Highland Park Restaurants Must Check For COVID-19 Vaccine Proof

HIGHLAND PARK, IL — The Highland Park City Council endorsed an emergency order issued by the mayor that follows the lead of Chicago and suburban Cook County in mandating that bars and restaurants require patrons to show proof they have been vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus.

At a special City Council meeting Wednesday, councilmembers voted unanimously to extend the state of emergency that was declared earlier in the day by Mayor Nancy Rotering. According to the city attorney, it was the mayor's third such declaration since last year and permits her to issue subsequent emergency orders.

“While the mayor can do this unilaterally," Rotering said, "I have asked that the council weigh in on these decisions.”

Councilmembers voted 6-1 to endorse Rotering's plan to require businesses that serve food or drink to check customers for vaccination cards and identification starting in 10 days. Councilmember Andres Tapia was the lone vote against the order.

The mayor's new supplemental order requires proof of vaccine for all on-premises food and drink establishments, which it defines as any location where food or drink is served indoors where it is consumed. Unlike the Cook County and Chicago order, Highland Park's does not include fitness centers.

Rotering said the order was intended solely to mitigate the current spike in new infections, which has been driven by the highly contagious and antibody-evading omicron variant that made up an estimated 59 percent of new cases in the U.S. last week, according to the CDC.

The mayor said she had recently experienced the enforcement of proof of vaccine requirements during a trip to Hawaii.

"It's basically a non-event. 'Hi, how are you? What can I get you? Can I see your card? Here's your coffee,'" she said. "It's really not as onerous as people are making it out to be."

City Manager Ghida Neukirch said the effective date of the order, Jan. 7, is the earliest that it can be practically implemented. She said enforcement of the order would be handled by her office, rather than the police department of the Lake County Health Department. Neukirch said the city would work diligently to inform business owners of the new rules and how to comply.

"If someone witnesses a violation, we do encourage them to contact the city manager's office here at City Hall, and we will have someone — it'll primarily be our business development staff — that will do a follow-up to that business," Neukirch explained.

"So that's with a telephone call to start. A subsequent violation would result in a community development inspector going to that business, and they would be witnessing what exactly is happening — are they following the rules? If they're not following the rules, making sure that they understand," the city manager said.

"After that, we provide a written notice of violation and then a subsequent infraction after that would result in a citation, and that citation is a citation that would be an administrative hearing. The fine for that is not less than $25 not more than $750 for each offense," she continued. "Our goal here is really education. We don't want to penalize people."

Rotering said it was up to individual businesses to figure out how to best implement her new order.

"We're not going in and inspecting. We're not the Lake County Health Department," the mayor said. "We aren't going to be checking to make sure that each business is following the set rules and protocols, just as we don't do that regarding the temperature of the dishwasher water."

All employees must either provide proof of full vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test at least once a week. Houses of worship, schools, indoor locations of residential or office buildings and charitable food service establishments are exempt from the city's draft order.

Also exempt: children taking part in school activities, nonresident performing artists and their companions for the duration of their performance and anyone who has previously received a medical exemption and provides proof of their exemption and a negative test conducted within the past 24 hours.

Rotering said she had spoken to the governor's office and Lake County Board Chair Sandy Hart about the chances of similar proof-of-vaccination requirements on a statewide or countywide basis. The mayor said Gov. J.B. Pritzker has made is clear is not seeking to implement a similar statewide requirement and that Hart told her she did not believe the county board had the legal authority to issue one since it is not a "home rule" county. Rotering, who earlier this year launched a campaign for the Democratic Party's nomination to the Illinois Supreme Court, questioned Hart's interpretation of the county's authority.

Related: Vaccination Proof Mandatory At Suburban Cook County Indoor Venues

Several owners of local restaurants spoke during the meeting in opposition to the new requirements.

Steve Geffen, the second-generation owner of Once Upon a Bagel, said the new regulations put restaurateurs in a difficult position.

"We're basically becoming bouncers, enforcers, policemen, and I don’t know how I would ever be expected to do that," Geffen said.

"I believe that this is going to put restaurants in jeopardy of being put out of business because I think people are going to make choices to go elsewhere. And you're going to get a lot of self-policing, where you get a lot of people just calling to tattle-tale, and it's going to be hard," he told councilmembers. "I'm very emotional right now because I’m really worried about what’s going to happen to my business, and I can’t ask my guys to police because it’s going to put them in an unfortunate situation. We're already extremely short-staffed as it is."

Jeff Gorbena, owner of Tamales, questioned city officials' claim that the new regulations were focused on education.

“If this is all about education, forcing us to ask for vaccine cards is not educating anybody. That's forcing us to do something. That's not educating us," Gorbena said.

“I don’t know what we’re free to do anymore," he said. "I don’t know what’s right and wrong. It’s difficult to tell in today’s society.”

More than a half-dozen people spoke during the period of the meeting devoted to public comment, with a majority supporting the mandate.

One resident, a 74-year-old diabetic, said the regulation would make her feel comfortable dining inside again. Another suggested it was unfair to exclude unvaccinated children from on-premise dining since they have no control over whether they will get vaccinated.

Many others emailed comments, with nearly all of those that elected to be read into the record voicing opposition to the vaccination proof mandate.

"I understand nobody likes this. Nobody likes these mandates. Nobody wants to move forward with mask mandates and all of this," Rotering said. "However, we're in the middle of a pandemic. We're wrapping up the second year of a pandemic. Millions have died around the world, and millions more have been sick, and we're doing what we can to try to balance the interests of what's best for our community."

This article originally appeared on the Highland Park Patch