AUBURN — A proposal to conduct all Auburn City Council meetings remotely due to Maine’s surge in COVID-19 cases was tabled indefinitely Monday night without discussion.

The order, proposed by Councilors Holly Lasagna and Katie Boss, would have returned the city to remote meetings for the first time since this spring.

With daily cases now greater than at any point when the council was previously conducting remote meetings, Lasagna said in a memorandum the council should return to remote meetings “to ensure the safety of our community and respect the lives of our families and neighbors and the livelihoods of our first responders and frontline workers.”

Prior to discussion, however, Councilor Belinda Gerry made a motion to table the order indefinitely, which passed 4-3. Councilors Gerry, Brian Carrier, Stephen Milks and Leroy Walker voted in favor.

Once made, a tabling motion does not receive further discussion and a vote is taken. Lasagna and Boss took issue with Mayor Jason Levesque’s handling of the sequence, stating they should have been given the courtesy of introducing the proposal prior to any motions being made. Allowing Gerry to introduce a tabling motion effectively cut off communication on the proposal, they argued.

Later in the meeting, Lasagna said the decision did not “allow the people who presented the order to discuss it.”

Since the start of the pandemic, the Auburn council has been inconsistent on COVID-related policy, with councilors putting forward several competing resolutions regarding state restrictions and mask requirements, as well as meeting guidelines.

After returning to in-person meetings in May, the council did not have a requirement that all councilors wear face coverings until mid-November.

Since that time the council has also passed resolutions asking Gov. Janet Mills to rescind her executive orders concerning COVID-19 and urging the Auburn School Department to return to at least four days of in-person instruction by early 2021.

In March, the council passed a resolution allowing for remote meetings to be conducted, which the council briefly took advantage of. Lasagna’s memo points out that “other boards and committees of the city are successfully conducting business remotely.”

Other large municipalities, including Portland and Lewiston, have conducted council meetings remotely since March.

Auburn officials in favor of meeting in person have argued that it presents a more open atmosphere for the public to weigh in. Members of the public can either speak in person in an adjacent room to the council chambers or chime in remotely.

According to the council memorandum, Deputy Fire Chief Matthew Fifield, who has been designated the city’s pandemic coordinator, has said, “Although I think it is very important to meet in person, especially for council meetings, it may be time to consider moving to the video conference meetings again that is consistent with current operations of all of our staff.”

SCHOOL BUDGET

Earlier on Monday, the City Council and School Committee held a joint workshop to discuss next year’s budget, which school officials said could be impacted by decreased enrollment.

The enrollment drop, officials said, is a statewide trend this year due to COVID-19 and is not expected to continue into next school year. But, the drop could impact Auburn’s state funding, which is allocated on a formula that includes enrollment.

Levesque said the committee might find itself in the position of making an “educated guess” on what kind of rebound enrollment will have.

Councilor Milks told school officials budget talks this spring will likely include questions from the public over high costs, despite remote learning and canceled sports.

Milks, who has previously railed against COVID-19 restrictions, said there is a “ground swell of people very upset with the restrictive nature of what we’re forcing our children to lose in this system that’s costing a lot of money.”

“People are asking, ‘What are we paying for?'” he said.

Superintendent Connie Brown responded: “My staff is working harder than they ever have. We’ve asked educators to reinvent themselves again and again and again. We’d like to have students in school more. My staff is knocking themselves out.”

School officials said they consistently hear “from both sides”: Those who want to maintain remote learning, and those who want to see students return to schools full time.