JEFFERSON COUNTY, Mo. — Not even 24 hours after the Jefferson County Health Center Board of Trustees approved a face mask mandate (3-2), the board decided to overturn the decision on Friday.
According to a press release from the Jefferson County Health Center Board of Trustees, they met in an emergency meeting on Friday to revoke the ordinance. The vote was 5 in favor and 0 against.
A spokesperson for the board said the decision was made to hold the meeting after concerns were raised regarding whether or not the board had followed proper procedures for notification of the public prior to the meeting.
"It is extremely important to the Board and Director of the Health Center that residents feel confident in the process that is used when preparing public orders," a spokesperson for the Jefferson County Health Department said in an email.
A full document of the proposed ordinance has been posted online and distributed to the community for further review through elected officials, schools and will be posted on the health center’s webpage.
The board has not determined a date for a future meeting to discuss the proposed order.
5 On Your Side's Justina Coronel spoke to someone who lives in Jefferson County.
"It was about time, how late are we to the party? I don’t understand why there’s a huge debate about it," Jennifer Watkins said when she first learned it was approved. But then she learned about the news and said, "I mean if you’re going to make a decision, hold to it. They should’ve just held with their word. If anything that makes you look 10 times worse."
Another woman who wanted to remain anonymous lives in St. Louis County, but her mom lives in Jefferson County. "I was very excited first of all that Jeff Co. put a mask mandate in place." But with the latest update she said, "I am not going to spend my money in Jefferson County. Why are we flip flopping, this is peoples health we are talking about!"
"People are really worried about with less than a single business days notice how they're going to implement this, and their businesses and what the plan is. It's really important that as we are protecting public health and as we're dealing with balancing and a crisis that we are also protecting transparency and accountability. This is something that the Health Board has been talking about for the last two months. I don't expect that it will stop now," Mary Elizabeth Coleman said.
Thursday night, the board voted in favor of a new health order, which also included social distancing measures and crowd limits. The meeting lasted more than five hours and got heated at times.
The mandate was set to go into effect on Aug. 31 for those over the age of 5.
Medical experts, including those with the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force said wearing a mask is crucial to help stop the spread of the coronavirus. Those opposed say it should be a personal choice to wear a mask.
There are currently mask mandates in St. Louis and St. Louis County.
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