With the city’s mask mandate set to expire April 30, City Councilor Kara Joy McKee said Wednesday night that she is working on an amendment or extension to the ordinance that would provide clear criteria for when it must be reinstated.
Earlier Wednesday, McKee had indicated that she would like to see the restrictions in the existing ordinance removed in a more gradual and nuanced manner. But after meeting with Tulsa Health Department Executive Director Bruce Dart and Oklahoma State University professor Dr. Jennifer Clark, McKee said she would focus her efforts on establishing a reinstatement process.
The city’s mask mandate is set to expire April 30. Amending the existing ordinance or creating a new one before then would require six votes from the nine-member council and Mayor G.T. Bynum’s signature.
During a committee meeting Wednesday, councilors discussed the mayor’s COVID-19 working group recommendation that the mask mandate be allowed to expire at the end of the month.
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The working group includes four city councilors. One of the four, Councilor Lori Decter Wright, said the mayor’s working group discussed the possibility that the mask mandate could be reinstated at some point if conditions warranted.
“I really want to reassure the community that it is a tool that is in the tool box,” Wright said.
If the ordinance is allowed to expire April 30, it would end the mask mandate in public places, the spacing requirement in restaurants, and the requirement that events with 150 or more people have safety plans approved by the Tulsa Health Department.
Private businesses would still have the right to require customers and employees to wear masks.
Bynum’s executive order, meanwhile, is staying in place. It requires restaurant and bar employees to wear masks at work and mandates that events with 500 or more people have a safety plan approved by THD.
Clark, a member of OSU’s COVID-19 Project ECHO team, cautioned councilors that COVID-19 variants, the lack of herd immunity and other factors should be considered when assessing the state of the pandemic and how to respond to it.
“Not only do we need to think about acute COVID, but we need to think about the long-term potential COVID complications and post-COVID syndrome that we are just now starting to understand,” Clark said.
Councilor Mykey Arthrell questioned the need for an all-or-nothing approach to the mask mandate.
“It’s like we have a mandate or we don’t,” he said. “There is no middle ground for an indoor potential mandate, or (for) grocery stores, or retail. And that is what we’re really talking about, supporting businesses, supporting business owners.
“Is there a way that this committee would feel comfortable recommending … a halfway-there provision?”
McKee said she’s concerned that the city’s focus on hospitalization rates as the determining factor for whether or not to have a mask mandate is too narrow.
“I have not heard a case made that it is actually time to put the masks down, that it is actually safe to set the masks down,” McKee said. “I have just heard, ‘Well, we said we were gonna as soon as we could.’”
Including a “a certain number of something” that would trigger the mask mandate going back into effect would not only save time and work the next time it is needed, but would help address the concerns of those who don’t want the city to let the existing mandate expire, McKee said.
“If we had an automatic trigger in there that put it back in place, or course we could come back as a body and do it earlier if we felt so inclined, that would make me and my constituents feel a lot safer,” she said.
Councilor Phil Lakin, a COVID-19 working group member, reminded his colleagues that the same medical professionals and hospital administrators whose data and advice councilors relied on to create the mask ordinance are now advising that it is no longer needed.
“And they have done pretty well so far,” Lakin said.
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Mayor GT Bynum was asked March 24 if there any plans to change mask requirements for those with vaccines
Photos: In lieu of statewide mask mandate, what are area cities doing for COVID-19 safety?
City of Tulsa
Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum speaks Nov. 10.
Tulsa was the first city in Tulsa County to approve a mask mandate.
"In July, we passed a mask ordinance in Tulsa because our local hospitals warned we were on an unsustainable trajectory for increased COVID hospitalizations. We set our record for hospitalizations to that point, before our mask ordinance and collective action by Tulsans started to bring our hospitalizations down.
"Today, our COVID hospitalizations in Tulsa are 93% higher than that July record," Bynum said Nov. 25. "It is important to note that 68% of the hospitalizations in Tulsa since September are not Tulsa residents. They are people who live outside our city, but are being treated in the flagship facilities for a regional health care system that serves this whole part of the state.
"This is why we’ve been pressing for help from either the state or our neighboring communities."
Check out the most recent story: Tulsa City Council adds teeth to mask, distancing requirements
Sand Springs
Sand Springs City Council on Nov. 23 unanimously passed a citywide ordinance requiring face coverings in public places effective Nov. 27. Councilors stated they will continue to review the ordinance on a monthly basis, as has been the case since the early stages of the pandemic. Click here to read more from the Sand Springs Leader.
Related gallery: Sand Springs City Council approves mask ordinance
Muskogee
Muskogee city councilors had rejected five previous attempts at passing a mask mandate but on Nov. 23 voted 5-3 in favor. It requires the use of masks in public by anyone age 10 or older for at least the next 60 days.
There is no criminal penalty for noncompliance, but refusal could lead to a trespassing complaint upon refusal of orders to leave a business.
Muskogee County Commissioners declared a state of emergency before the council meeting on Monday citing “significant and consistent” increases in cases of COVID-19, as well as staffing problems at a local hospital.
Jenks
The mask ordinance in Jenks, approved Nov. 10, expires Jan. 31 and would apply to residents age 10 and older. Violations could lead to a municipal financial penalty of up to $200, though councilors noted that convictions — misdemeanors — would not come from a court of record.
Glenpool
Glenpool city councilors passed a mask mandate with a 3-2 vote Nov. 18.
Mayor Tim Fox, Vice Mayor Momodou Ceesay and Ward 3 Councilor Joyce Calvert voted for the mandate, which Fox said is modeled after the city of Tulsa’s.
Glenpool’s mandate requires everyone age 10 or older without a valid medical exemption to wear a mask in public. It does not affect Glenpool Public Schools’ mask policy.
Sapulpa
The Sapulpa City Council approved a mask mandate by a 6-4 vote Nov. 16.
The ordinance applies to anyone 10 years of age or older.
The vote came nearly four months after Sapulpa city councilors voted 7-3 to reject a mask mandate.
Claremore
Claremore City Council on Nov. 20 voted to require those 10 years and older to wear a mask in public. The ordinance, effective Dec. 20, also requires people to maintain six feet of distance between persons who are not part of the same household while in public places.
Councilors were unable to implement an emergency immediate effective date due to lack of quorum but will bring the issue back up at the Dec. 7 meeting, according to city officials.
Owasso
Owasso city leaders decided in mid-November they would not issue a citywide mask mandate. Councilors instead approved a resolution Nov. 17 encouraging all residents to wear masks or face coverings in public, and practice social distancing and other preventive steps to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
Owasso Mayor Bill Bush said he feels the decision should rest in the hands of Owasso citizens and individual businesses.
Bush (left), Owasso City Manager Warren Lehr (front right) and Councilman Chris Kelly (back right) are pictured Aug. 4.
Broken Arrow
Broken Arrow Mayor Craig Thurmond and several city councilors at a meeting Nov. 24 reminded their audience at least half a dozen times that city leaders there would not support a legally enforceable mask ordinance, and they voted 4-1 against a nonbinding resolution that would have “strongly recommended” masks in public.
Other cities without mandates
"Bixby City Council has consistently emphasized the primacy of personal action in any community response plan. At each step of the process – from sheltering in-place in the spring to re-opening in the summer to the return in-person instruction at school – we, as a Council, have reiterated the need for individual vigilance and responsibility," Mayor Brian Guthrie said Nov. 12. "We have supported the efforts of businesses and other public gathering spaces to adopt those sanitizing, distancing, and masking policies that best protect their patrons and guests. Our experience has been that voluntary community actions are just as effective as any mandates without enforcement."
“The mask mandate is always in consideration but we are still continuing to follow the CDC guidelines,” Catoosa City Manager John Blish said. “And with the new mandates coming out or the new recommendations coming out from the Governor’s Office, then we are going to continue following those.”
Coweta City Council will continue to monitor data and consider actions at a Dec. 7 meeting, city officials have said.
Skiatook City Councilors rejected a proposed mask mandate Nov. 16. Skiatook Journal reported on the meeting.
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