Seminole commissioner calls for end to county’s mask mandate
Seminole Commissioner Amy Lockhart said that as more residents become vaccinated against COVID-19, she wants the county’s current order mandating facial coverings in public places lifted on June 7 and replaced with a resolution encouraging people to wear masks.
“This is not an anti-mask resolution. It’s an anti-government-mandate resolution,” she said. “It made sense a year ago to implement that [executive order] because there were so many unknowns. But now the landscape has changed. Hospitalizations are declining and plateauing. We have wonderful vaccination programs…I think that this is where government needs to step back and allow people to make decisions on their own personal circumstances.”
Without comment, commissioners agreed on Tuesday to discuss and possibly vote on doing away with the near year-long mandate at the next board meeting on April 27.
On July 1, as Seminole officials and health officials became alarmed at the rapid surge in the number of coronavirus cases and hospitalizations at that time, they put in place an executive order that required everyone wear a mask when they are inside a business or attending any other public gathering indoors.
But Seminole authorities never issued any citations to violators, and county officials later said that the order “is intended as a measure to seek voluntary compliance…and to educate and warn of the dangers of noncompliance.”
Lockhart’s request came a day after Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings announced that his staff and county health officials have started looking into plans to reduce some restrictions relating to COVID-19, including the wearing of facial coverings, as more than a quarter of Orange residents have received at least one shot of a vaccine.
Lockhart said she is fine with businesses requiring customers to wear masks. She added that the Centers for Disease Control recommends, but does not mandate, people wear masks in public areas. Still, the federal government requires masks on public transportation, including planes, trains, ships, and subways.
“I’m not saying that you should not wear a mask,” Lockhart said. “We need to allow people to assess their own risks.”
She pointed out that Seminole began vaccinating people on Dec. 28 and since April 5, all residents 18 years and older have had an opportunity to receive a vaccine. As of this week, more than 144,000 Seminole residents have received either one or both shots of a vaccine.
That means, according to Lockhart, that “by June 7, there would have been two weeks for the full protection after the second dose” for nearly all Seminole residents and therefore a mask mandate is no longer needed.
Lockhart added that her proposed resolution would not conflict with the Seminole School District’s mask mandate because students, teachers and staff would have finished the current school year by that time.
Resident Gerald Martin said at Tuesday’s meeting that he is fed up with mandates requiring people to wear masks in public places.
“I’m just done with it. I just want to be free,” he said.
Longwood resident Kelly Chilson called mandates requiring facial coverings “unjustified.”
“This order has been an abuse of power,” she said.
According to the CDC, masks help stop the spread of the virus from people who have COVID-19, even those who might not show symptoms, to other people. That’s because wearing a face mask limits the exposure and broadcasting of respiratory droplets and large particles from a person who is infected.
Lockhart said she fully supported the mask mandate last year when hospitalizations were rising, and a vaccine was not available. But now it’s time to ease the restriction, she said.
“It was put in at a time when things looked pretty scary,” she said.
In other county action this week, Seminole commissioners agreed to hold a closed-door meeting at 2 p.m. on April 21 to discuss a new settlement proposal pitched by developer Chris Dorworth regarding his highly controversial River Cross project that would do away with a pair of lawsuits he filed against the county.
Under Florida’s Sunshine Law, public officials can meet in private to only discuss litigation strategy. However, minutes of those meetings are required to be kept, and any decisions or actions must be made at a public meeting.
The River Cross development originally proposed by Dorworth in 2018 called for 600 single-family homes, 270 townhouses, 500 apartments and 1.5 million square feet of commercial and professional space on the land just north of the Orange County border and west of County Road 419.
After Seminole commissioners unanimously rejected River Cross plans — following opposition from hundreds of residents who said it would destroy the county’s rural area — Dorworth filed lawsuits in federal and state courts.
According to the settlement proposal submitted to the county on April 1, Dorworth suggests the county carve out the 669 acres just east of the Econlockhatchee River from Seminole’s development-restricted rural boundary. He then would submit plans for a mixed-use development with an average density of no more than two homes per acre – or up to 1,338 residential units – and 200,000 square feet of space for offices, stores and restaurants, a slight decrease from his original application.
