Gov. Laura Kelly and some leading Kansas business groups are colliding over the statewide mask mandate as the battle over balancing public health against government regulation heightens amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Business leaders from a handful of groups, including the Kansas Chamber of Commerce, the Kansas Livestock Association and the National Federation of Independent Business, sent a letter to the governor Friday calling for the mask mandate to be repealed.
Instead, they want a public information campaign on the value of wearing masks, including when a mask would be most beneficial to public health.
Meanwhile, the Kelly administration has been recruiting business leaders to sign a letter asking local governments to adopt the governor’s statewide mandate requiring facial coverings indoors and in outdoor locations where social distancing isn’t possible.
The letter, circulated by the governor’s administration, comes after about 90 Kansas counties opted out of adopting the governor’s executive order for masks.
“As cases of COVID-19 continue to rise in Kansas and across the country, we have seen an outpouring of support for the governor’s executive order on masks from Kansans of all walks of life,” the governor’s office said in a statement when asked about the letter.
“Unfortunately there have been elected officials who have chosen politics over public health in response to the order.”
The governor’s office didn’t answer specific questions about the letter such as who it was being sent to, how many people have agreed to sign the correspondence or if it had been sent to anyone as of Friday afternoon.
“The governor has and will continue to encourage Kansas stakeholders including teachers, business owners, public health officials to publicly voice their support for the commonsense measure that is one of the best tools we have to fight the spread of the virus,” the office said.
A draft copy of the letter circulated as late as this week suggests that it would be sent by business leaders and local chambers of commerce.
“We, chamber of commerce officials and members of the business community from across the state, are writing today to urge local officials in Kansas to support and adopt Gov. Laura Kelly’s order mandating mask use in public spaces,” according to a copy of the letter that contained no date.
“Masks encourage business and commerce. They allow Kansans to safely go to the grocery store, visit a local boutique, or dine in at a restaurant without having to worry about compromising their health, or the health of those around them.
“That’s why we were surprised and disheartened when a majority of counties across the state chose to opt out of the order, and strongly encourage mask usage rather than enforce it,” the letter said.
“County officials must vote to adopt Gov. Kelly’s mask order so that we can avoid another shutdown, continue on the road to economic recovery and keep each other safe and healthy.”
Meanwhile, the business community is starting to galvanize against the mask mandate, raising questions about whether it is legal.
The letter from the chamber and the other groups raises constitutional and operational questions about the governor’s executive order.
The letter targets language in the governor’s executive order that says businesses must require all employees, customers, visitors or members of the public to wear a mask under certain circumstances.
“The business community believes that this creates constitutional issues by delegating the enforcement of a law to private business rather than public officers, the letter states.
“The order is overtly vague on how far a business must go to enforce the mask requirement, the letter says.
The governor’s office did not respond to a question about the letter from business groups asking for the mandate to be repealed.
Among other things, the business leaders are asking:
- If an employee refuses to wear a mask, is the business required to take disciplinary
action against an employee or risk violating the executive order? - If an employee claims a medical exemption from the executive order, is an employer required to verify the medical exemption, or accept the employee’s claim?
- Are businesses required to bar access to a customer who refuses to wear a mask?
“The order creates a lot of legal questions, particularly about requiring businesses to be an enforcement agency,” said Alan Cobb, president and chief executive officer of the Kansas Chamber of Commerce.
“I understand the intent. I think the intent is good. They want people to wear masks,” he said. “There are some very practical problems with this.”
The governor issued the executive order as coronavirus cases climbed as the economy reopened and people started gathering in masses again.
Earlier this week, the state set another benchmark for its worst two-week increase in COVID-19 infections since the pandemic hit the state in the spring.
The state health department on Monday reported 982 more confirmed coronavirus cases since the Friday before, an increase of 6% that brought the number of infections to 16,901.
It also reported another three COVID-19-related deaths, giving the state 280 during the course of the pandemic.
On Friday morning, the state health department reported 18,611 cases from 100 counties with 284 deaths.
Aaron Popelka, vice president of legal and government affairs for the Livestock Association, called on the governor to work with the businesses on an information campaign. He said the issue raises a lot of questions for businesses in rural Kansas.
“There ought to be a more robust public information campaign that we think just wasn’t done,” Popelka said.
“The governor does her press releases, but there’s no real coordinated campaign. No one asked businesses, ‘What do you think about this?’ It was just dropped on us.”
