The Chaffee Board of County Commissioners (BoCC) unanimously approved the outlines of a new policy requiring all employees and (potential) visitors to Chaffee County properties to wear facemasks when indoors in any county facility.
The motion made during the BoCC regular meeting on Tuesday, July 14, directs the county attorney’s office to prepare a resolution outlining the requirement for all county spaces. It would cover a timeframe at least through the end of the calendar year. The motion made by Commissioner Keith Baker was seconded by Commissioner Rusty Granzella.
Chaffee County Administration Building, formerly the old Courthouse. Courtesy photo Chaffee County.
“Science shows that social distancing and facemasks can slow the transmission of the disease,” said County Attorney Jennie Davis. “The governor has ordered that all county governments follow the governor’s order enforcing the facemask mandate for all local governments. We’re talking about an internal facemask policy – in government buildings, or with employees and members of the public.”
Davis added, “I’ve been fielding complaints as to why not all the employees aren’t following the governor’s order….. this could expose the county to an unsafe workplace if there were to be an outbreak of COVID-19.”
The county’s public health orders define ‘close proximity’ as six feet of social distance. Davis also pointed out that another concern that has been raised is how to handle employees who travel off duty to hot spots such as Arizona or Texas.
“The draft policy also addresses the scope of this order for the duration and would be in effect until the end of the year unless otherwise ordered. It mandates facemasks when entering or exiting county property or when within six feet of employees and the general public,” said Davis. “Some of our offices are requiring employees to mask up when they leave their desks.” She added that while it would be better if the governor would simply declare a statewide mask mandate, this policy would clarify the county’s position on its own property.
Behind the concerns for public safety, Davis pointed out that when an employee brings up an ADA (Americans with Disability Act) issue , the county is not always required to rectify the situation. “One way I’d approach this is to see if that person can be reassigned [to a different area or task].”
“It’s safer,” said Granzella. “When the quarantine time is over, then everybody feels better about it.”
“With the new cases … this is serious,” said Chair of the BoCC Greg Felt. “We need to talk with Andrea [Carlstrom] about that.” His comment referenced the Colorado statistics on rate of cases per 100,000 people. Chaffee County now stands at 123 confirmed cases, representing a rate of 614.14 per 100,000 population.
The Fair Board had a busy year in 2019, as the Chaffee County Fairgrounds got a new grandstand. Photo S. Hall
The new policy would cover all indoor county-owned areas. So someone could exercise a horse in the arena at the Chaffee County Fairgrounds, but if they went indoors in any of the buildings, they would need to mask up. In open office areas, county department heads are already reconfiguring their spaces.
“We should be prepared to help people understand. There are some people we work with every day — you feel like you know them, they aren’t on the town every night. But when we’re leaving our area of the building, going to the common areas – this seems like everybody, all the time should be masked up,” said Felt.
Commissioners discussed the need for the general enforcement of public health orders. While Governor Jared Polis might have ordered local governments to implement face-covering mandates, he has not issued a statewide mandate, making Colorado a patchwork of county and municipal government rulings.
“One of the strongest things we can do is set an example,” said Baker. “We’re not requiring them to do what we aren’t willing to do. I think we should do it now.”
“No matter what the governor does, even if we have to modify it – it makes sense that we approve this,’ said Davis.”The county is being proactive to keep the workplace safe.”
“Trying to get it perfect is going to be a continual process,” said Felt.
“This [policy] is done reasonably well — it’s a good-faith effort,” added Baker. “There will be questions, but this comes down to people using common sense and keeping the intent in mind: the intent is not to have people wearing masks, it’s to stop the spread of the coronavirus.”
“It’s just a requirement to be able to work,” concluded Chaffee Director of General Administration said Bob Christensen.
The Chaffee County COVID-19 leadership roundtable will again take up the facemask issue on a roundtable virtual meeting (via Zoom) Thursday, July 16, at 4 p.m.
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