City Hall May 31st Extended Hours To Be Permanent

The COVID - 19 pandemic might be seemingly heading towards its bitter end but public access, or rather the times the public has access to City Hall, are not reverting to where they were prior to the pandemic measures.

The new permanent normal at City Hall will be reduced public access hours to the building moving from the previous 8:30 am to 5 pm to 10 am and 4 pm.

The decision for the new permanent hours were made by Administration and not by Council.

“I think that 10 (am) to 4 (pm) is not a whole lot different than where we were (before (the pandemic),” city manager Jim Puffalt said at the regular post Council meeting news conference on Wednesday.

Puffalt, when questioned by MJ Independent, said the reduced hours does not mean the public is receiving less service but it is quite the opposite as the reduced public access hours the City had used during the pandemic also showed an increase in productivity.

“What we found is when we had customers coming in (with the reduced public access hours) we found us to be more effective,” he said, adding that the resultant decreased hours of public access during the pandemic had lead to “an increase in productivity” that the City was eager to maintain post pandemic.

When asked about some early morning access some businesses, such as contractors, have used to pick up building permits Puffalt said arrangements could be made with planning to acquire the permits.

He suggested that customers who need access to the Planning Department in order to go to work could still do so by phoning.

If the contractor needed to pick up permits they could call the Planning Department who could come down to the main doors and let them into City Hall so they could go about their daily business as planned.

For those who pay their water bills, parking fines, taxes or other bills to the City the likelihood of the doors being opened he said the likelihood of someone coming down and letting them is not very high.

MJ Independent asked the question at one of our reader’s requests who told us they like to go shopping Downtown for groceries early on pension day and then go to City Hall and pay their monthly water bill in cash early because they did not have to plug the parking meters before heading home as parking is still free at that time.

Puffalt went on to point out there were other ways to pay such bills such as the outside mail slot but cautioned people NOT TO use cash to pay their bills through the mail slot.

Puffalt said that the number of people seeking access to City Hall in the early hours before the new opening time was small and that the City prided itself in providing customer service.

“There are a number of ways to contact the City…we try to provide ourselves in customer service.”

City Hall staff will still be available by the telephone from 8:15 am to 5 pm on all weekdays except statutory holidays.