Monterey County mask mandate ordinance fails during emotional board meeting.

Heading into today's Monterey County Board of Supervisors meeting it seemed as if a mask mandate urgency ordinance was going to pass. Last week at least four of the five supervisors were in favor of imposing a mandate for the entire county, the exact number of votes necessary to approve an urgency ordinance.

The support cracked significantly when Supervisor John Phillips announced early in the meeting he had changed his mind. "I'm kind of a 180 from where I was last week," he said. A large number of emails from residents opposing a mandate had caused him to rethink his position.

"I thought we had strong support from the community but word got out that hasn't been the case," he said. "There is a real diversity of opinions about it."

Those words were underscored as public comment began and people from both sides of the issue spoke, sometimes in tears pleading for protection for their unvaccinated children, and at least once through angry yelling demanding the board vote no.

A contingent of hotel owners, chambers of commerce representatives and others from the hospitality industry argued against a mandate, citing concerns over lost events and group sales business. They said if the supervisors did approve one, they wanted an amendment that would allow people to show proof of vaccination or a negative Covid-19 test within 72 hours of an event.

Supervisor Luis Alejo in his motion did add in the amendment in response to industry representatives reaching out prior to today's meeting. His main goal was passing the mandate.

"If it saves one life, it if prevents one of our county residents from being hospitalized, this is the moment to do it," Alejo said.

Chair Wendy Root Askew renewed the arguments she made in last week's meeting about protecting unvaccinated children and the 60 percent of the Black community that remains unvaccinated.

Root Askew also argued that even though Monterey County's case rate and hospitalizations are trending downward, the supervisors needed to look beyond that to the struggles of families and teachers keeping their kids safe in schools, as well as tired health care workers and the shortage of nurses.

Her arguments weren't enough to sway Supervisor Chris Lopez, who continued to express his concerns over going against Monterey County Health Officer Edward Moreno who told the board last week he didn't have the data to justify changing from a recommendation to a mandate, since Covid cases were trending downward.

"It's hard for me to justify stepping in now on a downward trend," Lopez said. Lopez also expressed concerns over imposing a mandate within the cities, as well as unincorporated areas. He emphasized he does believe that masks work to prevent the spread of Covid and suggested the county invest in a media campaign to encourage voluntary mask usage.

Moreno reported that case rates among children from 0-5 are the lowest compared to other age groups. For children ages 6-11, the case rates are trending just below the median rate for the county. For children ages 12 and up, they're trending just above the median. 

As of Sept. 6 the county's case rate is 8.1 cases per 100,000 residents. (Moreno said the county would be in the Orange Tier if the state was still using the Blueprint for a Safer Economy.)

The pandemic in Monterey County does remain one of the unvaccinated: According to the Health Department the rate among unvaccinated residents was 18.2 cases per 100,000 residents for the seven-day period ending Aug. 31; for vaccinated people the rate was 0.6 per 100,000. 

When it became obvious the urgency ordinance would not pass, a disappointed Root Askew folded. "We could talk about this until we're all blue in the face but we don't have the votes for the mask mandate," she said.

Lopez and Phillips voted no; Root Askew, Alejo and Adams voted yes. The urgency ordinance failed.

What remains in place is Moreno's mask recommendation issued July 19 that everyone above the age of two wear a mask indoors in public spaces.