Following two hours of public testimony on the question of mandatory face coverings in Pagosa Springs, the six members of the Town Council who attended the ZOOM meeting on Tuesday, June 30, had a chance to express their opinions. Although the Council technically represents only about 15 percent of the community’s population — the folks living within the town limits — they have the ability to impose regulations on probably 90 percent of the community’s businesses.
The draft Resolution that seemed to get the most interest did not include a mandate, with penalties, but rather, would ‘encourage’ people to wear face coverings. You can download that Resolution here.
Here are some excerpts of the Council discussion.
Maddie Bergon: “What I’d really like to do is come up with some ‘talking points’ that we can agree on, and then kind of bounce ideas off of each other. I see the wearing of masks as being very important. I’d like to see as many people as possible wearing masks when they are engaging in activities. I think that’s respectful, for customers who are going into a business that has had to jump through a lot of hoops and has required their employees to wear masks. I think it’s respectful for customers to do what they can to support that, to keep our community safe.
“We’ve been lucky here. I want to do what we can to keep it that way. Absolutely.
“I do have concerns about enforcement, though. I think if we did mandate [masks] it would give businesses some extra leverage to enforce masks in their own establishments if that’s what they want to do. But I don’t think we should penalize businesses for non-compliance among customers, unless there is intentional and prolonged violation…”
Mat deGraaf: “Of the responses I heard [during public comment] — while some weren’t entirely clear — I counted 20 responses in favor of a mask mandate of some sort, and 26 who were not in favor of that. Which is kind of what I expected. I expected somewhere around 50/50. But those are just the numbers.
“I was one who was initially pushing for this, but I’ve had to do some personal reckoning with it. Once I really put thought and intention behind it, I came to realize that — as a card-carrying anarchist — I’m not in favor of telling anyone what they can or cannot do, especially a business. I think a business has a right to refuse service to anybody for any reason, and for us to go into their business and make them do something? I don’t think that’s right, even though it would be helpful. I don’t think that’s right…”
We can pause here for a reality check. Several business owners who testified earlier in the meeting were urging the Council to approve a mandatory mask policy, based on the idea that a spike in local infections might result in another oppressive economic shutdown such as we saw in March, April and May. A sensible concern.
But even though Mr. deGraaf and others might rightfully feel uncomfortable with the idea of government telling businesses what they can and cannot do, it’s quite obvious that the State of Colorado has the assumed authority to do exactly that.
The fact that Archuleta County was reporting only 8 confirmed COVID cases during March, April, May and nearly all of June had no perceptible bearing on how our local businesses have been required to operate, nor on which businesses have been allowed to operate, because those decisions were being made in Denver by the Polis administration.
Other states are also making major health policy decisions at the state level, and four states — California, Arizona, Texas, and Florida — have begun ‘re-closing’ their economies to deal with new infection spikes. 11 states are ‘pausing’ their reopening attempts.
From The New York Times:
Although Governor Polis’ latest ‘Protect Our Neighbors’ health order will allow some local governments to open their economies more fully, if they can prove their public health worthiness, the revised order says nothing specifically about ‘mandatory masks’. Any leniency appears to be based solely on numbers of confirmed cases, the preparedness of local hospitals, and the ability of a local public health agency to “test, track and trace” COVID cases.
Meanwhile, we have no guarantees that Denver will leave future decisions in local hands, should we see a continuation or worsening of the increased infections seen in Colorado over the past two weeks. At its worst, back in late April, Colorado was seeing around 500 new cases per day. That number gradually decreased, and on June 15, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment reported just 128 new cases, the lowest daily number since March 22. The cases then commenced to climb, and by June 25 the daily count was back up in the 270 range.
This past Tuesday, Governor Polis once again ordered Colorado bars and nightclubs to cease operation unless they were also serving food. Presumably, the experience of bar owners and employees and customers here in small-town Pagosa Springs had zero impact on the Governor’s revised order.
Nevertheless, the Pagosa Springs Town Council wants to consider ways to protect local citizens and businesses as we watch the summer tourists pour into town.
Council member Mat deGraaf continued:
“My frustration around this whole thing came after our Memorial Day [influx]. I saw people, from other places, coming to my community and having what I viewed as a complete disregard and lack of respect for our community members, and our local businesses. And that made me mad. So my initial motivation was to do something that would make them respect us.
“And in these discussions, I realized that you can’t mandate respect — to pass an ordinance and make somebody suddenly care about your community, in the way that I wish everybody cared about each other. And that makes me sad. That we have to get to such a point that we are trying to force people to be kind to each other, and respect each other…
“The Resolution, as it is written, I don’t believe is ready for passage tonight…”
Bill Hudson began sharing his opinions in the Pagosa Daily Post in 2004 and can’t seem to break the habit. He claims that, in Pagosa Springs, opinions are like pickup trucks: everybody has one.