TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) — Tuesday, Commissioners will discuss whether to implement a face covering requirement within Leon County Government facilities as well as whether to implement a requirement for Tourism grant recipients to require face coverings at County-funded events.
"My intent is to really focus on those public spaces and how best can we protect the public," says District 5 commissioner Kristin Dozier.
Commissioners called a special meeting last Tuesday as their only chance to discuss the possibility of enforcing a mask mandate before this Tuesday's regularly scheduled meeting.
Commissioner Kristin Dozier told ABC27, "One of the reasons I thought it important to meet ahead of our regular meeting on the 14th was so that we could ask some of these questions."
Answers to those questions could possibly help commissioners avoid strict legal scrutiny while still doing everything in their power to increase mask wearing and vaccination rates.
Monday, Governor Ron Desantis warned, "In the state of Florida, you can not as a government agency fire somebody based on this decision," responding to President Biden's recent mandate that all businesses with 100 or more employees ensure their workforce is fully vaccinated.
But as cases rise by the day without a matching increase in vaccination rates, commissioners are now more eager than ever to bring about positive change in the spaces they can legally control.
"There are ways to build on the really good work Leon County has done in the past 18 months as we keep trying to address the COVID crisis, the delta surge, and hopefully we'll prevent any future surges from happening," Dozier said.
Tuesday's meeting starts at 3pm.
