Supervisors Against Mask Mandate Question Lack Of Enforcement

TUCSON, AZ — There's a mask mandate in Pima County.

The Pima County Board of Supervisors narrowly passed a mask mandate Tuesday by a 3-2 vote. The mandate requires those in Pima County to mask up while indoors when 6 feet of distancing can't be maintained. The mandate went into effect immediately.

Supervisors Rex Scott and Steve Christy voted against the measure.

“The public should view today’s vote as a rally cry for everyone in our community to take a simple and benign action that will go a long way to protect themselves and their community from the spread of a deadly disease,” District 2 Supervisor Dr. Matt Heinz said in a news release. “Masks work if everyone wears them. So please wear one and help our community slow and stop the spread of COVID-19.”

The decision to put a mask mandate in place was in response to a surge in COVID-19 deaths and cases in the county, the county said in the news release.

Both Scott and Christy said during Tuesday's virtual board meeting that they voted against the mandate at least in part because enforcement of the mandate would fall to local business owners and their employees.

In her Monday memorandum to the board recommending the mask mandate, acting Pima County Administrator Jan Lesher admitted that the county did not have a good way to enforce the mandate. But she still advised its adoption as a sort of call to arms to the community to rally together to help stop the spread of the virus.

Since the county's last mask mandate was rescinded, Scott said that feelings about mask wearing has only “grown more angry and intense.” Scott said he didn't want to subject local businesses and their employees to abuse from people who refuse to wear masks.

“I’m willing to ask, beg or pray that all of you wear masks when necessary to protect yourselves and each other,” Scott said. “I am not willing to tell you that you must wear masks because I know that many of you choose to ignore or defy that mandate.”

Christy opined that passing a mandate with no plans to enforce it takes away the credibility of the board.

Christy also said he viewed one of Heinz's justifications for the mandate as a veiled threat to local businesses who don't enforce the masking rule.

Heinz had said that a significant portion of the Pima County population might stop patronizing local businesses if they feel unsafe going into those businesses because customers aren't wearing masks.

Christy asked if Heinz was backing a boycott of businesses that don't enforce the mandate. Heinz said he was not and that the mandate was meant to be pro-business, to keep business from dropping off like it did in the beginning of the pandemic. The mandate is meant to be a way to keep customers feeling safe enough to go out and patronize local businesses, Heinz said.

As of Sunday, hospitals in Pima County reported that people with COVID-19 occupied 40 percent of intensive care unit beds. This is the second month that adult intensive care unit availability in Pima County hospitals was consistently less than 3 percent.