Name: Mayor Steven Reed bypasses City Council vote, mandates masks with executive order
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Mayor Steven Reed bypasses City Council vote, mandates masks with executive order

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Montgomery AdvertiserView CommentsMayor Steven Reed issued an executive order to mandate masks in Montgomery, bypassing a tied City Council vote that failed to do the same less than 24 hours prior.&nbsp;Reed announced the order in a news conference at City Hall on Wednesday afternoon. It goes into effect at 5 p.m. Friday and is&nbsp;intended to be temporary until the next council meeting for council members to consider another ordinance, Reed said.&nbsp;"We felt the city should have taken official action last night," Reed said of the council's deadlocked vote on mandatory mask wearing. "As you know we've been encouraging our community to wear masks. Most of our community has done just that. However, not enough members of the community have done those things and so we start to go from an encouragement to an enforcement phase."The order comes with a $25 penalty for not wearing a mask, which can be a simple cloth covering, according to the written order.Face coverings are not required when outdoors and around fewer than 10 people, in the privacy of one’s home, within a vehicle or&nbsp;when exercising. People do not need to wear a mask in the workplace where there is adequate social distancing.Patients seeking medical or dental examination of the mouth or nasal area are also exempt from the order while in the examination room. Also, anyone who may be at greater “mental or physical health, safety or security risk” may also be exempt from wearing a mask, according to the order.Anyone who chooses to dine at a restaurant, visit a bar or any other food or beverage establishment is also exempt from the order, though masks are required when entering or exiting such establishments.Councilman C.C. Calhoun had proposed the ordinance, punishable by a fine, after a two-week surge in new COVID-19 cases sent Montgomery County rocketing into No. 1 in Alabama for total number of cases, past counties like Mobile and Jefferson that have over double the population. Tests are more than twice as likely to come back positive here.The council killed the ordinance after it failed to pass in a 4-4 tie, mostly along racial lines, with Councilman Tracy Larkin absent. Councilman Clay McInnis voted with three Black council members —&nbsp;Calhoun, Oronde Mitchell and&nbsp;Audrey Graham&nbsp;—&nbsp;in favor of the ordinance. Lyons, Charles Jinright, Richard Bollinger and Glen Pruitt voted against it.&nbsp;By Wednesday, Pruitt said he regretted his vote, crediting memories of his daughter with his moment of clarity.&nbsp;"I called my wife this morning while I was working&nbsp;and asked her, 'Did I mess&nbsp;this one up last night?'" he said during the news conference. "And her words to me were 'if Courtney Pruitt were alive, you would have voted for it.' ... If I could have had my daughter back one more day, you better believe I would&nbsp;have voted to wear a mask."During his consideration of the ordinance, Pruitt said he looked at it only from one angle.&nbsp;"I was very near-sighted last night," he said. "I didn't see the big picture. All I was looking at was the enforcement of the ordinance. I was so concerned with that; how it wouldn't work."More:During the &nbsp;Tuesday, three doctors came forward begging council members to heed their warnings about coronavirus.&nbsp;More:Jackson Hospital pulmonologist William Saliski&nbsp;said during the news conference that the hospitals are full and busy."There are people out there that just don’t believe this is a problem," Saliski said. "They don’t until it affects them. … and that group’s in trouble. I could go on and on with the stories."Saliski said wearing a mask is a simple effort on the part of an individual to have a positive impact on the community."The folks you see that aren’t masked, you wonder what exactly are they doing? What’s happening there," he said.&nbsp;"Again, civil liberties aside, we are in this together, and we need to fight this together to win. The numbers are overwhelming. They are worsening. If we don’t stem this tide, I’ll be here begging for a stay-at-home order if we aren’t careful. So I applaud our government for reaching out."More:As of Wednesday, there were 2,956 cases of coronavirus with 71 deaths. Statewide there are nearly 27,000 cases and 784 deaths.&nbsp;Montgomery issued a citywide curfew shortly after the first reported cases of coronavirus in Alabama. That curfew, though criticized by local bar owners, remains in place.&nbsp;Contact Montgomery Advertiser reporter Kirsten Fiscus at 334-318-1798 or KFiscus@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @KDFiscusView Comments

Montgomery AdvertiserView CommentsMayor Steven Reed issued an executive order to mandate masks in Montgomery, bypassing a tied City Council vote that failed to do the same less than 24 hours prior.&nbsp;Reed announced the order in a news conference at City Hall on Wednesday afternoon. It goes into effect at 5 p.m. Friday and is&nbsp;intended to be temporary until the next council meeting for council members to consider another ordinance, Reed said.&nbsp;"We felt the city should have taken official action last night," Reed said of the council's deadlocked vote on mandatory mask wearing. "As...

Mayor Steven Reed bypasses City Council vote, mandates masks with executive order

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