The Butte County Board of Supervisors declined Tuesday to vote on any recommendations regarding indoor masking mandates amid a surge in COVID-19 cases.
While the county’s public health officer has sole discretion in issuing a mask mandate, the Public Health Department had asked the Board of Supervisors for direction.
Three out of five supervisors, however, made clear they were against issuing an indoor masking mandate in Butte County. They included Bill Connelly, Doug Teeter and Tod Kimmelshue.
Kimmelshue said he believes in masks and vaccines but thinks people should be free to make their own decisions. He added that public health officials themselves believe enforcing a mask mandate would be near impossible.
“I’m not willing to mandate anything that cannot be enforced,” he said.
Butte County is seeing a surge in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations. Supervisor Debra Lucero noted counties with indoor masking mandates have seen case numbers decline.
“The idea that Butte, Shasta, Siskiyou have three times and four times the case rate and hospitalization rate as San Francisco and LA should be enough evidence for anybody in here to understand that indoor masking works,” she said.
Connelly, the board’s chair, said he was against mask mandates but noted that the Board of Supervisors doesn’t have the authority to issue them. That authority lies with Butte County’s public health officer.
The board ultimately ended its discussion without recommending anything regarding mask mandates to the local Public Health Department.
The Public Health Department didn’t immediately announce whether it will require people to wear masks in indoor public settings, or not.
