Nashua Mayor Jim Donchess is supporting a proposed amendment to the city mask ordinance, which requires that masks be worn in all public places in Nashua. The existing mask ordinance has a fine up to $1,000 and it is enforced by local law enforcement but the amendment would turn businesses into the mask police.
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From the Mayor’s remarks at the August 11 Nashua Board of Aldermen meeting:
Now on the Agenda tonight is an amendment to the mask ordinance which we all passed, which was proposed by the Board of Health, which you all passed in recent months. The amendment would add some clarification to the mask requirement. First of all, working with the Police Department and the Police Department has been doing a very good job of encouraging compliance without formally citing anyone.
The Ordinance would be amended to make it clear that the owner of the business, the business which is open to the public such as a store, a supermarket and the like, has a responsibility to ensure that the people who enter the business, the customers are wearing masks. And the reason for that is that it helps the Police Department focus on someone when there is a situation where people are not on in compliance; helps the PD to focus on a responsible person with whom to discuss the need to ask the customers to wear a mask.
Businesses would be required to enforce the wearing of masks by their customers or force those customers to leave. Business owners who do not follow the new rules could be turned in by their own customers or fellow business owners and fined by the police.
My concern from the beginning with the mask ordinance has been that our Nashua small businesses, already struggling under COVID restrictions, would lose customers. I can’t imagine how tough it will be for these businesses to send badly needed customers away, perhaps never to return.
The New Hampshire Retail Association, New Hampshire Grocers Association, and New Hampshire Lodging and Restaurant Association are pushing back against this onerous proposal, according to the Union Leader:
“This is going on all over the country. Our national associations and retail leaders are adamant that retailers shouldn’t be policing this,” Nancy Kyle, president of the New Hampshire Retail Association, said Thursday.
“In some instances these would be 16-year-old kids who are being asked to enforce this,” said Kyle, stressing confrontations about mask use have already led to verbal and physical altercations throughout the nation.
I had a “chat” with Nashua Alderman Tom Lopez during a Coffee with the Mayor event on Facebook Live and remarked to him that, “I know you care about the struggling small businesses in your ward. Please seek their input before you vote on this update to the mask ordinance.” This was his response.
I appreciate that Beth but you’re about eight weeks behind the curve.
I contributed to the proposed changes based on employee and manager feedback. The smaller businesses are largely compliant, with some exceptions in smoke shops where… I mean… We don’t want them to set their masks on fire… …but many businesses are very intimidated having to call police as a first step. They have expressed a lot of concerns about outbreaks among staff as well. There is also miscommunication about what the ordinance actually is.
I have been checking very regularly with businesses, particularly in making sure their staff are getting masks that they are comfortable wearing, and they are coordinating with the city’s slack feed for economic trouble shooting. This IS the result of those interactions, as well as those of upcoming public health conditions in the fall.
Alderman Lopez says businesses are intimidated about calling the police. If businesses are afraid of the police, this amendment will only make things worse because the police will come looking for the business owners.