此内容暂无简体中文译文，以下为英文原文。
Historical Summer 2021 article. Dates, prices, services and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
Serving on the Board of Aldermen this last year has felt a little like watching the Brady Bunch. Every Friday as we log on to our virtual meeting, the faces of the aldermen populate boxes across the screen where we debate and vote on legislation.
With the availability of the vaccine and new guidance from the CDC, I look forward to meeting with my colleagues in person soon. Our meetings will continue to be available to those who want to watch from the comfort of their home, either on STL TV or streaming on Youtube. Items up for discussion this session are the spending of the American Rescue Plan (ARP) funds, the closing of the Workhouse, and redrawing ward boundaries for 14 wards (a reduction from the 28 we currently have).
We updated the rules this year to require public testimony on every bill before it can be finally passed. Every bill is sent to a committee after it is introduced and first read.
These committee meetings are open to the public and, while public testimony has generally been allowed, it has been up to the chair whether to hear it. Before COVID, when we would meet in person it was relatively easy for people to walk in and share a few words with the committee.
In a virtual setting, we are all familiar by now with the challenges of muting and unmuting, raising the little blue hand, and sharing screens. Despite these difficulties, the Board of Aldermen and many government offices are changing and adapting. COVID has made meeting virtually a reality, but I look forward to getting back to seeing people in person.
While we were limited this past year to waving from across the street and straining to hear each other behind masks, we will soon be able to sit across the table and share stories, to greet one another with handshakes, and console and congratulate our neighbors with hugs.
I look forward to escaping my Brady Bunch box and sitting next to my colleagues on the floor of the chamber at City Hall.
However, we need more people to get vaccinated, especially for the sake of the people who do not have the privilege of working from home, such as our grocery store clerks, bus drivers, custodial staff, and health care workers.
We still have a ways to go, but, rest assured, City Hall is getting more accessible for everyone.
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, Summer 2021.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times2021_06.pdf, printed page(s) 6; PDF page(s) 4.
