Tuesday’s Council Meeting Is Still On After Mayor Pro Tem Tests Positive For Covid
East Lansing City Council will be meeting without a full complement of Council members today for their discussion-only meetings, as Mayor Pro Tem Jessy Gregg announced on Facebook over the weekend that she had tested positive for Covid-19.
Council will be conducting a final interview at 6 p.m. for the open City Attorney position — with the Clark Hill firm — before handling the other items on an agenda set to start at 7 p.m. As a five-member public body, City Council can still reach a quorum, and therefore meet, with just four members present. If two more members of Council were to test positive, holding Tuesday’s meeting would become impossible.
Gregg tested positive on Friday after beginning to isolate on Wednesday, when a member of her household had tested positive. Gregg and her whole household went for additional PCR testing on Wednesday, she said.
On Thursday — between possibly being exposed and testing positive — Gregg attended the City Council meeting to interview most of the lawyers and firms applying to the City Attorney position. At the meeting, Gregg was double-masked — a surgical mask with a cloth mask on top — and sat the usual distance away from others in attendance. She was flanked by City Manager George Lahanas and Mayor Ron Bacon at the table on Thursday.
In the Facebook post from her City Council page announcing she had tested positive, Gregg acknowledged that she had attended this meeting while positive for Covid. She also notes that, at that point, she had no indication that she did, indeed, have Covid.
The hope was to get test results back prior to Thursday’s meeting, Gregg told ELi in an email. She also explained that she asked if there was a way to attend the meeting virtually and was told there was no legal way to do that.
CDC guidelines currently do not require someone who is fully vaccinated and boosted but exposed to Covid-19 to isolate if they are asymptomatic and haven’t tested positive.
“When I had not received the PCR test results by Thursday afternoon I took a home test at 2:30 p.m. on Thursday which came back negative (I did the throat plus nasal swab protocol recommended for Omicron),” Gregg wrote in the email. “At that point I believed myself to be negative for COVID, and let the city manager and mayor know that I was planning on attending the meeting.”
Gregg received her positive PCR result early on Friday morning and notified her fellow Council members, she said.
Gregg did not know if the lawyers from the various firms who attended and were potentially exposed have been notified of the possibility.
Lahanas did not respond to a request for comment asking if the lawyers being interviewed had been notified that they were potentially exposed to Covid-19.
The reactions from other Council members at the table with Gregg on Thursday was mixed.
Bacon, who was seated to Gregg’s left for the duration of the meeting, said he was not “overly concerned” for his own health, due to masking and the physical distance between Council members at meetings — they sit about six feet apart.
Council member Lisa Babcock had similar minor concerns as Bacon about her own health, but was upset that information about Gregg’s exposure to Covid hadn’t been shared prior to the meeting on Thursday.
“I knew before the meeting that Councilmember Gregg had tested negative using an at-home test,” Babcock wrote in an email. “I was unaware that a member of her household had tested positive the day before — I learned that only third-hand Saturday afternoon. That’s a critical piece of information, because CDC guidelines say people are most contagious 24 hours before having symptoms through 5 days after becoming ill. I am not sure whether I would have done anything differently, but I am extremely disappointed that crucial information was withheld — apparently not just from me, but from other council members and the other meeting attendees.”
Babcock, who is an attorney, highlighted how it is important the attorneys being interviewed are notified, as some had nearly their entire firm there. If they were to be sidelined due to Covid, she said, it could have far-reaching effects.
“I do not know if the city manager has alerted other people who attended the meeting, but he should,” Babcock said. “They have the right to know. We don’t know their circumstances or how they will apply the CDC guidelines in their lives, but they should not be left in the dark, and they should not learn this second or third hand.”
Council member Dana Watson said she is slightly concerned about her own exposure, and the exposure of attendees. She noted that while everyone was masked, and Council members were appropriately distanced from each other, the attorneys being interviewed were not able to maintain that proper distancing.
“And we had breaks and people would stand and huddle without distance,” Watson wrote in an email. “I hope everyone who was in the room remains Covid free from the exposure. I am vaccinated. I’ve tested at home since, so far so good, and I am tuned into any changes that could signal Covid.”
As for today’s discussion-only meetings, Babcock said it is critical for the City to notify attendees of the risk.
“Tuesday [today] is within the 5-day window from the Thursday meeting, so if we DO hold the meeting, it’s imperative that we tell attendees,” Babcock wrote. “The risk may be minimal, but that’s for them to decide, not us.”
Council member George Brookover did not respond to an email seeking comment for this story.