LAWTON, Okla. – The mask mandate currently in effect will remain how it is.
The decision made after city staff proposed an ordinance that would beef up mask wearing in town.
“We put responsibility on the businesses that they are not allowed to serve customers that are not wearing a mask,” said Deputy City Manager Bart Hadley.
Another part of the proposed ordinance related to businesses…
“We put some responsibility on owners, operators or managers of businesses in town that they require their staff to wear masks,” said Hadley.
The ordinance proposal also discussed when the mandate might end based on the state’s color graph of cases per 100 thousand.
“Green is new normal, that’s what they call it. Yellow is low, orange is moderate and red is high,” said Deputy City Manager Richard Rogalski.
Rogalski says the mandate’s end would be based on time spent in those colors.
Right now Comanche County is orange… at 58 per 100k.
“If the case count goes below 1.43 cases per 100k, that’s considered the new normal and all enforcement goes away,” said Rogalski.
That part of the proposal is what council members liked.
Many spoke against forcing new rules on businesses… which included calling the police when compliance wasn’t happening.
“There’s only a few given officers on duty in a given spot, they don’t have the resources to chase masks all over the place,” said Ward 6′s Sean Fortenbaugh.
Council also spoke about not wanting to put extra pressure on businesses, to try and enforce this themselves.
“They have the right to refuse service not the obligation. Just like they have the right to call the police but not the obligation,” said Mayor Stan Booker.
When it came time to vote, a second motion was never made to carry it.
“The only thing I would like to see implemented is the levels, of when we remove the mandate,” said Ward 4′s Jay Burk.
The City Attorney said the best course of action would be to direct staff to rewrite it again, with the suggested changes from council.
