Pritzker issues rule to enforce mask mandate
Noncompliant businesses could be fined up to $2,500
Gov. J.B. Pritzker, declaring Illinois is at a “make or break” moment in fighting the coronavirus pandemic, issued new emergency rules to require businesses and schools to enforce his mandatory face mask rules or face the prospect of being fined.
The new rule, which got a mixed reception from business leaders, comes as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to stage a resurgence in Illinois. The state’s daily count of known coronavirus cases on Friday topped 2,000 for the first time in more than two months, officials said.
Pritzker issued a mask mandate May 1 for people over the age of 2 in most public settings, but enforcing it has proved to be a challenge.
The new rules set out a three-step process that give businesses two chances to comply before they’re hit with a fine.
Businesses that don’t comply with the mask mandate will be given a warning in the form of a written notice. If they don’t voluntarily comply, they will then be ordered to have patrons leave their property “as needed to comply with public health guidance and reduce risks,” Pritzker’s office said in a news release announcing the rules.
If businesses still do not comply, they can receive a class A misdemeanor, subject to a fine of $75 to $2,500.
“They need to be reminded and reminded and then fined if they are not following this rule for the state of Illinois,” Pritzker said at a news conference Friday in Chicago.
“We want to make sure that our workers are safe, and also all the people who are shopping are safe, all the people who are in bars or restaurants or in other locations, we want to make sure they’re safe and healthy and this is one way for us to make sure that businesses that have been scofflaws on this subject know there is a real penalty at the end of the line here.”
Pritzker said individuals are not subject to penalties for not complying with the mask mandate.
“Look, I’ve said all along I do not want for police to be arresting people or penalizing individuals,” Pritzker said. “On the other hand, I’ve asked local authorities including police, including local health authorities, to remind people as frequently as they possibly can that they need to follow this mask mandate.”
Pritzker was joined in the announcement Friday by representatives of organized labor, teachers unions and other interest groups.
“It would be catastrophic to shut down our economy once again. It would be the death of the hospitality industry here in the state of Illinois,” said Sam Toia, president of the Illinois Restaurant Association, whose members have been hit hard by restrictions put in place because of the pandemic.
But Rob Karr, president and CEO of the Illinois Retail Merchants Association, criticized the new rule, contending in a statement that it “lacks in common sense and is a slap in the face to the thousands of retailers who have sacrificed so much during this pandemic while actively supporting ever-changing health and safety guidelines adopted by the state.”
“If the goal is to put public health above politics, the administration will amend the rule to focus enforcement efforts on individuals who are not complying instead of punishing and attempting to demonize innocent businesses,” Karr said.
Some businesses said they weren’t worried about potential penalties because they’re strictly enforcing mask rules.
If a customer shows up without a mask, “we’re not letting them in,” said Paul Kozy, owner of Kozy’s Cyclery, which has three stores in Chicago. “No shoes, no shirt, no mask, no service.”
His stores’ doors are locked so employees can limit the number of shoppers inside, which makes it easy to enforce the mask requirement. Most customers have had no problems complying, he said.
Linda Johnson, owner of
Village True Value in Western Springs, also said customers have been good about respecting the mask mandate. But she said she still doesn’t think it’s right for the state to penalize businesses for shoppers’ actions, even though the hardware store’s customers have been good about respecting the rules.
“We definitely, absolutely, support individuals wearing masks. That goes without saying. But if the governor believes individuals are not complying, I believe the enforcement should be on the individual. We can’t control what they do,” Johnson said.
Opposition to the new rule also came from the political sector. Illinois House Republican leader Jim Durkin, who earlier in the week accused Pritzker of overstepping his authority in dealing with the pandemic, urged the governor to “abandon his mask rule” and convene the legislature on the issue.
Durkin said the rule places “undue hardship” on businesses already struggling from the pandemic. The Western Springs lawmaker also repeated his request for lawmakers to also take up ethics reform.
The Illinois Department of Public Health on Friday reported 2,084 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 during the prior 24 hours and 21 additional confirmed deaths, raising the statewide totals to 190,508 cases and 7,613 deaths since the pandemic began earlier this year. The department also listed 13 counties at “warning level” for a coronavirus resurgence, based on key metrics it uses to monitor cases and the potential for spread.
The entire state has been in the fourth phase of Pritzker’s reopening plan since late June, but the governor has repeatedly warned that regions where the COVID-19 metrics show a resurgence could go back to stricter rules aimed at slowing the spread of the highly contagious coronavirus.
Prior to a four-day, pandemic-spurred special legislative session in May, Pritzker’s administration filed a controversial emergency rule with a legislative rule-making body that would have made businesses that flouted the rules in his reopening plan subject to a Class A misdemeanor.
Pritzker withdrew that rule amid pushback among legislators because it made jail an enforceable option against business owners that failed to abide by the governor’s emergency actions. That prompted some local prosecutors and law enforcement to choose not to enforce them. Pritzker said he wanted to make clear that enforcement would ultimately be through fines, not jail.
The difference in the new rule is that it “focuses on warning and then a fine,” Pritzker said Friday.
“What’s available to us in the law is only essentially a misdemeanor immediately as a solution to the problem and that was something that JCAR (Joint Committee on Administrative Rules) did not want us to move forward with,” he said. “And so we made alterations. We’ve spoken with many members of the General Assembly, including members of JCAR.”
Pritzker said Friday the administration withdrew the earlier emergency rule this spring “because the legislature said they would take it up in session.”
“They didn’t do that. And now, there are a variety of reasons they didn’t do that. Now is the time. This is a make-or-break moment for the state of Illinois for making sure people are doing everything they can to mitigate, to reduce the spread,” Pritzker said. “And so this is a moment for us to enforce the masking requirements across the state.”
Pritzker has found his actions subject to legal challenges around Illinois and has largely been successful in fighting them off — except in Downstate’s Clay
County, where Judge Michael McHaney ruled in a case brought by GOP state Rep. Darren Bailey of Xenia that the governor’s powers to issue emergency orders ended July 2.
Earlier this week, Pritzker referred to McHaney’s rulings against him as “ridiculous.” On Friday, McHaney ordered Pritzker to appear before him on Aug. 14 to show why the governor should not be held in indirect civil contempt and sanctioned for his “willful disregard” of the court. The order notes that “failure to appear may result in a warrant for arrest.”
Pritzker spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh said the judicial order pushed by Bailey was a “sideshow.”
“This motion for contempt is legally baseless, frivolous and a distraction from the serious crisis facing our state,” she said. “Not a single member of the GOP caucus in the General Assembly has yet to publicly express their rejection of or outrage at this legal maneuvering that creates unnecessary confusion around public health guidance.”
Pritzker issued the new rule on masks in tandem with signing a new state law expanding workplace protections for retail workers who have become targets for trying to enforce the state’s mandatory mask policy. The legislation was passed by the General Assembly in May.
The new law enhances the penalty from battery to aggravated battery for assaulting or battering a retail worker who is conveying public health guidelines, such as a mask requirement or social distancing.
It also increases by 60 days the paid disability leave benefits for law enforcement, firefighters and paramedics for any injury occurring after March 9 whose recovery was hindered by COVID-19. The new law takes effect immediately.