Board of Aldermen 02-22-2022 Page 22
Steve Bolton, Corporation Counsel
| have no opinion on that as | sit here now.
Alderman Comeau
If | could, I'd like to make a motion to amend O-22-006 to include language to specifically remove that paragraph and say
that City Hall and other non-educational government buildings should follow the same rules as the rest of public buildings
in the city. So if there's no citywide mandate, there should be no mandate within non-educational government buildings.
MOTION BY ALDERMAN COMEAU TO AMEND BY ADDING THE FOLLOWING LANGUAGE: THAT CITY HALL
AND OTHER NON-EDUCATIONAL GOVERNMENT BUILDINGS SHOULD FOLLOW THE SAME RULES AS THE
REST OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS IN THE CITY. SO IF THERE'S NO CITYWIDE MANDATE, THERE SHOULD BE NO
MANDATE WITHIN NON-EDUCATIONAL GOVERNMENT BUILDINGS
President Wilshire
Okay. That's a motion. Motion is to amend. Discussion on the amendment?
ON THE QUESTION
Alderman Jette
So, | may not be very articulate about this because this comes as a surprise, but | don't have that in front of me either. |
guess | would think that the — in my own opinion - is that dealing with that aspect of it without a vetting by the appropriate
committee doing it tonight, you know, without any warning, | wouldn't be opposed to. | think that the motion to having a
second reading of resending the existing ordinance was passed because of the existing ordinance is going to expire ina
few days anyway. | think a lot of people probably voted to allow a second reading because with that in mind.
The ordinance that you're referring that gave the Mayor, | believe, the authority to require masks in city buildings gave the
Mayor the authority to do that as he judged the situation in consultation with the Board of Health to protect not only the
public but city employees. | would be reluctant to tonight take that authority away and expose our city employees to a
Coronavirus which is still very much a threat to us without a full discussion on that issue. So | would oppose your motion
on that basis.
Alderman Clemons
Thank you, Madam President. | don't disagree necessarily with the sentiment of what Alderman Comeau is trying to do.
It's probably legislation that | would support. However, | disagree with the process. To me, the process is a very
important part of what we do here. | tend to believe that personally that when you want to rescind legislation or rescind
things that we have done in the past that you should bring forth legislation like Alderman Moran has done with what's
before us. It should be vetted whether that's either at a committee or if it's a second reading like we're doing tonight if it's
something that, you know, should come up, but there really should be something in writing and it should be something
that we can all review and really look at, understand, know what the consequences are.
Now | think in relative terms to this versus some other thing, you know, | think the consequences are much less.
However, | would not want to set the precedent of just doing something - and | also don't want to disrespect you either
Alderman Comeau because | don't think you're doing this just on a whim either. But | personally would like to see
something proposed and go through the channels - the proper channels. Again it's not because | disagree with the
sentiment behind the or the rationale behind what you're trying to do. Something | like | said, | probably sign on to it but
because of the way how | feel we should be doing business, | won't support that amendment this evening.
Alderman Comeau
Thank you, Madam President. If | could just add on to what Alderman Clemons was just talking about. The initial
language that | was referring to was added via amendment to legislation that was brought forward in a Special Board of
Aldermen meeting that the rules were suspended to move to a second reading. So | fail to see how the situation is any
different to remove that language than the situation that brought it forward in the first place.
| also don't understand why people inside City Hall are at greater risk than people anywhere else in the city. If we're
talking about the numbers being low enough that the Board of Health has no strong objections to lifting the mandate, then
