As the Manhattan City Commission kicks around a potential ordinance requiring masks to be worn in public, there is some push back coming from the Riley County Police Department.
The topic of masks was brought up Thursday during the weekly meeting of the Manhattan Area Recovery Task Force. RCPD Director Dennis Butler says he would not support the idea of requiring citizens to wear masks in public.
“I sense that we’re at the tipping point where if we, through an ordinance, mandate the wearing of masks, I think that legitimacy of the ordinance and our ability to enforce it will not be respected by the community,” he said.
Butler says he’s had a conversation with Mayor Reddi, expressing his opposition. Reddi first proposed such an ordinance at the May 5 city commission meeting, saying it would be irresponsible to leave the decision solely to personal choice.
“I’m not saying we’re going to have 100 percent compliance, but I do think there is room for discussion in the community with stakeholders at the table, like we did for texting, like we did for vaping,” she said.
Butler and Riley County Health Department health educator believe that responsibility should be on businesses to enforce their own strong recommendations for customers. Kalas says any such ordinance that would come from the city would undermine the authority of Riley County Health Officer Julie Gibbs, who has not made such an order requiring masks, only recommendations.
“If there is any jurisdiction in Riley County that passes an ordinance that is more strict than what the health officer has already ordered, then they’re impeding that authority, and the whole concept of the health officer is going to be lessened,” Kalas said.
Because Manhattan sits in two counties, enforcing it on the other side of the county line also poses a challenge, says Pottawatomie County Commission Chair Dee McKee.
“I know that you can talk about it in the city, but we do not have any way to take them to courts because the courts are half-staffed in the county,” she said. “We’ve left it up to the individual cities to warrant more aggressive things than what the county says based on what they believe the need is but it’s not going to be something that our county would go any more aggressively on.”
The city has not drafted an ordinance. Reddi and fellow commissioners Aaron Estabrook and Linda Morse have both voiced support for such an ordinance, though Estabrook cited uncertainty whether the city should be giving the directive and not Health Officer Gibbs. Commissioners Wynn Butler and Mark Hatesohl have both voiced opposition to such an ordinance.
