Title
AN EMERGENCY RESOLUTION CONCERNING EMERGENCY OPERATIONS-PUBLIC MEETINGS, SESSIONS, AND HEARINGS for the purpose of postponement of County Council actions, providing for alternative public participation for meetings that are required to be held, and operations necessitated by the Coronavirus (“COVID-19”) public health emergency.
Background
This Emergency Resolution provides:
• That all public meetings, sessions and hearings of the Prince George’s County Council sitting as the District Council, Zoning Hearing Examiner, and Board of Appeals are stayed for a period of sixty (60) days or until such time as the statewide emergency is lifted; and
• That the time within which any individual, agency or official must submit a recommendation and/or response to the Prince George’s County Council sitting as the District Council, Zoning Hearing Examiner, or Board of Appeals for their consideration at said public meetings, sessions and hearings, is stayed for a period of sixty (60) days or until such time as the statewide emergency is lifted.
• That this shall suspend, toll, extend or otherwise grant relief from time deadlines, requirements, or expirations in the Prince George’s County Code, including Subtitle 27, where there is no practical ability of a party subject to such deadline, requirement, or expiration, to comply or seek other relief.
• That pursuant to Section 317 of the Prince George’s County Charter, in the event of an emergency declared by the Governor pursuant to provisions of State law, which emergency affects any part or all of Prince George's County, and there is an emergent issue which precludes a Council meeting, the Council Chair or Vice Chair, in the Chair’s absence, is authorized, upon advice and consent of a majority of the full Council, to modify the voting, quorum, and publication requirements consistent with State law, as necessary to respond to the emergency.
• That in order to address the public emergency and in light of the County Charter, in the event a public meeting, session, or hearing is mandated by law and cannot be continued, or is necessary for the continuity of government operations, the Council may provide for alternative public participation to include remote teleconferencing to address the emergency.