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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2021-09-06 - Minutes -Council Member Sonia Gutierrez Ward 1 Position 1 Council Member D'Andre Jones Ward 1 Position 2 Council Member Mark Kinion Ward 2 Position 1 Council Member Matthew Petty Ward 2 Position 2 Mayor Lioneld Jordan City Attorney Kit Williams City Clerk Kara Paxton City of Fayetteville Arkansas City Council Meeting August 6, 2021 City Council Meeting Minutes August 6, 2021 Page 1 of 6 Council Member Sloan Scroggin Ward 3 Position 1 Council Member Sarah Bunch Ward 3 Position 2 Council Member Teresa Turk Ward 4 Position 1 Council Member Holly Hertzberg Ward 4 Position 2 A Special meeting of the Fayetteville City Council was held on August 6, 2021 at 5:45 p.m. in Room 219 of the City Administration Building located at 113 West Mountain Street, Fayetteville, Arkansas. Mayor Jordan called the meeting to order. Mayor Lioneld Jordan, Council Members Sonia Gutierrez, D'Andre Jones, Mark Kinion, Matthew Petty, Sarah Bunch, Sloan Scroggin, Teresa Turk, City Attorney Kit Williams, City Clerk Treasurer Kara Paxton, Chief of Staff Susan Norton, Chief Financial Officer Paul Becker, Chief of Police Mike Reynolds, Fire Chief Brad Hardin, staff members from the IT Department, and members of the press were present in City Council Chambers while demonstrating recommended social distancing. Some City Council Members joined the meeting via online using a video conferencing service called Zoom. Absent: Council Member Holly Hertzberg Pledge of Allegiance Manor's Announcements, Proclamations and Recognitions: Mayor Jordan: For those of you that are attending by Zoom, Council Members, city staff and the public are participating in this meeting virtually and in person. Public comments will be allowed for all members of the audience who've signed up prior to the beginning of the agenda item they may wish to address being open for public comment. Each speaker has one turn to speak. Each speaker is allowed five minutes to be broken into segments of three and two minutes, which staff will monitor. Amendments may receive public comments only if approved by the City Council by unanimous consent or majority vote. If public comment is allowed for an amendment, speakers 113 West Mountain Fayetteville, AR 72701 (479) 575-8323 www fayetteville-ar gov City Council Meeting Minutes August 6, 2021 Page 2 of 6 will only be allowed to speak for three minutes. The City Council may allow both a speaker additional time and an unsigned up person to speak, by unanimous consent or majority vote. Consent: 'done Unfinished Business: None New Business: An ordinance to require persons to wear face masks in public service areas in city owned buildings and places of public accommodation subject to reasonable exemptions and to declare an Emergency. City Attorney Kit Williams read the ordinance. Council Member Petty stated this ordinance is more or less the same as what we saw before. He stated a lot of the language is taken from the ordinance that we passed last year. He stated there are at least two key differences, one being there's no longer a requirement as there was before that businesses refuse service to unmasked individuals. He stated in this ordinance it would be a requirement that individuals take responsibility for masking themselves, but businesses will not be required to refuse service if this ordinance passes. He stated the second key difference is the masking requirement would be reconsidered either when the Governor has declared his State of Emergency over or when the Board of Health tells us through the data of hospitalizations and deaths when it is safe for us to alter the mask requirement so vaccinated individuals are not required to be masked and also when we might repeal it in its entirety. City Attorney Kit Williams: We owe a debt of gratitude to Attorney Tom Mars and his clients who challenged Act 1002. He showed it was unconstitutional in several ways and got this preliminary injunction so Act 1002 is not enforceable at this time and not until some further action by his court or another court that would potentially reinstate it. However, I've read his decision and it's a very well -reasoned decision. Act 1002 did intrude upon the judiciary's right to control their courtrooms, the county's right to control their buildings, as well as the rights of the school boards to teach their students and our statutory rights to try to do what's best for the peace, health, and safety of our citizens. Without Tom Mars and the other people that have helped him, we probably would not be able to pass such a strong mask ordinance as requested by Council Member Petty. Dr. Marti Sharkey: As of this afternoon, Northwest Arkansas hospitals had 141 inpatient COVID cases and 124 COVID and non-COVID patients in ICU, which is right around its height of 127 where we were a few days ago. To quote Birch Wright, CEO of Washington Regional, the concern that local healthcare systems could be overwhelmed has become reality. We are at the point, right now, where our hospitals are struggling to find the next bed for the next patient. There is the real risk that without us changing our behavior, we are going to put our healthcare systems in more 113 West Mountain Fayetteville, AR 72701 (479) 575-8323 www.fayetteville-ar gov City Council Meeting Minutes August 6, 2021 Page 3 of 6 dire straits. That is just unacceptable for our citizens. Vaccines are a way out of this pandemic. The way out of this surge is mask. Vaccines today don't get us out of this surge. They're going to help us in the long term, and they are going to help us get out of the pandemic, but it doesn't help in the near term. The thing we need to do in the near term, is put the mask back on and do all the behavioral changes that made such a difference last summer so we can preserve our healthcare system for all of our needs. Council Member Petty: The data shows that vaccines work. We are going to have a time where we can talk about how we might incentivize the community to get more vaccines in the near term. The question is how many people wearing a mask tomorrow, that aren't today, would make a difference for this surge. People look to us for guidance, just like they look to other leaders in the community that they participate in. We have a role to play in how we communicate about what mask do and what we can do together, if we work together through small actions for this surge. Masking will make a difference. Right now, days matter. I hope each of my colleagues in attendance tonight will support this. With this being proposed with an Emergency Clause and the State of Emergency we are under, we have tried to bring forward an ordinance based on what we've already done with simple changes, so we consider it clearly and relatively quickly. The City Council received 12 public comments regarding this ordinance. Council Member Scroggin: I said when I voted on the mask mandate, a little bit early I felt like we should follow the CDC when they loosened restrictions, because people need to trust us because we are going to be back. I said, we may be back six months, but we may be back in nine years, I don't know. I sure wish it had been the latter because I don't think we even made it six months. We need to follow the science to protect our citizens. That's what we are elected to do. I called business leaders today as soon as I knew we were having this meeting. I asked them what the business community thinks of this and I got positive results. They wanted this. They didn't want the businesses to be punished. I'm glad Council Member Petty has made that change. It's not on the businesses, it's on the individuals. I know we are going to have businesses that don't require this, but if some do, then we get to save lives. I know some people think we are going to have some economic ruin by having mask, but that's silly. We are going to keep trucking along. We initially had issues with sales tax, but by the end of the year, even dealing with COVID and mask mandates, we still were bringing in sales taxes and paying our bills. Some businesses were able to do that. I understand some hurt. I can't take my kids to the ER right now. When we talk about normality, it's not the politicians that are making this un-normal, it's the virus. Having a mask mandate or not, is not the issue. Saying to just ignore it and we will go back to normal, is absurd. We have to deal with the virus. We can do that through vaccines, mask and social distancing. Unfortunately, in Arkansas, it looks like we have chosen none of those. I'm worried about a total collapse of the hospital system. There are a lot of nurses that were going to stick through this for a year and then quit, but now think it's their duty to stick through 18 months. Now, they are 18 months in and they're quitting mid shift. I don't blame them at all. It's absurd to say I have the freedom to force that on our nurses. This isn't stomping on civil rights because there are expectations. Council Member Kinion: I second what Council Member Scroggin said. Every bit of that is valid and reasonable. There's a lot of statistics being spouted out. I've worked in a firm in the biological division, which developed vaccines for 23 years. Vaccines work. You can go back in history and 113 West Mountain Fayetteville, AR 72701 (479) 575-8323 www fayetteville-ar gov City Council Meeting Minutes August 6, 2021 Page 4 of 6 look at polio and typhoid. We do not have the capacity right now to mandate vaccines. Everyone through a big fit whenever safety seat belts were mandated, but now we put them on because that's a way to save our life. Most of us do become use to the mask. We don't like it, but I wear my mask. It shows consideration for others. You may be a carrier of this virus. It's a breakthrough virus, so you don't have a lot of symptoms. Current science does show a breakthrough virus that someone is carrying, can infect someone else. If you want to look at scientific data, I suggest you look at a very reputable journal such as the New England Journal of Medicine or similar that has an editorial board only allowing publications that are scrutinized for good science. When people start making up things and it's repeated, it suddenly seems like it's truth, and it is not. We did not have a baseline when this pandemic started. We have a baseline now. We can follow it and follow trends. We can follow different geographical outbreaks and try to consider why is it that this outbreak is in Fayetteville, but it might not be somewhere else. If there is a direct correlation to a masking policy, I think there is a direct correlation. It is necessary to pass this tonight and protect public health. Council Member Turk: I am in support of this because the CDC is recommending masking. We are in a medical crisis right now. We don't have many beds in the ICU. Children under 12 are still not eligible to get the vaccine. We need to be thinking about those children and how we can protect them. If it saves one life by having a small inconvenience to wear a mask, I say we need to do that. I am tired of the mask too, but we are going to have to do this until we get our numbers much lower. Council Member Petty has placed the metrics in there where we can take action, where this will go away, once our numbers are significantly lower and the Board of Health has weighed in. Those are appropriate steps for our community. Council Member Bunch: We have rising numbers and we have people who are not getting vaccinated. It's not that I enjoy wearing a mask, but this is a relatively simple thing to do. We only have a few tools to fight this virus. You can wear a mask, social distance and the biggest tool we've got is to get vaccinated. I will wear the mask because I want to protect other people. Complaints have been made that we need a timeline on this. How can we put a timeline on this? Last year I naively thought we would not be here at this point. As time went by, I realized we were going to be right back where we started from. Science is growing and changing as we learn more about this virus. If we can take small precautions now, maybe we can head off the next variant that's going to be worse than the one we are facing now. Last year we were worried about the senior citizens and now we are worried about the kids. If we can take small measures to help protect our citizens, I say let's do it. Council Member Jones: Thank you to Council Member Petty and Kit for your work. It is proven that facemasks work. A third child, as of Thursday died from COVID-19 in Arkansas, according to the Department of Health. I received an email from a realtor and a business stating that she supported wearing mask in public spaces and places of employment, so our retail and hospitality workers have the same protection. Many vulnerable people have been forced back into the workforce and need a local mask ordinance to minimize the chances of getting infected on the job and dying. The numbers are increasing. It is the responsibility of the City Council to make sure to safeguard a healthy and safe Fayetteville. I have friends who have died from COVID. It's very unfortunate we're having this conversation about wearing a mask. It's a small inconvenience compared to what many individuals have had to experience. I am in support of doing whatever we can to flatten the curve and stop the spread of COVID. 113 West Mountain Fayetteville, AR 72701 (479) 575-8323 www.fayetteville-ar.gov City Council Meeting Minutes August 6, 2021 Page 5 of 6 Council Member Gutierrez: The Delta Variant is 50% more contagious. We are not even talking about what COVID was. We're talking about something that's even worse than COVID. I'm not looking forward to the Fall. We are going to see a lot of heartache. How can we help to do the best we can in going forward in a more dangerous situation? A mask is an excellent way to do that. A vaccine is a more excellent way to do that. I'm fully vaccinated. I am happy to wear my mask, especially for those people who absolutely cannot get vaccinated. I work in web design and I am very familiar with search engines. Be wary of the information you search because it's based on previous cached data. If you want to get some very good information, feel free to reach out to our City Board Health Director, who is an expert. The best way to end this is to get vaccinated and wear a mask. If we stop it, then it could stop mutating and spreading. Council Member Scroggin moved to suspend the rules and go to the second reading. Council Member Jones seconded the motion. Upon roll call the motion passed 7-0. Council Members Bunch, Turk, Gutierrez, Jones, Kinion, Petty, and Scroggin voting yes. Council Member Hertzberg was absent during the vote. City Attorney Kit Williams read the ordinance. Council Member Scroggin: I look forward to the day we get to vote to remove this, but for now we have to move forward. Council Member Scroggin moved to suspend the rules and go to the third and final reading. Council Member Bunch seconded the motion. Upon roll call the motion passed 7-0. Council Members Bunch, Turk, Gutierrez, Jones, Kinion, Petty, and Scroggin voting yes. Council Member Hertzberg was absent during the vote. City Attorney Kit Williams read the ordinance. Council Member Petty: We are doing this because of the very high transmission rates we're experiencing right now. If you are a business, this ordinance does not require you to enforce this mask ordinance, but you are welcome to require people to wear mask. We encourage you to do so. You have that right, and we will back you up if you choose to execute that right. When we passed our mask ordinance last year, eventually the Governor did the right thing and issued a statewide masking requirement. Rates of transmission across the state and almost every county are higher than they were at that time. I hope, if you vote yes tonight, you'll join me in imploring the Governor to do the right thing. He has that power now since this law has been struck down with this temporary injunction. If you are a city leader, we are all too aware of the reputation Fayetteville has in some corners of the state. We want you to know we are doing this for reasons that we hold very dear. We're doing this for the children, nurses, frontline workers and for everyone in our community. who has so far avoided becoming infected with the COVID virus. I know you have people in your communities that you want to protect too. You don't have to wait for the state or the Governor to establish conversations. Council Member Kinion: Last time when we had this, there are some people that due to a mental or physical condition cannot wear mask. We want to offer those people compassion and understand 113 West Mountain Fayetteville, AR 72701 (479) 575-8323 www.fayetteviIle-ar.gov City Council Meeting Minutes August 6, 2021 Page 6 of 6 where they are coming from. I witnessed a person that it triggered their illness when the police came, and this person really could not wear a mask. Council Member Gutierrez: People who are pregnant, should get vaccinated and that was endorsed by two associations. For people who are concerned or wondering if you could get vaccinated while you're pregnant, it is safe to do so. Mayor Jordan: Thank you to Council Member Petty and Kit Williams for their work. In Fayetteville we continue encouraging residents to get vaccinated. As we have said many times, vaccination offers the best protection from COVID-19. The vaccine is easily accessible, safe and available at no cost to everyone age 12 and older. It helps protect against the highly transmissible Delta Variant. It's how we will stop seeing so much disruption and death. The vaccine is not available to children under 12, so there's still a large population at risk. Our entire health care system is now at risk, with no open beds for other emergency conditions. Guidance from the CDC says we should all wear masks to protect all the vulnerable populations. My top priority is to keep everybody safe. It is my hope that the majority of the population will seek out vaccinations, but in the meantime we can all do our part by continuing to wear our mask, social distance and help others understand the importance of the vaccine. This is a serious pandemic and we need to take serious actions. Together, we can stop COVID-19. Mayor Jordan asked shall the ordinance pass. Upon roll call the ordinance passed 7-0. Council Members Bunch, Turk, Gutierrez, Jones, Kinion, Petty, and Scroggin voting yes. Council Member Hertzberg was absent during the vote. Council Member Gutierrez moved to approve an Emergency Clause. Council Member Bunch seconded the motion. Upon roll call the motion passed 7-0. Council Members Bunch, Turk, Gutierrez, Jones, Kinion, Petty, and Scroggin voting yes. Council Member Hertzberg was absent during the vote. Emergency Clause Approved Ordinance 6465 as Recorded in the office of the City Clerk Announcements: None City Council Agenda Session Presentations: None CITY G R . .G Kara Paxton, Ci Clerk Treasurer VO .•�kANSPS ••.y ��/rr o ' CO�• �/llllill►�` 113 West Mountain Fayetteville. AR 72701 (479) 575-8323 www fayetteville-ar gov