Vaccine Or Test Now Required For City Council, Commission Members

EVANSTON, IL — The Evanston City Council extended its COVID-19 vaccination or testing mandate to volunteer members of the city's more than 30 boards and commissions.

Monday's unanimous vote came at the first meeting where alderpeople had themselves been required to provide proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test in order to attend a City Council meeting in person under a mandate adopted last month.

The latest rule change also extended the requirement to meetings of City Council committees. Evanston has more than 30 active boards, commissions and committees, according to the city's website.

City staff have been under a vaccination-or-testing mandate since November 2021. Under that policy, unvaccinated staff must provide a negative PCR test result every week. Councilmembers or commissioners must provide a negative test from within the past 24 hours, but rapid antigen tests are acceptable.

Ike Ogbo, the city's director of health and human services, said the requirement was aimed at capturing recent infections.

"I know that the argument has been, 'OK, staff are required to submit weekly COVID tests,' but that's an entirely different environment than the meeting, so to speak, where staff they might not be as in close contact with these individuals, they might not be in confined spaces, they might be out in their community keeping their social distance," Ogbo said. "Whereas, in a meeting setting, which might be a bit confined, you are more inclined to be in close proximity to individuals where you can spread the virus, so that's the reason why we drew that rationale."

Ald. Devon Reid, 8th Ward, who sought to amend the policy to expand the testing windows beyond a single day, pointed out many city employees are themselves in confined spaces with the public — some are handcuffing people and putting them in cars, he noted.

"I think having the same rule apply across the board for anybody who is engaged with business with the city — whether you're an employee or a volunteer or a semi-volunteer councilmember — I think having a uniform set of rules makes sense," Reid said.

Reid said a longer window would also allow for the results of more-accurate PCR tests to be used, since they can take longer to produce results.

"I think if that standard's good enough for someone that we pay and is an employee of ours that standard should also be good enough for someone who has graciously volunteered their time to serve their community," Reid said.

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Ogbo said he had no information about whether unvaccinated people were any more likely to spread the virus than others.

"All I know is that both vaccinated and unvaccinated can still spread the virus," Ogbo said in response to a question from Reid. "But the difference here is for those who are unvaccinated, what happens is that they suffer more severe illness, hospitalization increases, and even deaths."

The heath director said vaccinated people have made up about 10 percent of people hospitalized for coronavirus in intensive care units in Illinois over the past month.

"There's still a possibility, even with masks, that you can still spread COVID. There's still that possibility," Ogbo said. "The difference here is the severity of the illness for those that are unvaccinated."

Ald. Cicely Fleming, 9th Ward, said staff were in a different situation than councilmembers, commissioners and board members.

"My concern is you test a week before, you're still out in the community for a week and you're unvaccinated," Fleming said.

"Are we doing everything we can to make our boards and commission members feel comfortable, given that they're volunteers? Some might have other health concerns," she added. "We already have a hard time finding a quorum in some cases. I get that 24 hours is a pain, but I also get that people are making a choice not to get vaccinated, which is their choice. So if you're going to come and be around other people, I think it does not hurt you to get a test within 24 hours so that the people you're engaging with also feel safe with your participation."

Reid's proposed amendment to recognize negative tests as valid for a week failed by a vote of 3-6, with 1st Ward Ald. Clare Kelly and 5th Ward Ald. Bobby Burns joining the 8th Ward councilmember.

"It seems kind of crazy that we'd have people testing every 24 hours before they come to a meeting. I mean, why would we do that?" Kelly asked. "That just sounds a little over the top."

This article originally appeared on the Evanston Patch