City Commission Tests Online Setup with Virtual Meeting April 2

Lake Wales commissioners will be holding a special "virtual" meeting beginning at 6 p.m. Thursday April 2, in advance of its next regularly scheduled meeting on Wednesday, April 8.

This will be the first opportunity for commissioners, city officials and the public to try out the virtual meeting set up, serving as a "practice" for future regularly scheduled meetings. Only one official item is on the agenda, a resolution that going forward would continue to authorize virtual meetings during the public health situation.

"As the State of Florida is currently under a declared state of emergency due to the threat of COVID-19 Governor DeSantis has issued an Executive Order allowing for virtual meetings with the requirement that they continue to operate in the sunshine," City Manager Ken Fields noted.

The virtual meeting arrangement will allow commissioners and city staff to conduct public meetings remotely. Virtual public meetings will continue to be broadcast live, locally, on Comcast Channel 6 and on the city's web site. A link to the live stream can be found in the left-most menu of the City's home page, labeled "Live Meeting Stream".

The direct link is: http://lakewales.granicus.com/player/camera/3?publish_id=2. Public comments will be accepted at http://www.lakewalesfl.gov/comments. Officials asked the public to be patient in getting responses during virtual meetings because of the potential of lag time between the live virtual meeting and the time the broadcast actually goes out over the web.

Virtual meetings will continue for the foreseeable future, and until the public threat from the Coronavirus has come to an end, officials added.