WINNSBORO – A Fairfield County council resolution encourages
but won’t require people to wear masks during the coronavirus pandemic.
In a unanimous vote Monday, council approved the resolution.
It asks residents and visitors to wear “face coverings when in public locations
where social distancing is not possible.”
“The main thing is that we can do our part to promote
safety. That’s the way I look at it,” Council Chairman Neil Robinson said.
Council’s action comes as Fairfield County’s total reported
cases hit 381 as of Tuesday, according to the S.C. Department of Health and
Environmental Control.
The resolution stated Fairfield County reported 318 cases as
of July 8, meaning the county added 53 new cases in the past six days.
South Carolina added 2,205 new cases Tuesday, just shy of
the record of 2,219 cases reported three days earlier. DHEC reported 23
confirmed deaths.
The state’s percent of positive rate was 21.5 percent,
according to DHEC reports.
In spite of the continuing escalation of COVID-19 in the
state, Fairfield County Council stopped short of mandating masks and face
coverings as other counties and cities have done.
The Town of Winnsboro adopted a mask mandate on 30. Richland
County, the Town of Blythewood and the City of Columbia have also passed
ordinances requiring masks.
Counties have received conflicting messages from the state
on whether or not they can legally adopt ordinances requiring masks.
At a July 10 press conference, Gov. Henry McMaster expressed
opposition to a state mask mandate, saying that task should fall to local
governments.
“Things like masks, there are over 5 million people in South
Carolina. Cities, counties … they’re taking local action for the local people.
That’s fine,” McMaster said. “But the state would have a difficult time
enforcing a statewide mask order. One size doesn’t fit all.”
On June 25, state Attorney General Alan Wilson released a
statement saying cities have the power to adopt mask ordinances, but did not
specifically say whether or not counties have the same authority.
Can Counties Order Masks?
“A city can pass this type of ordinance. Our state
constitution and state laws have given cities the authority to pass these types
of ordinances under the doctrine of Home Rule,” Wilson said. “The basic premise
behind the Home Rule doctrine is to empower local governments (i.e., towns,
cities and counties) to effectively govern themselves without interference from
state government.”
County attorney Tommy Morgan raised the ambiguity issue
during Monday night’s council meeting, along with a litany of other potential
legal issues.
Morgan said if a mask ordinance isn’t uniformly applied to
all businesses and types of people, it could be challenged.
“[Because] this would be something that impacts a person’s
physical nature, that would probably lead a court to give a strict scrutiny to
those types of ordinances,” Morgan said. “An ordinance that says one class of
business has different restrictions than others, in my opinion, could be
constitutionally challenged.”
Enforcement Is Another Issue.
The council cannot require the sheriff to prosecute mask
ordinance violations because it lacks that authority since the sheriff is an
elected official. Code enforcement officials could not handle enforcement
either since they handle specific cases, such as animal control and litter,
Morgan said.
“The county could find itself with an inability to enforce
it,” he said.
Morgan went on to cite other issues, such as budgetary
constraints and infrastructure. For example, the city of Columbia is using
parking attendants to enforce mask violations, but Fairfield County does not
have parking meter attendants.
Also, the county would need a special ticket to serve as the
charity document. A simple uniform traffic citation would not suffice, Morgan
added.
Council members did not push for a mandatory mask ordinance.
Most said the most important thing they could do was to
educate residents about the benefits of wearing masks, which health officials
say help prevent passing the coronavirus to others. Council members also noted
that in the media there’s a daily blitz about why masks should be worn when
social distancing isn’t possible.
“If individuals in the county are not encouraged by now to
wear face coverings, then I don’t know what else to say,” Councilman Douglas
Pauley said.
