Council votes 5-2 to extend COVID-19 rules

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BROOKINGS – The Brookings City Council voted 5-2 Tuesday to extend business restrictions related to COVID-19 for another 60 days. The restrictions will be in place until early September, said City Manager Paul Briseno.

Councilors Leah Brink and Joey Collins were the dissenting votes.

Background

The current ordinance was set to expire July 13, Briseno said. Ordinance 20-007, now replaced by Ordinance 20-010, was enacted to reduce the spread of COVID-19 and provides additional requirements for restaurants, bars, grocery stores, casinos, gyms, salons as well as other similar businesses. The rules center around occupancy, hand washing, disinfecting, wearing masks and social distancing by 6 feet.

The rules currently in place include:

Restaurants/bars 

• Maximum of 10 customers or 50% occupancy, whichever is greater 

• Groups of 10 or less and 6 feet apart

• Cleaning of high-touch areas/materials between users 

• Screening employees recommended

• Employees required to wear masks

• Cleaning of used spaces before and after each customer 

• No self-serve buffets or salad bars

• No sharing of condiments unless wiped between use 

Grocery stores, casinos, gyms and recreational facilities 

• Cleaning of equipment after use by customer and/or employee 

• Maximum of 10 customers or 50% occupancy

• Employees of grocery stores will wear masks 

• Protective measures/operations will be provided 

Salons/barber shops 

• Customers 6 feet spacing and recommend service by appointment-only 

• Employees will wear masks

• Clean equipment before and after each customer 

• Adequate social distancing for waiting customers

Administrative exemptions allow for requested flexibility.

Briseno wanted to clarify some confusion.

“The ordinance before council tonight does not require the public to wear masks, but we do strongly encourage the public to wear masks for each other and for the rest of the community,” he said.

He pointed out when the council began revisiting the ordinance in June, Brookings County had 24 confirmed COVID-19; now it’s more than 80 cases.

‘Objective standards’

Jael Thorpe asked the councilors if they had “objective standards” that triggered this extension “or are you kind of making this up as you go?”

Councilor Nick Wendell said he made the amendment to extend the restrictions. When the council put Ordinance 20-007 in place, it was to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in the community. A key way to do that was social distancing and wearing face masks. Those standards were in place for a few months.

“As it came time to think about lifting those restrictions, it was clear that COVID-19 was still present in our community and, in fact, our confirmed case count was increasing,” Wendell said.

“We know more today than we knew in March about COVID-19,” he said, but the same holds true: “social distancing and wearing masks limits the spread of COVID-19.”

South Dakota State University is the state’s largest university; Brookings is just weeks away from welcoming back students.

“To me, now seems like the exact worst time to lift this ordinance. Instead, I think it’s important that we re-enforce practices that we know have worked,” Wendell said.

Other cities have seen more cases than Brookings; he’d like to think the work the community did early on kept local numbers down.

“Just to clarify, there are no objective standards in place (based on hospitalizations or deaths). Is that correct?” Thorpe said.

“I’d invite you not to put words in my mouth. I did not say that there were not objective standards,” Wendell countered. 

The council is taking advice from the State Department of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Institute of Health. 

“States that have prematurely lifted these restrictions are now re-imposing them. I understand that folks are concerned about our economic ramifications, but if you’re pro-economy, you should be pro these restrictions so that we can shorten the length of time that they have to be in place,” he said.

Thorpe said the community deserves to hear the names of the people advising the council. 

Briseno said they consult with professionals from the hospital, Avera and Sanford clinics, and SDSU. 

Thorpe asked who they’ve consulted about the economic impact.

“We utilize SDSU … to understand the macro economics, not only national but regionally,” Briseno said. The economic development director and the city’s chief financial officer have also spoken to the council.

Thorpe wanted those discussions to be made public; as a business owner, she wanted to know if this was how every outbreak would be handled.

“Business owners need to know if they should renew their leases; because if this happens again a year from now, that’s not sustainable,” Thorpe said.

The city is working on four phases based on the current ordinances; “the problem is trying to determine that threshold that moves us between the various phases,” Briseno said, adding they are visiting with the hospital to come up with that threshold.

Wendell said they have consistently heard from Dr. Bonny Specker, an epidemiologist, which is an expert in the branch of medicine which deals with the incidence, distribution and possible control of diseases.

The CDC says cities should hold off on re-opening until they’ve seen declining case numbers for 14 days; Brookings’ case numbers have been rising.

SDSU support

SDSU President Barry Dunn congratulated the council for the decisions they’ve made throughout the pandemic.

“I think you’ve taken the right approach,” he said.

While Brookings County does have community spread, the measures taken by the city and SDSU have helped keep the numbers under control and have not stressed Brookings Health System’s resources, he added.

“On behalf of SDSU, I support the decision (to extend the restrictions). I think it’s the wise thing to do,” Dunn said, adding the city must send a message to students and parents that Brookings is a safe place.

“The worst thing that could happen to this community, in my opinion, is if we re-open – which we’re going to do Aug. 19 – then we have to close again. It’d be devastating to the university, it would be devastating to the Brookings business community, and devastating to Brookings. I think we would lose enrollment for years to come; we would lose trust,” Dunn said.

Patient information

The whole intent of the restrictions was to flatten the curve, pointed out Shelly Anderson. 

“I was just wondering if, you know, the community could know what Brookings hospital’s utilization is. I think that’s important to know.”

Mayor Keith Corbett said they could ask the hospital. 

The State Department of Health tracks COVID-19 cases and releases the information by county, he said.

Wendell hoped to find out the number of beds and ventilators available to the Brookings hospital and share that with the community.

Bill Alsaker said he supports keeping the restrictions but wanted to know if there was any information available on where the current local cases come from, “like a certain bar or a certain business.”

Briseno said the state has the information and doesn’t share it with the city.

“We’ve requested that of the governor and the Department of Health, and they won’t convey that to us,” Briseno said. 

The state will only release more specific information if there is a major outbreak. 

Wants names

Elizabeth Wyka had previously asked for the names of the health care professionals who were advising the council. 

“I really wanted the opportunity to educate myself in the same manner in which they are educating you,” she said. “That will influence my decisions and how I respond to my civic responsibilities.”

“It also validates your perspectives and your decisions,” Wyka said. “Without these names, your decisions might be deemed arbitrary and that could really foment resentment in the public.”

Wyka read a statement, saying everyone has been living in “constant fear and trepidation” since the COVID-19 restrictions began. “They do not feel they have been heard or respected,” she said.

“We feel like the decision was already made before the city council meeting even occurred,” Wyka said, adding they thought the public comment section on the city’s website “has merely been a pretense.”

“Given that we, the citizens of Brookings, have acted with civic responsibility in mind and have complied with these ordinances, I ask you this: isn’t it time to show your respect for the civic integrity of the Brookings citizens and our acknowledgment of the adherence of these ordinances? Isn’t it time to return authority to business owners, the citizens of Brookings, employers and students?” Wyka asked. 

Doctor’s viewpoint

Orthodontist Dr. David Meyer said he works face to face with patients.

“I understand this disease transmission very well,” he said. “It is all about the masks.”

“Not everyone believes the science, but I do,” Meyer said.

He urged the council to vote to keep the restrictions.

“Not just the science, but it has to do with respect: respect for our community, respect for our fellow citizens, respect for our children, and respect for our visitors coming in the fall,” Meyer said.

“It’s about caring for others, and looking out for their well-being,” he said.

Mask a dividing factor

Angie Rittershaus said she was part of the silent majority.

“I have a mask; I choose not to wear it,” she said. “I get the social distancing; but to me, this mask is … a dividing factor.”

“I feel for the businesses, I do. Because I personally, I am not going downtown,” Rittershaus said. “Being served by somebody wearing a mask is not normal, it’s weird. I’m not gonna accept that this is a new normal.”

She said she would go out to eat in Sioux Falls because their restaurant workers don’t wear masks. 

“The stores that are mandatory with … a mask, they don’t need my money; I’m not gonna do it,” Rittershaus said. 

“Why not give back to the community a little bit of common sense? We’re all adults. I’m gonna make the best choice for my family,” she said. “This just promotes a fear factor that I don’t believe is rational for us.” 

The restrictions have been scaled back from what they were in March, Wendell said, and councilors aren’t assuming the ordinances will be in place in perpetuity.

They have continued to ask that masks be worn, “because the science is pretty conclusive that that does limit the spread of COVID-19,” Wendell said.

“I’d like to see us lift these restrictions over time, but I can tell you that if more people in our community don’t wear masks, the restrictions will be in place longer,” Wendell said.

“Healthy people should not have to wear (masks),” Rittershaus said.

Wendell wanted to correct a misconception.

“One of the riskiest things about COVID-19 is that asymptomatic carriers can spread the virus very easily,” Wendell said. “So I wear the mask to try to mitigate spreading the virus just in case I have it.”

Council comments

Brink knows people have different opinions, but everyone can agree they don’t want this virus to spread in the community.

“What I’m disagreeing with are the methods that we’re going about doing that,” Brink said.

She did not plan to vote for the ordinance because “it puts the entire understanding, and then compliance and implementation of it firmly on the backs of the business community.”

Neither individuals nor other organizations are tasked with anything, she said. It also doesn’t hold accountable those who travel in and out of the community.

“It’s a challenge to enforce,” Brink said. 

Collins said he feels bad for those who are struggling.

“The economic impact on Brookings touches everyone in some way or another,” he said.

Collins has noticed “more people not wearing their masks than were wearing their masks. I saw a business in town where not even one employee was wearing a mask at all. … And it was a bigger store.”

He asked if officials should start punishing the businesses and how would they enforce it. He’s not in favor of having the police do the enforcement; “they are already busy enough,” said the former law officer.

To decide how to vote on the ordinance, he considered how many people have been hospitalized.

“We’re testing more people, so the numbers are gonna rise,” Collins said.

Councilor Ope Niemeyer listed several laws that people don’t like, but that are in place to protect everyone.

“I’m asking you (to wear a mask) as a courtesy to protect others. Common decency, people,” Niemeyer said. “If you are unknowingly spreading the virus, when a mask could have significantly lessened the percentage of spread, does that give you the right to make other people sick?”

The Justice for Black Lives march has had no reports of COVID-19 spread from it. He and Councilor Patty Bacon were both in attendance and concur nine out of 10 attendees were wearing masks, proving masks work, he said.

Niemeyer is also a business owner and said COVID-19 has been “a burden” on his business with major interruptions.

He wears a mask.

“Do I like doing it? No, but it’s the right thing to do,” Niemeyer said.

Niemeyer said he, too, was frustrated by the privacy laws that do not allow the city to find out where the virus is coming from and who it is impacting. 

“I do understand the COVID-19 fatigue and frustration,” Wendell said. “But lifting restrictions and pretending the threat this virus is going (away) won’t help us return to normalcy any sooner.”

We must continue to social distance and wear masks, Wendell said. “We have to maintain these restrictions.”

Bacon agreed with Niemeyer and Wendell. 

“I hate what this has done to our economy; I hate that we’ve had to make those decisions, but I feel strongly that they’re the responsible decisions to make,” Bacon said.

Councilor Holly Tilton Byrne echoed the previous three.

“One of the duties of the city council is to help protect the well-being of our community, whether that be the economic well-being or the health of our citizens. I believe that keeping these restrictions in place will only help both of those things in the long run,” Tilton Byrne said.

Contact Jodelle Greiner at jgreiner@brookingsregister.com.