There’s support in Vermont’s largest city for a mask mandate should state legislators and Gov. Phil Scott authorize municipalities to set their own Covid-19 policies in a special session next week.
Half of the city council’s members told VTDigger they would support an indoor mask mandate amid a record surge of Covid-19 cases around the state.
“It’s definitely past due to have a mask mandate in place,” said Councilor Zoraya Hightower, P-Ward 1. “It’s just not that difficult an ask.”
“I’ve heard ongoing concerns about the direction that the pandemic is headed,” said Council President Max Tracy, P-Ward 2. “I think it’s really important that we respond to the situation that we find ourselves in.”
Mayor Miro Weinberger’s office declined an opportunity to comment.
Some councilors who support a mandate — including Hightower, Tracy and Joe Magee, P-Ward 3 — also called on the governor to implement a statewide mandate, arguing the state’s mask policy should not be decided city-by-city.
But not everyone is certain that Burlington needs a mask mandate.
Councilor Joan Shannon, D-South District, who supported the city’s first mask mandate in 2020, said she’d be open to another mandate if leaders at the University of Vermont Medical Center recommended one.
“From the beginning, our main concern was to not overrun our health care system,” Shannon wrote in an email. “Covid is likely with us forever. We need to determine what level of tolerance we are going to have for it, and compare it with other common threats we have always lived with.”
Councilor Chip Mason, D-Ward 5, said he generally supports the notion of a mask mandate, but would want to assess the latest Covid-19 data first.
Councilor Mark Barlow, I-North District, said he’s inclined to support an indoor mask mandate and that he personally wears one indoors now.
“I’m open to the discussion as the recent numbers are a little disconcerting heading into the winter months where we all will be more likely to be at indoor gatherings more,” he said in an email.
In Burlington, the rate of Covid-19 infection over the last two weeks is between 41 and 80 cases for every 100,000 people — the second-highest tier tracked by the state — according to state data.
Enforcement for a Burlington mask mandate would likely fall to businesses, as was the case with the previous order, said Councilor Ali Dieng, I-Ward 7, who supports a mandate.
A mask mandate, Dieng said, shouldn’t mean an economic shutdown, especially with the holiday shopping season kicking in.
“We are not asking people to stay home,” Dieng said. “We are just asking people to wear masks.”
[This week’s Deeper Dig podcast: The case for mask mandates]
Dieng expressed concern, however, that the lack of a statewide mask mandate could result in municipalities competing for business. In other words, he said, shoppers might choose to visit stores in a town where they don’t have to wear masks instead of ones in Burlington.
But François Bouchett, general manager of Homeport, didn’t seem alarmed by that possibility.
“It may hurt a little,” Bouchett said, but “we haven’t had much pushback” from customers about wearing masks.
Bouchett said his business would be amenable to a mask mandate, though it’s not currently requiring masks for employees or customers who are vaccinated.
“We’ll go along with whatever our town thinks is right,” Bouchett said.
City leaders haven’t always been on the same page when it comes to requiring masks. Last spring, city councilors waited to rescind Burlington’s mask mandate until three weeks after Weinberger requested they drop the order.
But in August, as the highly contagious Delta variant made its way through Vermont, the mayor urged people to wear masks inside, and directed city employees to mask while interacting with the public.
The opportunity for towns and cities to establish their own Covid-19 rules is a compromise between Scott, a Republican, and Democratic leaders in the Legislature.
As cases have climbed across the state — surging to a new record last week — Scott has resisted calls from legislators and activists to issue a statewide mask mandate. To compel mask-wearing, Scott says, he would need to declare a state of emergency, a measure that he finds inappropriate for the current circumstances.
In August, Scott rejected Brattleboro’s attempt to mandate masks without a state of emergency in place. Now he says the latest plan represents an “olive branch” to concerned legislators.
Scott has said he believes that masks reduce the spread of Covid-19 but that he questions the efficacy of mandates.
Leaders in other cities and towns around Chittenden County said they, like Burlington, would consider a mask mandate if the Legislature allows them it.
In Essex Town, Selectboard Chair Andy Watts lamented the lack of a statewide mandate, saying that the already contentious issue will get uglier when debated at the local level.
“It’s going to be a painful discussion,” Watts said.
South Burlington City Council Chair Helen Riehle agreed that a statewide mask mandate would make things easier on local officials.
The former state legislator said she would probably support a citywide mask mandate, though she doesn’t know how her fellow city councilors would vote on the issue.
“I’d like to hear people’s concerns” about a mask mandate, Riehle said. “But I think in terms of health, it totally makes sense.”
