Over the course of nearly six hours on Tuesday, the Pasadena City Council hashed out an eviction moratorium to keep residents in their homes during the new coronavirus outbreak.

Additionally, officials waived all late fees and penalties for utility bills — preventing any related shut-offs in the process — and curbed some parking restrictions around town.

The council also set aside an initial $150,000 for City Manager Steve Mermell to research and devise a plan to bring meals to residents in need.

It was unlike any other City Council meeting in recent memory.

Vice Mayor Tyron Hampton presided over the meeting as Mayor Terry Tornek was absent, flying back from a visit to Pasadena’s sister city in Africa. Besides Hampton, only Councilman Victor Gordo appeared in person; the remaining five members opted to dial in.

An olfactory bouquet of bleach, sanitizing wipes and hand sanitizer hung over a crowd of 23 audience members — the maximum allowed in City Hall under the circumstances — with each person seated 6 feet away from one another.

It was the city’s best effort to promote social distancing while still allowing the public to watch and comment as the council went about its business.

The most pressing point of order for the council: how best to mitigate the economic impacts of the coronavirus.

On Monday, Mermell declared a state of emergency, which required ratification from the City Council. With a unanimous vote, the council gave Mermell emergency powers, allowing him to spend up to $25,000 without consulting with the council. Anything over that amount would require justification to the City Council after the fact.

The council used a unique parliamentary procedure to bake the proposed eviction moratorium into the state of emergency ratification, allowing it to take effect immediately.

The new law will prevent evictions for residential and commercial tenants who are unable to pay their rent, so long as the city’s state of emergency remains in place. Any unpaid rent is required to be paid back within six months after the state of emergency is lifted.

Housing activists criticized the repayment clause in the law, arguing residents who had lost wages and failed to make rent payments months earlier wouldn’t be able to make up the difference six months later.

Pasadena Director of Housing Bill Huang said it’s possible the city could use funds from Measure H, the Los Angeles County homeless initiative tax, which are earmarked for preventing homelessness.

The city has about $300,000 to use, but it may not be enough if the system is overwhelmed, he said. Still, it would be possible to add more money into the fund.

The eviction moratorium is a similar move to what cities like Santa Monica and Berkeley had already implemented.

Earlier in the meeting, the council passed three other relief-related actions.

At city staff’s recommendation, officials suspended all late fees and penalties on city services, including water, power and trash collection. Additionally, the council barred utility shut-offs as a result of missed bills and late payments.

According to a staff report, Pasadena Water and Power was also “prepared to address requests from customers who have recently had services disconnected” and would assess each situation on a case-by-case basis.

Officials also made modifications to the citywide parking policy, temporarily suspending metered enforcement in a bid to drive up delivery and curbside pickups for restaurants. They also put a hold on any “noncritical vehicle impounds” and forbade booting vehicles with a significant number of parking citations and expired registrations.

It wasn’t everything business owners wanted.

In an email to this newsgroup, Pasadena Chamber of Commerce Chief Executive Paul Little said he was disappointed the city would close businesses “yet not be willing to make significant sacrifices themselves to ensure those businesses can reopen once the emergency has passed.”

Little, alongside a group of restaurateurs and small business owners, called for more dramatic steps from the city, including the creation of a fund to support small businesses and restaurants whose business will suffer as residents isolate in their homes.

The move isn’t off the table yet, though.

The City Council put together a list of action items for the next meeting, asking Mermell and city staff to come back with more information.

That list of possible relief efforts includes:

A fund to bring assistance to businesses ordered not to operate during the outbreak.

Examine whether city fees and utility costs can be waived for those small businesses.

Suspend overnight parking restrictions, which were not lifted in the recent parking changes.

Secure cleaning supplies for seniors.

Mermell will be moving forward, however, with a $150,000 budget to devise a plan to feed Pasadena’s residents in need for a week. It’s effectively a pilot program which will return to the council at its next meeting — whenever that may be; there isn’t one currently scheduled — where the amount of money dedicated to the effort may be increased.

Pasadena currently has two confirmed cases of the new coronavirus, which can lead to a respiratory disease called COVID-19.

Los Angeles County public health officials confirmed 50 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Tuesday, March 17, lifting the county’s total to 144 confirmed cases.