KS suburbs want Johnson County to take responsibility for mask mandate

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Prairie Village trying to pass the blame for the coronavirus? Bigstock

Despite the raging number of COVID-19 cases, local leaders, even in the town my conservative friends like to call the “Prairie Village People’s Republic” are loath to bring back a public mask warrant.

But they are more than willing to ask the Johnson County Commission to do so and take the heat for it.

“Is that called passing the buck?” Asks County Commissioner Charlotte O’Hara.

Appearing to think the county dropped the ball on COVID-19 measures, Prairie Village city council members quickly gave up on any idea of ​​reinstating their own town mask tenure on Monday – but ended up voting 11-1 for ask the county to do something.

Exactly what is not clear. Council member Bonnie Limbird’s original motion called on county commissioners “to institute some county-wide mask mandate”. But the ensuing discussion of the motion was more vague, and a letter to the county on Tuesday called for only “more proactive efforts by the county commissioners council to further mitigate the spread of COVID in our community.”

Council member Dave Robinson was less opaque, telling his colleagues his disappointment with the Johnson County Department of Health and Environment: I think we all call as serious, is calm and n it’s not up front and to be more consultative, consulting and showing a little more leadership. I mean, I think that’s what I would expect from an organization like this.

In response, the department said in a statement that it “has been very consistent in informing the public and policymakers about the potential consequences of not taking appropriate action to mitigate the uncontrolled spread of the virus in the community.” But he said the Kansas legislature had turned the power to issue public health orders over to the county commission, and the mitigation ultimately “takes all of us.”

As O’Hara and county commission chairman Ed Eilert both noted, there’s nothing stopping cities from enacting their own mask mandates. Prairie Village Mayor Eric Mikkelson told council it was unlikely that many municipalities, except for a “small handful of towns in northeast Johnson County at most”, would agree to new mandates. “I would say the majority of towns in Johnson County are done with this. Mask warrants are not on the table, and probably will not be, for various reasons, ”he said.

So I guess I’m wondering why they would expect the county to do something that they are not prepared to do on their own. “It’s called the dodge ball,” says O’Hara.

“We’ve been there before, I’ll put it that way,” Eilert said of other people raising the issue at the county’s feet. Indeed, local school districts were more than happy to encourage the county’s no-opt-out mask mandate for elementary school students. In this way, school boards did not have to be cumbersome.

“I don’t think the county has the guts to do this,” O’Hara said of a new public office. “I just can’t imagine we’re going to try again. “

The rules of elementary school on the chopping block then?

“We need a new order of public health,” adds Eilert. “And that’s not the order of the day.” In fact, commissioners were due to consider Thursday whether to lift the current mandate of the school mask for elementary classes.

The average number of cases hit a new record in the Kansas City subway on Tuesday, as the region has exceeded 250,000 total cases since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. At Children’s Mercy, a record 27 children were hospitalized on Tuesday and 293 staff were quarantined. Meanwhile, the University of Kansas health system was treating 120 COVID patients this week, three times more than on December 1, and some 500 staff were sick or waiting to know if they were.

The bottom line: masks are definitely still needed. And warrants are the only real way to generalize their use. But if mandates aren’t politically possible in Prairie Village – a tight-knit, tight-knit community that has always been at the forefront of mitigation efforts – then they’re likely not possible in Johnson County.

The political will is simply not there to end this virus.

Kansas City Star Stories

The Star’s Michael Ryan, from Kansas City, is an award-winning columnist, columnist and seasoned journalist, having covered law enforcement, courts, politics and more. His written opinion led him to conclude that freedom, civility, civility and individual responsibility are the most important issues of the day.

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