Towns navigate indoor mask rules
Mandates in place, but few communities have plans for enforcement
At least two dozen Connecticut towns and cities have implemented indoor mask mandates to help slow the spread of the highly infections delta variant, but few have procedures in place to enforce these rules.
In most cases where mask mandates exist, local officials say, residents and businesses generally comply without threats of fines or shutdowns, making a higher level of enforcement unnecessary.
When Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin announced his city’s mask mandate last month, he acknowledged that enforcement would be difficult but said he hoped businesses and citizens would comply nonetheless. In a statement Wednesday, Bronin said mask enforcement is incorporated into day-to-day checks conducted by
local health inspectors, who “haven’t seen any significant issues.”
“Wearing a mask indoors is a minimal burden, and at this point in the pandemic it’s just second nature to the vast majority of folks,” he said.
When health inspectors find a business isn’t enforcing mask rules, a city spokesperson said, they discuss with the owner and encourage more signage or other basic remedies. The city has not encountered business owners who are steadfastly opposed to requiring masks.
New Haven, on the other hand, is taking a more aggressive approach to enforcement, making it an anomaly in the state. In a display of their commitment to enforcing New Haven’s indoor mask mandate, city officials conducted a random drop-in of stores and restaurants near City Hall Tuesday, checking on mask-wearing and reminding businesses of new penalties for non-compliance.
New Haven Health Director Maritza Bond flashed a thumbs up as she and Mayor Justin Elicker walked out of a deli on Orange Street.
“That’s a good one!” she said of the business, where employees were all wearing face masks behind the counter.
New Haven recently rolled out a three-tiered enforcement system which involves, first, a verbal warning, then a written warning with a $100 fine for every non-complying employee or customer, and finally a shutdown of the business, which must then submit a corrective action plan to the city.
Since Gov. Ned Lamont granted towns and cities the authority to implement their own mask mandates — rather than imposing a statewide requirement — some towns do not have masking rules at all. But in most towns with an indoor mask requirement, officials say the mandates have been met with acceptance.
In Fairfield, for example, First Selectwoman Brenda Kupchick said her town has had no issue with mask compliance since the initial days of its mandate.
“Our residents are complying,” Kupchick said. “I go out and do my errands in town all weekend, and I haven’t seen anybody not wearing a mask.”
Though most officials say mask compliance hasn’t been a major issue in day-today life, opponents of mask mandates have made their presence known at protests across the state. In South Windsor, council members adjourned their meeting early on Tuesday when a member of the public refused to wear a mask; in Bristol, a board of education meeting was suspended in mid-august when a group of people walked into the meeting and refused to comply with the masking policy.
Other town officials say they have received at least a small number of complaints about residents failing to wear their masks. Ryan Aylesworth, town manager of Mansfield, said those complaints were fairly common in their early days of the town’s mask mandate, before residents knew the new rules, but have become much less frequent recently.
“Myself and others have visited businesses and kind of observed what’s going on, and it seems like we have a very high level of compliance at this point,” Aylesworth said. “It took a little while for the outreach and communication piece to fully saturate the town, but I think people are aware of it now.”
Overall, Aylesworth said, officials and law enforcement in Mansfield have received a few dozen reports of residents not wearing masks. In most cases, those situations were resolved with a simple conversation.
“I’m not aware of any case where someone has said they’re staying and they’re not wearing a mask,” Aylesworth said. “It’s either ‘Oops, I’ll go get it,’ or, ‘I don’t have it and I’ll leave,’ or obviously some small percentage of people might express philosophical objections to mask-wearing, but then they also just say they’ll leave the premises.”
In East Hartford, Mayor Marcia Leclerc said upon announcing a mask mandate that those who failed to comply would be fined $100. But a spokesperson said Wednesday that the town has not imposed any fines “as the main goal has been focusing on the educational aspect.”
And in nearby West Hartford, Town Manager Matthew Hart said that the town has not issued any fines for non-compliance and is also focused on making sure businesses know the policy.
When it comes to fines, Hart said, “We’re really not planning to do that unless we have an extreme case or maybe there’s a case of flagrant disregard or repeated offenses.”
New Haven was the first municipality to reinstate a mask mandate, which went into effect on Aug. 9. In the following weeks, the city made an effort to educate business owners and customers about the masking regulations, Bond, the health director, said.
By many measures, the city’s new enforcement policy seems to be working. Last Thursday and Friday, city officials did a sweep of 75 establishments and only issued four verbal warnings, which Bond said was a “great indicator that people are, for the most part, complying.”
“If a customer’s walking in and the owner says ‘Oh, here’s a mask,’ that’s different. We’re not going to fault an owner for that,” she said. “But if you start servicing that customer without a mask, then you had ample opportunity to [remind them].”
At G Cafe Bakery Ninth Square, cafe manager Tyler Demora said he “play[s] the mask police,” with a box of masks on hand, stashed to the side of the bread display, for any customer who arrives without one. Demora said he has rarely had an issue with reminding customers to follow the city rules.
“My experience going around the city is people have been really great,” Elicker said. “Overwhelmingly, people have followed the mask guidance.”