The Honolulu City Council will still hold its regularly scheduled monthly meeting Wednesday but only the most urgent and essential items will actually be heard and voted on, Council Chairman Ikaika Anderson said today.

“Tomorrow’s City Council meeting agenda has been reduced to include only budgetary items and items that relate to the continuity of government,” Anderson told reporters at press conference in his office this morning. “At the conclusion of those items, we will then adjourn the meeting.”

That means all items pertaining to the city’s response to the coronavirus outbreak as well as a first reading of all fiscal 2021 budget bills will be heard, but not other issues.

Among the 21 items that will be heard will be Resolution 20-71, allowing Council members to participate from remote locations and be counted as “present” at meetings. That would allow them to participate in discussions and vote on bills from outside Council chambers.

The Council also will take up on final reading Bill 35, which gives Mayor Kirk Caldwell and future mayors the ability to tap a $120 million fiscal stability fund, also known as a “rainy day fund,” to combat the adverse impacts of the outbreak.

Anderson said while public testimony will be taken Wednesday, he encourages people to instead submit their testimony online. The meeting can also be viewed live on cable at Olelo Channel 54 or online at olelo.org.

Among the items not being taken up and tabled indefinitely Wednesday are the closely watched sweeping energy code revision, Bill 25 (2019), as well as the hotly debated revision to the Koolauloa Sustainable Communities Plan, Bill 1 (2019). Both need only one final vote from the Council before they are sent to the mayor’s desk.