After a prolonged period of conducting its businesses over Zoom, the Palo Alto City Council is preparing to head back to City Hall for in-person meetings in early November.

But even when the council returns to its chambers, the new normal will look slightly different from the old one. All council members, as well as city staff and members of the public, will be required to show either proof of vaccination or a negative test taken within 48 hours of the meeting. And unlike in the prepandemic days, people will still have a chance to participate in discussions remotely, over Zoom.

For the council, the switch to "hybrid" meetings in November after about 20 months of virtual ones represents a compromise. Mayor Tom DuBois favored returning to City Hall as soon as possible, while council member Greg Tanaka favored retaining remote meetings at least until every attendee receives a booster shot.

"I know people who've been vaccinated and got COVID," Tanaka said. "It's still very virulent out there and we ought to be careful and we want to set a good example in terms of being responsible."

The council ultimately coalesced behind a proposal from Vice Mayor Pat Burt to return in November. He noted that while Santa Clara County continues to experience a fairly high case load thanks to the delta variant, it is on a "welcome downward trend," a trend that is expected to continue as more people receive booster shots over the coming months.

"I think that where we're going to be a month from now is comparable to where we were in May and June," Burt said, referring to the brief period of optimism before the delta variant spike. "I'd expect that that's the right time frame in which we can go into the hybrid mode."

Council member Alison Cormack also favored returning to in-person meetings, noting that many employees have been doing so for months. While virtual meetings allowed the council to conduct its business, Cormack said she missed some of the regular features of face-to-face meetings, including casually chatting with her colleagues about their weekends or having the ability to look at her colleagues in person while they're speaking.

"I fully expect we'll have some challenges and we'll learn some things, but at some point, we'll need to resume meeting in person," Cormack said. "We have lost so much by not meeting in person."

Cormack also noted that many people in various professions have been working in person for months now.

"People are doing their work with masks at distance for a full day and I think the time has come for us to do the same," Cormack said. "I don't consider it an imminent risk to health and safety for us to do our work together in person."

One of those people is council member Greer Stone, a teacher at Gunn High who also said he favors returning to in-person meetings. At the same time, Stone favored giving the city's boards and commissions more time before they are required to return to City Hall.

"I think we should show our leadership to the community and we should go back if we're asking boards and commissions to come back," Stone said.

The council agreed that its standing committees, as well as the city's various boards and commissions, should continue meeting remotely at least until Jan. 1. And to give council members some extra flexibility, the council agreed to raise the number of times a council member can participate remotely from three times per year to five times. In addition, the council agreed that physical attendance by council members should be optional as long as the county maintains rules for mandatory indoor masking.

In a bid to boost public participation, the council also directed staff the latitude to provide video capabilities to public speakers.