until recently, the CDC, had been suggesting to limit access to large public, indoor gatherings. However, limits on the size of gatherings had been lifted by New York’s then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo in May of this year, before the city moved to the larger chamber.
Still the decision was made to follow the general guidance of the CDC. As well, the city council voted to require masks of all in visitors to City Hall.
The guidance has loosened. Though masks are still required, the Music Hall can hold 200, Dyer said.
Mayor Meg Kelly said in an interview today that decisions about maximum capacity were left for Dyer or for Commissioner of Public Safety, Robin Dalton.
Dalton wrote in a text Tuesday Nov. 30 that the capacity and venue decisions would fall to the mayor’s department. That "would be something you'd have to call the mayor's department about," she texted.
This leaves a question as to whom is ultimately responsible for the policy.
The change comes on the heals of an incident with this reporter at the Nov. 16 city council meeting.After giving up a seat in the Music Hall for another person to use, this reporter moved to stand by the wall, at least six feet from the nearest, seated person. A Saratoga Springs Police Officer attempted to remove the reporter, saying "I'm not arguing with you" to the reporter. This reporter was trying to explain that generally the media is given some leeway to stay in meetings to report on them.
This reporter made no move to leave and might have been forcibly removed. At this point, Mayor Meg Kelly, who was speaking at the front, asked the gallery—mostly the reporter and officer—to keep their voices down.
Dyer then intervened, making a seat avaiable to the reporter.
Dyer said in an interview today that he would have found a seat and not have let the officer remove the reporter, though the situation escalated a bit more quickly than Dyer anticipated.
"I would have figured something out. I do know the media have their rights," Dyer said, adding that the goal is to make sure everyone, not just reporters, gain access to the meeting.
Dyer said later that evening that he was looking for a way to make sure the press had room at the city council meetings. Today he said his recommendation will set aside a minimum of 6 seats for the media.
"That way no matter what happens, the media should have seats in the room," he said.
Commissioner of Public Safety Robin Dalton said in late November that she would make sure to work with Dyer to find an answer.
“I’m sure we’ll have something figured out by the next meeting,” Dalton said in a text message earlier this week.
The omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus could force a change to meeting rules, Dyer said.