The Cook County Commissioners Tuesday, July 14 meeting got off to an interesting start when interim County Administrator Rena Rogers announced she had some letters to read during the Citizen Comment period.
A bucketful of emails, a bouquet full it would seem.
Rogers informed Commissioner Board Chair Myron Bursheim that the letters might run over the allotted 30 minutes for Citizens’ Comments. Still, Bursheim said he would allow the emails to be read even if it needed to be extended.
All of the missives, about 45 minutes worth, were about the current proposal to make wearing masks indoors and in crowded areas mandatory.
By the time Rogers finished, she had read a total of 45 letters, 36 of them, many signed by more than one person, strongly advocated for a mask-wearing policy. Four writers were strongly opposed to the county or state adopting a mask policy, and five opposed the mandate but encouraged voluntary compliance through education and communication.
Later, in the meeting, Rogers presented a letter she had written on behalf of the county about asking the governor to mandate mask-wearing in all commercial and government building indoor spaces and in places outdoors where people couldn’t maintain a six-foot social distance space.
Four of the commissioners were in favor of sending the letter to the governor with commissioner Bobby Deschampe asking that the letter focus on a recommendation and not a mandate.
Deschampe’s remarks were largely ignored, and when it came time to vote, he expressed his frustration with his fellow commissioners. He said that over the past three years, he would often bring a different viewpoint to the commissioners, and those concerns would be ignored. “I was hoping there would be a change over three years, but there hasn’t been one,” he said, adding that other than commissioner Heidi Doo-Kirk, his opinions or statements on most matters would not become part of the general conversation.
Commissioner David Mills said he hadn’t meant to forgo Deschampe’s concerns, but he felt his larger priority was for the public.
In reply, commissioner Deschampe said he had been eating lunch on Artist Point recently and 90 percent of the people there weren’t wearing facemasks nor practicing social distancing. “Do we have to hire more deputies to go around and look for people not wearing masks?” he asked, adding he would rather the governor make a move on the matter without comment from the county.
Mills countered by saying he had been elected to “lead and make hard decisions,” and “Waiting for the governor isn’t leadership.”
When it came time to vote to send or not send the letter to the governor commissioner Doo-Kirk said she understood commissioner Deschampe’s concerns, but she voted along with commissioners Storlie, Mills and Bursheim to send the letter composed by interim County Administrator Rena Rogers with Deschampe voting against the resolution.
The letter to the governor reads:
Dear Gov. Walz, the Cook County Board of Commissioners strongly applauds the leadership you have demonstrated through the course of the COVID- 19 pandemic. With sterling advice from the Minnesota Department of Health, University of Minnesota, Mayo Clinic and others, you have charted a course that has helped the people of Minnesota escape the worst ravages of this pandemic. It is beyond sad that so many have died, especially those in homes for the most senior and frail of our residents. But it could have been so much worse.
“And it still could get much worse. As you know, the recent trend in many states is toward disaster, and even the trend line in Minnesota has moved modestly in the wrong direction in recent days. The capacity to treat patients who require intensive medical care in Cook County is exactly zero.
In Cook County, which depends for its livelihood on summer visitors, we have had just one positive test of a resident (plus an additional one test of a resident of Hennepin County who was visiting). We very much would like to keep it that way. Our population is heavily weighted toward those with increased vulnerability. We must protect them even as we make welcome large crowds of visitors, many of whom are not accustomed to our local public-health ethic, which strongly embraces mask wearing.
“For those reasons, we write to respectfully request that you use your emergency powers to impose a uniform, state-wide mask requirement in all public buildings and all private buildings that provide such public accommodations as lodging, dining, retail sales, professional and personal services, etc. We further request that you extend this requirement to all outdoor spaces where crowding makes social distancing not feasible.
“Currently, the state is such a hodge-podge of requirements that it is difficult, especially for visitors new to a community, to know what is expected of them. One uniform standard would clear away the confusion and help reinforce that wearing masks is a common-sense public health response to the pandemic. Those who see masks as an infringement on their freedom have it wrong: Masks are an investment in remaining healthy, both physically and economically.
“It is the authority of your office and the uniformity of the requirement that will make a difference. Business owners who are working to keep their staff, their customers and their communities safe need to know, and to be able to invoke, your support for their sensible efforts. Please support them as they support you: Impose a statewide mask requirement now.”
Commissioner Doo- Kirk asked that it be noted that the vote was 4-1 in favor of sending the letter to the governor, which was agreed to.
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