Board of Aldermen 5-21-2020 Page 35
Alderwoman Kelly
Yes thank you. | wanted to address something that was said a couple of comments ago about giving
people the benefit of the doubt, | trust our Police. | trust them to have that wherewithal when they are
interfacing with people, that’s what they do all the time, they are a great force. So | think that’s sort of a
moot point. And then the last thing | would say is | think the intent of this from the Board of Health and in
general, | think the Board here understands is that we want to make it easy to wear a mask and not so easy
not to wear a mask and that is it. We want to make it easy for you to help support people like myself, I’ve
got a baby, | have asthma, people on the Board are like that; your neighbor, your friend who is over 55. It
is not a hard thing to put a mask on and we are making it very easy to get them. You can come to City Hall
and get them. There is a whole group that is distributing cloth masks if you need them. That is all.
President Wilshire
Anybody else? The motion is to reconsider the amendment by removing the warning and the $25.00 fine.
Ok so that’s the motion, would the Clerk call the roll?
A viva voce roll call was taken which resulted as follows:
Yea: Alderman Klee, Alderwoman Kelly, Alderman Dowd,
Alderman Caron, Alderman Lopez, Alderwoman Lu,
Alderman Jette, Alderman Schmidt, Alderman Wilshire 9
Nay: Alderman O’Brien, Alderman Clemons, Alderman Tencza,
Alderman Harriott-Gathright 4
MOTION CARRIED
President Wilshire
And that Motion carries. We are back to the original Ordinance, for final passage. Alderman O’Brien?
Alderman O’Brien
Thank you, | would like to thank everybody for their discussion on this and the various different motions that
were presented. But in my communication with people down on Main Street in particular, what is our
responsibility of Aldermen? Really not to punish but to educate and the thing is now we are right back to
square zero and we are talking a $1,000.00 fine. If you really want to get the quills up of the porcupine, you
poke him with a stick. And | think in this case, we have. The $1,000.00 fine granted | agree with Attorney
Bolton in his assessment and many of course it won’t probably really get that far. But | think it would our
duty to be practical with it so therefore that is why | supported Alderman Clemons’ point of view.
However, the ends to justify the means. We are talking about a virus that has debilitating effects and
coming from my Fire Department background, if you lived in a single family home and you chose not to
have a smoke detector, well you were foolish, but your home was your castle that was your choice. But in
the situation of a duplex, your actions could definitely affect somebody else. So weighing the balance of
this particular Ordinance, although | am very disappointed to see that there was some lightening that was
not voted for on this and we are back to the $1,000.00 fine and its potential, | am going to support this
Ordinance because | feel that we need to protect the weakest among us, people away from this terrible
virus. Again disappointed, but | am going to support the motion.
President Wilshire
Alderman Dowd?
