OKC City Council rejects mandate
Vote comes amid surge in new COVID-19 cases
The Oklahoma City Council on Tuesday rejected a proposition to reinstate a mask mandate and an effort to incentivize vaccines after hearing from a number of mask and vaccine contrarians.
The ordinance failed to reach the seven-vote threshold required for emergency adoption by a 4-to-5 vote, which followed an uproar from several members of the crowd who were nearly removed and a failed effort by Ward 2 Councilman James Cooper to amend the ordinance to allow for a simple majority vote.
Before the contentious vote, councilmembers received an update on COVID-19 transmission, vaccination and hospital occupancy rates from the Oklahoma City-County Health
Department.
Transmissions are high, new hospital admissions are up 60% from the beginning of August and ICU bed occupancy has increased by 30% during the same time.
COVID-19 numbers show September is “not going to be pleasant for any of us in Oklahoma City, vaccinated and unvaccinated, if we don’t accept some harsh realities,” Mayor David Holt said after the council meeting on Tuesday, at a news conference at the Oklahoma City-County Health Department’s northeast campus.
Early signs of a plateau of COVID-19 cases were replaced over the last few days with a new surge on top of the surge we were already experiencing, Holt said. The Oklahoma City metro area is now averaging about 800 new COVID-19 cases a day, nearing its pandemic-high of 1,000.
“We’re on the worst-case scenario,” said Phil Maytubby, chief operating officer of the city-county health department, when addressing the strain on hospital infrastructure during the council meeting. “Here in recent times, nothing comes close to COVID.”
Ward 1 Councilman Bradley Carter then sparred with Maytubby before public comment, challenging him on the efficacy of both vaccines and masks.
Much of the crowd filling the gallery in the council chambers cheered the interaction, switching to jeers as Maytubby explained the relevance of vaccinations.
“Everyone gets to speak in this room; it’s a beautiful thing,” shouted Holt while gaveling the room back to order.
The room did speak. For a couple of hours.
Oklahoma City residents and many others from surrounding communities such as Yukon and Edmond were well represented, giving impassioned threeminute speeches against the perceived tyranny of mandated mask wearing.
Shouting over councilmembers, cheering during confrontation and ignoring the gavel were the apparent rules of engagement as the meeting muddled along.
“I’m reclaiming my time, I’m reclaiming my time,” commanded Councilwoman Nikki Nice as she cut through the disagreeable crowd, rebutting and condemning an earlier public comment that compared mask mandates to Jim Crow era laws.
Some focused on their own personal experiences of the pandemic, others tried to call on the council to defend the Constitution while some mentioned home remedies such as ivermectin to combat the pandemic. The drug is not an approved remedy.
Meeting attendees cited several concerns with mask mandates, ranging from government overreach, a transition to an authoritarian society, the imposition on individual rights and the outright rejection of the validity of masks and vaccines.
The mask ordinance was purposed by Councilmembers Cooper, Nice and JoBeth Hamon in concert with a resolution to promote and incentivize COVID-19 vaccinations.
The ordinance would have required masks be worn indoors and in public places, and the resolution would have started the process of researching how to best promote vaccinations.
Shortly after the votes on the mask ordinance and vaccine incentives, Holt made a plea for residents to get vaccinated and wear a mask as the city faces a surge of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations.
“Bottom line, this new surge on top of an existing surge is going to crush our hospitals, and we all need our hospitals,” Holt said.
To that end, Holt had two requests for residents: Get vaccinated if you’re not already, and for the next few weeks, use common sense and wear masks in indoor, public spaces.
“Do those two things and we’ll get through this, and we can get back to where we were just a couple months ago,” he said.
A year ago the city enacted its first mask mandate on a temporary basis on July 17, and renewed the order about every six weeks until it expired April 30.
“Masks have worked throughout the pandemic and are still working,” Health Board Chairman Gary Raskob and Health Department Executive Director Dr. Patrick McGough wrote in a letter to Holt after a board meeting in March.
The measure as proposed on Tuesday would not have required masks in public or private schools. Churches would be exempt as long as social distancing is observed.
Those same exceptions and others were part of the previous ordinance.
Contributing: Staff writer Dana Branham