Mayors expect restrictions, oppose lockdown
On Tuesday, one of Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton’s constituents rang his office to boast about her pandemic Thanksgiving plans and her intention to flaunt health recommendations.
“I just got off the phone with a lady who called to tell me she’s having 15 at dinner,” the Republican Boughton said.
Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont, in an effort to combat the rising cases of COVID-19, in early November limited private gatherings to 10 people. Meanwhile, medical professionals from local health directors to staff with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have been urging Thanksgiving celebrants to stay home and dine only “with the people you live with.”
Boughton said he tried to talk the caller out of her decision, but she was adamant: “I said, ‘We’re not going to send the police (but) I hope you’d rethink that. Maybe split up the party.
‘Nope. Nope. I don’t care. I’m doing it.’”
“There’s a lot of that out there right now,” Boughton added.
Boughton is hardly alone in what can seem like a futile effort to stem this fall’s steep spike in coronavirus cases. The chief elected officials in many of the region’s cities and towns and their administrations are all grappling with growing infection rates, fearing they will get worse post-Thanksgiving and trying to figure out the best response.
“Cases are rising. They are rising all the time,” said Stamford Mayor David Martin, a Democrat. “We don’t see any abatement.”
And yet those mayors and selectmen in separate interviews were all opposed to calling on Lamont to order the type of emergency shutdown the governor imposed across Connecticut from mid-March to mid-May when the pandemic first struck the state.
“I’m not ready for a blanket lockdown,” Martin said.
Even New Haven’s Justin Elicker, also a Democrat, who has been the most vocal in calling on Lamont to impose additional restrictions, said, “The health data just doesn’t support” a complete shut down.
Last week, Elicker suggested Connecticut and surrounding states collaborate for a return to Phase 1. Connecticut re-opened the economy in three phases spread out over May, June and October. Lamont recently rolled the more relaxed Phase 3 rules back to a variation of June’s second phase, further reducing how many customers restaurants can serve indoors and restoring other early pandemic rules.
Elicker in an interview for this story said, “To be clear, I don’t think we should go back to exactly what Phase 1 was (but) to a version of Phase 1. I know that sounds really nuanced but, because we’ve been learning from the virus, there are certain places where there’s more likely to have spread and others not as likely.”
“We’ve seen in New Haven almost no cases from hair salons, for example, if people are wearing masks,” Elicker said. “We’ve seen data about some spread in restaurants where people gather without masks.”
Elicker noted that during weekly calls with other urban mayors, all are concerned about the increase in COVID-19 diagnoses, as well as “the vibrancy of our economy and the impact tightening up might have. ... We’ve talked about how there’s a tension there.”
Lisa Morrissey is Bridgeport’s director of health under Democratic Mayor Joe Ganim. She said if there was a way “to safeguard the economic impact and mental health impact” then it would be easier to call for another shutdown.
"We know that the virus is spreading rapidly, and we know that we should be pulling back,” said Norwalk Mayor Harry Rilling, who, in late March, helped spearhead in his city what evolved into a statewide effort by supermarkets to find ways of better protecting customers and staff. “But we also know that many small businesses and some larger businesses may not recover.”
Lamont recently told Hearst Connecticut Media he was willing to get tougher — such as closing stores if post-Thanksgiving shopping crowds lead to infections — but admitted, “I worry that we’re putting up an awful lot of umbrellas and there may be a hurricane coming.”
Morrissey said she has “had conversations with the state about possible changes” to the coronavirus guidelines: “If I had to speculate, I would expect they would probably be taking a look at things such as gyms and indoor recreation. ... The other place I’d assume they would be taking a look at would be indoor dining.”
Martin said, “He’s (Lamont) going to have to come further back if these cases don’t plateau almost immediately. If I were him, I’d be working on it now. I don’t think I’d go back to (Phase) 1.0. We’ve learned some things about what can stay open and what can’t. And while we’re still using a sledgehammer to hit this virus, that hammer has become more targeted than in the spring.”
Boughton said he is opposed to re-introducing any more of the prior coronavirus restrictions, particularly if they further harm already struggling businesses: “I talk to business owners all the time in tears.” But, Boughton added, “I wouldn’t be shocked to see some different restrictions or areas he (Lamont) wants to address. But I don’t see a wholesale rollback.”
He said perhaps state government could provide local health officials “more latitude” to enforce existing rules. He also argued the best approach is to continue to “educate, educate, educate” the public on the threat of COVID-19 and how to keep it at bay: “More is done by convincing and persuading people than ordering people.”
Boughton credited Lamont for being willing to receive input from municipal leaders.
“He is taking advice and listening,” Danbury’s mayor said. “He will call. He really looks at running the state as a team approach.”
Initially, the governor had briefly granted cities and towns the ability to revive some pandemic-related restrictions should their local cases reach a “red alert” threshold. But use of that power was not uniform. Ganim exercised his authority in Bridgeport, while Boughton did not. And Martin said he would have preferred to move sooner than allowed as Stamford’s infections crept up
But those decisions were rendered moot once the governor rolled back the entire state to Phase 2 restrictions.
“We do know it is highly contagious and does not stop at town borders,” Deanne D’Amore, Norwalk’s health chief, said. “From the beginning of the resurgence of COVID-19, we have advocated mitigation efforts be on a state or regional basis to slow the spread.”
Elicker said if Lamont ultimately chose to again let cities and towns decide how much further to rollback pandemic rules, New Haven would take advantage. But, Elicker emphasized, that would not be his preference: “If we act alone it will have an impact, but not nearly as significant an impact than if the state as a whole acted.”
Fred Camillo is the Republican Selectman in Greenwich, Lamont’s hometown. Camillo, like his colleagues, expressed worry about coronavirus blanketing the state — “we are in for a rough couple of months” — and also about further damaging the local economy.
Camillo said he did not want to discourage people from going out to eat at a restaurant or doing holiday shopping at local stores, but stressed the need to be careful and follow the necessary health precautions.
He also recognized that Lamont may decide to take additional measures: “I hope and pray there are no shutdowns, but we’re going to have to buckle up and be prepared to take precautions.”
Lamont has told Hearst he feared “COVID fatigue” settling in among the public, making people less cautious or less willing to be. Boughton said the phone call he received from the Danbury resident about her rule-breaking Thanksgiving was a good example.
“I think it was more to vent. I let her vent for a few minutes. I said, ‘I think you’ve got to think about this,’” Boughton recalled. “And then she just hung up.”