City police union: Vaccine mandate is ‘political theater’
“The change in urgency links directly to the Mayor’s re-election campaign as he has continually used his COVID response as the main reason justifying his re-election.” Stamford Police Association approved statement
STAMFORD — The Stamford Police Association blasted Mayor David Martin’s mandate that all city employees get vaccinated in a statement released this week, calling it “rooted in hysteria and overreaction” and an act of “political theater.”
In the statement, SPA Vice President David O’Meara said the association is “deeply troubled” by Martin’s mandate earlier this month that all
city employees be fully vaccinated by the second week of September or submit to weekly COVID-19 testing.
“With the swoop of a pen Mayor Martin, who is in the midst of a hotly contested re-election campaign, decided that he, and his administration of bureaucrats, should have the ultimate say in the personal decisions his employees make, merely because we are employed by him. The Mayor is pushing this agenda under the guise that it is his responsibility to keep his employees, and the citizens they interact with, safe from community spread,” read the statement, which was approved by the Stamford Police Association executive board.
In particular, the SPA questioned the timing of the mandate. In the statement, O’Meara said Martin enforced no such mandate in January or March when cases were spiking around Fairfield County and vaccines were available to first responders.
In January, the 7-day rolling average for new cases in Fairfield County’s largest cities, including Stamford, were in the triple digits, according to Hearst Connecticut Media analysis. In March, the average hovered in the mid to high double digits.
“Where has this change in urgency come from? Where is the emergency? The change in urgency links directly to the Mayor’s re-election campaign as he has continually used
his COVID response as the main reason justifying his re-election,” the statement said.
The SPA statement also criticized the mayor for allowing large events, like a food festival held at Mill River Park and upcoming Alive@Five concerts, without, the association said, sufficient enforcement.
“The mayor has the right to facilitate these community events because they are often what makes Stamford the vibrant city it is, and we support the economic growth and entertainment the city can provide. However, we do not support the mixed signals coming from the mayor’s office at this time,” the SPA said.
Martin did not respond directly to inquiries about the claim that his mandate is motivated by the upcoming mayoral election.
Martin’s Chief of Staff Michael Pollard also did not address the accusation about Martin’s mayoral campaign nor the allegation about “possible massgathering, super-spreader events.” He did, however, respond generally to the SPA statement, calling the mayor’s mandate “necessary and supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and local health officials.
“We believe that because of these actions, fewer people will fall victim to COVID, and lives can be saved,” Pollard said. “The mayor and this administration will always make public safety our top priority. We strongly encourage citizens and city employees to consult the CDC website for the latest news regarding COVID, the
delta variant and safety protocols.”
Pollard also said “no Mayor has done more to protect their community than Mayor David Martin.
“For 16 months, citizens have been spared from the extreme impact this pandemic could have had on our lives,” he said in the statement.
At the time of the mandate in early August, Martin cited the surge of COVID-19 cases in Stamford and elsewhere around the state.
Connecticut is now averaging about 579 new coronavirus cases daily, according
to the seven-day average of cases. Just eight weeks ago, the state was seeing only 56 new cases daily by the same metric.
In Fairfield County, Stamford is only behind Easton in terms of the most daily cases per resident, according to the most recent data from the state.
As of Aug. 12, Stamford reported 16.9 cases per 100,000 people, according to the state’s website. This puts the city in the Connecticut Department of Health’s “red zone,” which means the city is at a higher risk of COVID-19
transmission in the community.
Under the vaccine mandate, which Martin unveiled Aug. 6, city employees will be required to get fully vaccinated by Sept. 7. City employees who decline to get vaccinated would be required to submit a weekly negative COVID-19 test.
Police Chief Timothy Shaw, who did not respond to a request for comment on the SPA’s statement, said in June that around 60 percent of the Stamford Police Department employees had received their vaccinations
as of May, which is when he said the department had stopped tracking vaccination statistics.
City employees may also request an exemption from the vaccine requirement for either medical or religious reasons under the new mandate. However, they must submit their request to the city’s human resources department by Aug. 20.
Only one Stamford Police Department employee had submitted a religious exemption application as of Wednesday, according to Rachel LaBella, a spokesperson for the city.