Tulsa mask mandate being received in different ways, business owners say

Small businesses that put a face on the city of Tulsa’s new mask ordinance agree on one thing: How it’s received depends on the patron.

Libby Billings owns three local restaurants — Elote, Roppongi and The Vault — and the only issues have originated at The Vault, which has a higher price point, she said.

“We have had some very upset customers there,” Billings said. “We’ve had customers who refuse to eat there (because of the ordinance). ...

“I hate to use the word ‘entitled,’ but I do think some of the guests at the more expensive restaurants are used to getting their way. We are upholding the law because we want to be as safe as possible.”

The ordinance includes an exception for people eating and drinking in restaurants, but the eateries contain common areas where social distancing can’t be maintained.

During a recent, sparsely crowded evening at The Vault, Billings said a patron refused a manager’s request to wear a mask.

“He said, ‘Why? I don’t see any people,’” Billings said. “And she said, ‘I’m a person.’ It’s like he hadn’t even considered that our staff are humans. ... I don’t think it even occurred to him that our staff are putting themselves at risk every day, and it’s not just about the customers around us.”

Billings makes $1 masks available at all her establishments.

“We’re treating people coming into the restaurants who aren’t wearing masks the same way that if someone tried to drink without having an ID,” she said. “It’s a law that we’re expected to uphold. We could get in trouble if we don’t.”

The mask ordinance, which went into effect last week, applies to people 18 years of age and older and says those “located within Public Service Areas of Places of Public Accommodation or an Educational Building are required to wear face coverings at all times when present therein. Except as otherwise provided herein, persons in any Public Setting wherein social or physical distancing cannot be maintained are required to wear face coverings.”

The measure contains several exceptions, but there is no specific fine or penalty for violators. People who refuse to wear a face covering, though, can be subject to prosecution under criminal trespassing, disturbing the peace or a similar offense.

Tulsa Police still are waiting on a legal opinion on enforcing the mask ordinance, or for punitive measures to be added to it, before responding to solely mask-related calls, TPD spokeswoman Jeanne Pierce said.

The department will continue to respond to trespassing complaints by business or property owners about unmasked individuals refusing to leave, she said Tuesday. But because the ordinance lacks any defined punishments like a citation or sentence, the department will not respond to complaints about individuals reportedly not wearing masks.

“They (police) are enforcing it,” Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum said. “It’s just a unique situation because it’s not an ordinance that proscribes a new penalty. What it does is establish that it is the law for people to be complying with it. Then it empowers a property owner to call the police if someone won’t put their mask on or leave the property. Then the police can enforce the trespass ordinance. It utilizes other existing penalties under existing law.”

The public’s reception to the measure has been “really positive,” the mayor said.

“I think businesses appreciate an ordinance that makes very clear what their customers need to be doing,” Bynum said. “We’ve seen a lot of compliance there. I think everyday Tulsans appreciate having that expectation established.

“Over the weekend we saw a much broader utilization of masks and heard from business owners who appreciated it. And (I) also heard from Tulsans who said they felt safe to go out of their homes for the first time in months because they knew people would be wearing masks in the stores they went into.”

Clay Bird owns Bird’s Liquor and Wines, a Tulsa business that has been in the family about 40 years. He said that without detailed punitive measures, the ordinance places the enforcement onus on proprietors.

“If customers are coming in and they don’t want to wear a mask, what am I supposed to do as a business owner?” said Bird, a former economic development director for the city. “Somebody’s been shopping at this store for 40 years, and they are a great customer and they walk in without a mask, and I’m going to call the police and say 'I have a trespasser'? That’s going to be good for business.”

Bird said he wears a mask while in the store and that the majority of his customers do. But if he sees patrons without face coverings, he doesn’t ask them to don one.

“We have places like Costco and Walmart,” he said. “They are big enough entities that they can mandate to their customers that you don’t come in without a mask. It’s not like it’s going to devastate their business in any form or fashion.”

Bird said the mandate could provoke a confrontation between the masked and unmasked.

“If I get two of those in here at the same time, and one is like, ‘You need to call the police on him. He’s not wearing a mask,’ I’m not going to do that. Then they say, ‘I’m not shopping here anymore.’ Either way, I’ve lost one of those customers forever.”

QuikTrip has communicated the mask mandate to all of its employees, QT spokeswoman Aisha Jefferson-Smith said.

“All our City of Tulsa stores have big red posters in A Frames, and decals that are placed at eye level at all entry points to inform our customers of the Tulsa mandate for wearing facial coverings,” she said in a statement. “In addition, we have signage of the mandate at our check-stands that asks our customers for their cooperation, which is appreciated.”

Eric Marshall, co-founder and brew master of Marshall Brewing Co., said his Tulsa brewery implemented a mask policy several weeks before the city set guidelines. For a minimal charge, customers without a face covering can buy one.

“We had a few people get a little chippy about it,” he said. “More than anything, once the ordinance passed, it was kind of, ‘Hey, this is everywhere.’ It gives our staff that was taking verbal abuse a little bit more to go on than before.

“The safety aspect is the most important to us. If some people choose not to come to our place because of that, then so be it. But now we’re in a position of hey, everybody has to do this. That certainly helps.”

Tom Bennett Jr. is co-CEO and chairman of the board for First Oklahoma Bank, which has a Tulsa branch.

“I think it’s a good ordinance. I think it’s a good idea,” he said. “To me, it’s not unlike asking people to not smoke in our building, which we also ask. It could negatively affect other people’s health, and that’s just courteous.”

The bank has given away thousands of masks and keeps them on hand for customers.

“We’re going to get through this COVID time and return to a new normal,” Bennett said. “But in the interim, we need to be helpful to each other to the extent we’re able to protect each other’s health.”

World staff writers Randy Krehbiel and Stetson Payne contributed to this story.

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