City Hall closure extended two weeks; employees will still be paid

Charlottesville City Hall will remain closed to the public and city employees will be paid for at least another two weeks as the coronavirus pandemic continues.

City Hall will be closed through at least April 26 and most employees will continue working from home, according to a news release.

Non-essential employees have been working from home since March 17, depending on the type of work they do for the city. Non-essential personnel who cannot work from home are still being compensated at their normal salary rate.

The extension includes a previously announced closure of parking areas at Pen Park, McIntire Park, Tonsler Park and Washington Park.

The extended staffing plan also keeps the city on a hiring freeze, leaving many high-level department director positions open, including in public works, neighborhood development services, parks and recreation and the Office of Human Rights.

The extended closure covers the City Council meeting scheduled for April 20. It’s unclear if the meeting will be canceled or postponed.

Before the pandemic hit, the council was also scheduled to give final approval to the proposed budget for fiscal 2021, which starts July 1, on Tuesday.

The process has been on hold since a first reading and mostly electronic public hearing of the $196.7 million proposed spending plan and tax rate on March 16. A second public hearing was scheduled for the council’s April 6 meeting, but that was canceled.

The city is expecting large losses in revenue from the pandemic and officials are working on changes to the proposal.

Although all previously scheduled city government meetings for this month were canceled, the Minority Business Commission plans to meet electronically at 3 p.m. Thursday to discuss assistance for businesses suffering lost income.

The city also announced this weekend that Charlottesville Area Transit is implementing its “Lifeline” reduced service schedule, which provides service once every 60 minutes on a majority of routes. Five routes will have more frequent services during the morning peak hours to connect essential workers to medical facilities and hospitals.

The new schedules can be found at catchthecat.org.

The city’s new Cville360 program, which covers Charlottesville’s response to the pandemic, will air at 11 a.m. Tuesday and feature Schools Superintendent Rosa Atkins.

Source: www.dailyprogress.com