NEW ORLEANS — The only obvious sign that anything was different Wednesday at the Jefferson Parish government building in Elmwood was the lack of cars in the parking lot.
Inside, it was business as usual — at least as much as it can be during an unusual time.
Councilmembers met for the first time since the outbreak of COVID-19 sent much of society as we knew it to a screeching halt.
But instead of sitting side by side in the council chambers, they went about their work on a Zoom chat.
Call it the digital dais.
At one point, more than 150 people tuned in to the meeting which was aired live on Facebook.
“We have more (watching) than normally sit in the chambers,” Councilman Scott Walker said.
That number wasn't counting views on the parish's website and cable access channel.
There were a few technical glitches as callers tried to get on the line for public comment, but they were eventually fixed.
Al Morella — once described by The Times-Picayune | New Orleans Advocate as the “veteran gadfly of Jefferson Parish's legislative bodies” — phoned in to question the council on recent actions.
Yes, it’s about as normal as life can be these days.
At-large Councilman Ricky Templet thanked the parish’s information technology workers for quickly figuring out a way to bring the council together, in its new Brady Bunch-style gathering, but the need to adapt is what has led another councilman to call for changes to the parish’s emergency plans.
“Right now it's COVID-19. Who knows what it could be going forward," District 4 Councilman Dominick Impastato said.
Across the country, local and state governments in COVID-19 hotspots have often scrambled to bring a sense of normalcy to life.
Impastato said he is not aware of the parish having a plan for a pandemic. A message sent to the parish administration asking if a plan exists was not immediately returned.
“I use the analogy … that in the greater New Orleans area, text messaging seemed like a foreign concept until Hurricane Katrina. Well, all of a sudden, it blew up because of it,” Impastato said. “Why? Because under those desperate times, all of a sudden we found a way to do things a little bit differently that ultimately in the long term became a more productive way for us to do things.”
That’s why Impastato and his colleague will now look at ways to make sure that in any new emergency situation, the government can still function, staffing levels are correct, supplies get to hospitals, officials can contact the public and elections can go on as planned.
He said he hopes the council can have something formal to discuss by its next meeting on April 22.
“There’s a learning curve,” Impastato said, “and we (want to) actually learn something out of it, not repeat the same mistakes.”
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