Gov. Phil Scott hopes a Newport UPS franchise can continue doing business after its owner’s refusal to follow state mask mandates prompted the corporation to sever ties with the store — and triggered a state lawsuit.
“The unfortunate part from all of this is, it was avoidable,” the governor said Friday during a press conference on the Covid-19 pandemic.
The store, with its prominent slot on Main Street in the Orleans County city, spurred outrage in recent weeks after a sign in its window advised customers that employees would not wear facial masks.
In April, Scott issued an executive order requiring business employees to wear face coverings when in the presence of others.
State officials have known about the franchise’s stance toward the state mandate for months, but only on Friday did it take legal action: Attorney General TJ Donovan filed a lawsuit against the former franchise owner, Andre “Mike” Desautels, after sending cease-and-desist letters in November and earlier this week.
The suit is the first the state has brought against a business for not complying with the mask mandate.
Reached by phone Friday, Desautels declined to comment. So did Liz Vickers, who owns the building the store is in. Newport Mayor Paul Monette, City Council President Dan Ross and North Country Chamber of Commerce President Bruce James did not answer calls for comment.
The saga began in the fall, said Newport Police Chief Travis Bingham, after residents had submitted online complaints about UPS store employees not wearing masks.
“The owner of the store flat out told us he was not going to wear a mask,” Bingham said Friday of Desautels.
Complaints ticked up within the last few weeks after a photo of the store’s sign caught fire on social media, the chief said, and police once again visited the store.
Bingham said his officers have no power to enforce the governor’s mandate. Rather, he said, his department documents incidents of noncompliance and ships reports to the Attorney General’s Office to decide on further action.
“We try to do it through education,” he said.
The local police had received about 10 calls about the store since the mask mandate went into effect, Bingham said. Online Google reviews show customers six and seven months ago noting the lack of masks among employees.
On Nov. 10, 2020, the Attorney General’s Office sent a letter to Desautels, advising the store owner to follow state health protocols.
And the office sent another letter Wednesday, after receiving more complaints about the store.
“Any failure to comply with the executive order and the general mask mandate may lead to enforcement action in court,” Christopher Curtis, head of the office’s public protection division, wrote in the letter.
The refusal to wear masks violated UPS corporate policy, too.
After public outcry spread, UPS took its own action. The company on Thursday ended its franchise agreement with Desautels, UPS spokesperson Jenny Robinson said.
“The UPS Store requires masks as part of our uniform standards and the franchisee and the franchisee’s associates in this location were in violation of that policy,” Robinson said. “We take customer safety very seriously and made repeated attempts to gain compliance from this franchise owner.”
It was unclear whether UPS’ actions prompted the store to stop doing business. Newport officers visited again Friday morning for a third compliance check and found employees without masks again, according to the police department and the attorney general’s office.
Donovan filed a civil suit in Washington County on Friday asking a judge to order Desautels’ compliance.
The suit asks that Desautels face civil penalties for defying the mask mandate — a fine of up to $1,000 per violation, with each day of noncompliance counting as its own violation.
Charity Clark, the attorney general’s chief of staff, said Friday that her office has “had to send cease-and-desist letters to several entities for a variety of violations.” Clark did not say how many or which businesses have received letters over the mask mandate. She also did not say why her office waited about four months to pursue court action.
Desautels had run the UPS franchise since 2015, state business records show. He and his wife, Laurie, opened the store in September that year, and spoke to VTDigger a few months later about their plans. According to documents from the nearby town of Troy, Desautels served for several recent years as a member of the Troy School Board.
This week, some locals began rallying to support Desautels, urging in Facebook posts to write letters and make phone calls to officials vouching for the business owner.
Scott, in his Friday press conference, lamented the situation. “We don’t want to shut any businesses down,” he said.
Bingham, the police chief in Newport, shared a similar sentiment. “The convenience of (it) being on Main Street was nice,” he said, but city residents have other options.
One Newport business appears to have capitalized on the recent events: Pick and Shovel, a local department store, advertised its UPS shipping services in a Facebook post Thursday.
Correction: An earlier version of this story stated that the UPS store had closed. As of Friday morning, it remained open.
