Board of Aldermen 05-25-2021 Page 42
Attorney Bolton
The Board of Education certainly has that authority. | think the Board of Health was just stating that they
understood that it was the Board of Education that could make rules concerning school buildings and school
children and so forth.
Alderwoman Kelly
OK thank you.
President Wilshire
Alderman Jette.
Alderman Jette
Yeah thank you Madam Chairman. So hearing the discussion am | correct Attorney Bolton that if we repeal the
mask ordinance effective tonight that it would go into effect as soon as the Mayor signs it. He has indicated he
will sign it. So as soon as he signs it. Are you saying that in your opinion the City Administration would not
then have any authority to control access to City Hall, require a mask or require social distancing or any of
those measures. They would lack any such authority so after the Mayor signs the repeal then anybody could
come into City Hall without being masked no matter whether they are vaccinated or not and we would have no
way of preventing them from coming in. Am | understanding you correctly?
Attorney Bolton
Yes.
Alderman Jette
| guess that leaves us with a choice that we could either not pass this tonight, refer it to the Committee as
originally planned and seek your guidance as to how to re-write the ordinance to provide us with that authority.
| Know people are anxious about this and they want to do it as soon as possible. | suppose tonight we could
amend the repealing language to say something to the effect that City Buildings or whatever language you
would recommend that City buildings remain under the mask requirement or that the Mayor be authorized to
create rules regarding mask wearing in City buildings. Am | correct?
Attorney Bolton
You could do those things.
Alderman Jette
OK if we chose the latter, do you have, | hate to put you on the spot but are you quickly able to formulate
something that we could adopt tonight or would you say that this is unfair to try to expect you to come up with
language on the spot.
Attorney Bolton
It won’t be as good as if | had my colleagues in the Legal Department to discuss it with and time to reflect on it.
But you could add “notwithstanding or foregoing the Mayor shall have the authority to adopt rules regarding
mask wearing in City Hall or in all City Buildings”.
