Kansas COVID-19 mask order may last at least through July 4 weekend in Sedgwick County
Sedgwick County commissioners may have to wait until next week — after the Fourth of July holiday weekend — to decide whether to overturn or alter an order expected from the governor to mandate masks to combat the coronavirus.
Gov. Laura Kelly has announced she plans to issue an executive order requiring protective facemasks when people shop or gather in public, to take effect on Friday morning just after midnight.
That puts the commissioners in a conundrum.
A law passed in a recent special session of the Legislature gives the County Commission the authority to locally overrule any restrictive orders the governor issues in connection with the COVID pandemic.
But County Counselor Mike Pepoon, the commission’s legal adviser, said the commissioners can’t act to weaken or overturn an order until the governor actually issues it.
And Kelly said she won’t issue that order until Thursday.
If the order comes out late enough on Thursday, the commission’s earliest opportunity to address it would come Friday.
That’s an official federal and state holiday, when the courthouse where commissioners meet is closed and the county staff has the day off.
The governor and the commission have been at odds over coronavirus prevention for weeks.
Kelly favored a slow, phased approach to reopening the economy after she lifted a stay-at-home order in May that had shuttered thousands of businesses.
But Sedgwick County commissioners, newly empowered, opened everything at once and have had no restrictions to limit coronavirus spread for the last month.
Two weeks ago, Kelly called Sedgwick County out for its rising coronavirus rate, among the state’s worst.
At the end of a county staff meeting Tuesday, Commissioner Jim Howell — who has consistently opposed mandatory restrictions to control the spread of COVID-19 — suggested tentatively setting a time for a special meeting to consider Kelly’s mask order.
He said he’d support meeting even if it has to be on Thursday night or during the Friday holiday.
“I think we ought to just plan an opportunity for commissioners to process through what’s being given to us on Thursday,” he said. “We potentially might need to make some tweaks to what she’s talking about here in Sedgwick County (before the holiday weekend).”
But the commission adjourned Tuesday’s meeting without scheduling any more meetings.
They will get another opportunity to call a special session when they have their regular commission meeting on Wednesday, but Howell may not have the votes.
Commission Chairman Pete Meitzner said he doesn’t want to take action on the order until he gets a chance to call a meeting of local business leaders to get their input.
Commissioner Lacey Cruse agreed.
“I would love to hear from the business community before we make any sort of decision because here locally, they’re really the ones who are driving this bus and we need to make sure they feel confident,” Cruse said.
Meitzner said he hasn’t called the meeting of business leaders yet because he doesn’t know when details of the governors’ orders will be released.
Howell said that may be too late, given the ongoing controversy surrounding masks.
Numerous Wichita-area residents have expressed doubts on the effectiveness of masks, suggested masking up may actually be harmful to users, and called Kelly’s prospective order a case of government overreach.
“I have no doubt we’re going to have a lot of opinion from the community and I think commissioners need to speak to that,” Howell said.
County Health officer Garold Minns, a doctor and dean of the University of Kansas Medical School in Wichita, tried Tuesday to assure commissioners that masks are at least partially effective in preventing the spread of the virus and pose practically no health risk to users.
He pointed out that surgeons and other health professionals routinely wear masks for 12 hours at a time with no adverse effects.
Commissioner Michael O’Donnell — who with Howell has opposed mandatory coronavirus restrictions since the beginning of the pandemic — said any meeting should include Sheriff Jeff Easter and if possible, Wichita Police Chief Gordon Ramsay and District Attorney Mark Bennett
He said the commission needs to hear their thoughts on enforcement of the governor’s order if it is allowed to stand through the holiday weekend celebrations.
“We need to figure out if the governor is going to be having people arrested if they don’t comply with the order,” he said.
He said the commission needs to decide “How are we going to handle citations, if that’s going to be enforced by municipalities or if the county is going to have to handle that.”
Cruse said she thinks any talk of arrests or citations is premature without knowing what’s actually in the governor’s prospective order.
“Who knows? Maybe she’ll just say hand out a mask,” Cruse said.
Commissioner David Dennis was noncommittal on whether the commission should hold a special meeting this weekend.
This story was originally published June 30, 2020 at 4:01 PM.
