Here’s how mandate for masks will be enforced
Ordinance already being enforced via verbal warnings
More than a week after it passed, Memphis' mask mandate took effect Thursday, but the city's top attorney said it was already being enforced — via verbal warnings — ahead of Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland signing it. Strickland signed it Thursday.
The ordinance, passed by the Memphis City Council on June 16 and amended on June 18, made Memphis an outlier in Tennessee, but among the growing number of places that are mandating residents wear masks to stop the spread of COVID-19. As of Thursday, at least 18 states had issued mask mandates of some kind. North Carolina joined the group of states requiring facial coverings Wednesday.
In Tennessee, beyond Memphis, discussions about enforcing mask use has been building as the number of cases and hospitalizations have risen since economic reopening efforts started. On Thursday, Metro Nashville Mayor John Cooper's administration acknowledged it is exploring mandating masks.
This week, Wilson County told residents that it would require masks, though it later conceded that it did not have the authority to enforce the mandate, acknowledging it was really recommending the practice. Local and state health experts have stressed the importance of using facial coverings to reduce transmission of COVID-19 and prevent more stringent social distancing policies from being enacted again.
Jennifer Sink, Memphis’ chief legal officer, said the city believes that it has the ability to enforce the ordinance. At this time, the ordinance lists the only punishment as a “warning.” The Memphis City Council could amend it later and add penalties.
“The way that we are planning on proceeding is similar to the way that we handle the executive orders and (the health directives). We are going to focus on having code enforcement respond to the complaints that we receive,” Sink said. “The same mechanisms that people have for complaining about the violations of executive order or the health directives, they have those here.”
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Memphis has responded to complaints about the violation of business regulations or stay-at-home orders through its 311 system, and when 311 is not available calls have been routed to a non-emergency line at the 911 operations center.
“Code enforcement will go out and inspect the business and speak with the manager or the property owner directly and will make a determination on what is going on,” Sink said of how enforcement will work.
“The emphasis is going to be on education and getting people to be in compliance and understanding what they need to do to get into compliance. Code enforcement will be authorized to issue warnings ... as we have more egregious situations, when a citation needs to be issued, then MPD will become involved.”
And, she said, Memphis and Shelby County Code Enforcement has spoken with several large retailers about making sure employees and customers are wearing masks within stores, something that has been strongly encouraged, but not required, by orders from
Strickland and the Shelby County Health Department.
On Monday, Strickland told the media he didn’t believe compliance with mask wearing or social distancing would increase through enforcement of the mask ordinance or back-to-business regulations alone.
“We need to do better. We will enforce the ordinance, but we are not going to succeed through enforcement alone. We’ve got to change the hearts and minds of individuals. We don’t have enough code enforcement officers or enough police officers. We’ve got to get people to do it because they feel it’s the right thing to do,” Strickland said.
Ordinance may be challenged
After the ordinance passed, state Sen. Brian Kelsey asked Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery III to review its constitutionality.
It’s unclear if the attorney general’s office is doing so. It declined to tell The Commercial Appeal if it had decided to take up the issue.
“Communication around opinion requests is considered attorney-client privilege and we cannot comment ... Our clients are state officials for whom we provide the opinions,” Samantha Fisher, a spokeswoman for Slatery’s office, said.
If an opinion is issued, it would become public.
Kelsey did not return a request for comment.
Samuel Hardiman covers Memphis city government and politics for The Commercial Appeal. He can be reached by email at samuel.hardiman@commercialappeal.com.