Board of Aldermen 12-08-2020 Page 35
We put moratoriums on evictions and on getting people’s utilities taken away from them. We don’t have
any of that in place right now. All of that is gone at the end of this month. And so, you know, we can’t
simply say that we are going to just make a policy, a blanket policy across the City and expect that it’s not
going to have drastic financial implications to certain people. So we have to find a better way to do that.
I’m all for sitting down at the table and trying to figure that out, but | Know this, that no plan to shut down the
City for any period of time without a plan that backs up that with funds with money with economics is going
to be a viable plan. It is going to be only to the detriment of this City and its citizens and its workers. And so
what | would hope that the approach is moving forward is enforcement so that when people go out and they
see a business and I’ve been to them and | don’t go back, when | see a business where there are people
shoulder to shoulder all the way down at a bar, for example. Or | walk into the mall and there are plenty of
people walking around without a mask on and that’s our Ordinance, and | voted against that Ordinance. But
we need to support that Ordinance, that’s a Law.
We need to have enforcement. So | have always supported social distancing, I’ve always said that we need
to make sure restaurants are adhering to the Governments and to the Governor's guidelines and some of
them are not. And the ones that aren’t should be fined, at least warned and then fined and fined again and
fined again until you figure it out or the Health Department should shut them down. | mean how many times
does it take for someone to violate a different health rule before the Health Board shuts them down. That’s
the kind of approach that we need to take, it’s a scalpel approach, it’s an approach where it is, let’s go in,
get the offenders and change the behavior. But let’s recognize that there are people who are following the
guidelines that were put in place by the Governor and put in place by the City and let’s recognize that they
are following the rules and we shouldn't do things to them to the detriment of the entire City.
That’s my point on that. | am looking forward to the Board of Health Meeting. | am hoping that | can get
there. It’s tough for me sometimes because it is in the middle of the day. But you know these would be the
things that | hope comes out of that discussion. And on a cheerier note, Happy Hanukah everybody, |
know that’s coming up and hopefully we will have another meeting and | can wish everybody a Merry
Christmas at that point. So thank you so much.
President Wilshire
Alderman Dowd.
Alderman Dowd
Just two quick things. One) if we have to address something coming from the Board of Health with a curfew
we have to be really careful about how that is imposed. But the other thing | want to say is that when we
vote on things here at the Board of Aldermen level, there’s a lot of information that comes to us that unless
you follow the Committee Meetings and the inputs and the minutes, it could be difficult for people to
understand where we are coming from. So | would suggest that people try to get knowledgeable on a
subject before they condemn any action or even support any action, that they try to know as much as they
can about the subjects. So that’s all | had.
President Wilshire
Thank you, Alderman O’Brien.
Alderman O’Brien
Thank you, Madam President. Earlier in the public comment | was kind of called out, several other
Aldermen were you know receiving support, financial support on the elections from the Firefighters. But
everybody knows with my son on the Fire Department and by City Charter Rules as it stands right now, |
cannot vote, so it didn’t affect my vote, so | want that to be duly noted.
