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Cordell Mayor Jerry Beech Beacon File Photo
The City of Cordell stepped up its response to the COVID-19 pandemic last week, as Mayor Jerry Beech issued a new declaration of emergency and added new restrictions to the ordinance adopted by the city council last month.
The new order reiterates the revocation of all pending event permits on all city property, but also adds that all city parks and recreation facilities are officially closed to the public.
The city has also announced that it will modify its garbage collection practices. Under the new order, the city will no longer pick up any trash that is not placed inside the city-issued Republic Services containers, including tree limbs. The order further states that any refuse left on the curb outside of the approved containers will subject the property owner to citations.
Beech also increased the restrictions on in-person gatherings of 10 or more people, such as “community, civic, public leisure, faith-based, or sporting events; parades, concerts, festivals, conventions, fundraisers, and similar activities.” Under the council-approved ordinance such gatherings were “strongly discouraged.” The new declaration orders them to be canceled.
The final change relates to “restaurants, convenience stores, and other privately owned gathering places.” The March 18 ordinance alllowed such places to provide carry-out service in addition to curbside pick-up and delivery options. The new declaration allows only for curbside pick-up and delivery. Carry-out service is now prohibited. The order further prohibits the purchase of any item from these establishments that isn’t a pre-packaged, off-the-shelf item.
At least one local businessman is unhappy with the mayor’s order.
Sarom Lim, with Molly’s Donuts in Cordell, expressed his displeasure. He said an unidentified city employee and a uniformed police officer visited his shop on Tuesday, April 7, and demanded that he lock his lobby doors and provide only curbside or delivery services.
Lim, who had already discontinued dine-in service, told The Beacon he had previously spoken with the health inspector and had been assured that he could continue to serve take-out customers at his counter as long as they took their food and left. All of his food items are kept in cases that are only accessible from behind the counter; there is no public access to the items.
“The city should be smarter than this,” he said. “People walk into other places to buy things. We’re doing all of the things the health department has told us to do.”
Another business owner, who spoke on condition of anonymity, questioned the mayor’s authority to make such a unilateral declaration.
The declaration cites unspecified “provisions of state law” as justification for the declaration. When asked what specific provision of state law the declaration referenced, city administrator J.C. Moser repled, “It is to protect public health and prevent the introduction and spreading of a contagious disease.”
When further pressed to provide the specific authority, Moser referenced Oklahoma statute §11-22-120:
“Public health, hospitals, quarantine, and environmental hazards.
A. The municipal governing body may enact and enforce such ordinances, rules and regulations as it deems necessary for the protection of the public health, not inconsistent with state law; and may establish and regulate hospitals, and provide for their operation and support. The governing body may make regulations to prevent the introduction of contagious diseases into the municipality and may enforce quarantine laws within five (5) miles of the municipal limits.”
The referenced statute, however, grants no such authority to the mayor. The authority and responsibility to create and enforce such ordinances lies solely in the hands of the muncipal governing body - the city council.
The council met in emergency session to enact the March 18 ordinance, but as of 8:00 a.m., Tuesday, April 14, no such meeting to ratify the mayor’s new decree had been posted at city hall, despite there being no provision in Oklahoma law or Cordell city code to allow the mayor to amend an ordinance lawfully enacted by the council.
The restrictions are slated to stay in place until further notice, although a “reevaluation of needs” is supposed to take place in 30 days.