GOSHEN — While the city’s COVID-19 health fine ordinance may be stuck in limbo, Goshen’s mayor says plans are already in the works for moving forward with a focused education initiative aimed at improving local business compliance with county COVID-19 mitigation efforts.
In an address before the Goshen City Council Tuesday, Mayor Jeremy Stutsman touched briefly on his plans for moving forward with the new city-led program, which he has proposed as an alternative to the COVID-19 mitigation ordinance that the council failed to pass on second reading during a special meeting Dec. 7.
Had it been approved, the ordinance would have authorized use of city staff to help enforce Elkhart County’s COVID-19 health fine ordinance, which was approved by the Elkhart County Board of Commissioners Nov. 30 in an effort to slow the rampant spread of the virus.
As approved, the county’s ordinance outlines a countywide incremental fine structure for businesses found to be violating orders, including a requirement for face mask usage, issued by the Elkhart County Health Department earlier this year.
Set to take effect Thursday, the ordinance calls for first-time violators to work with health department staff on complying with the rules. But a second violation could lead to fines of up to $2,500. Three or more violations could result in fines of up to $5,000.
While originally in favor of the city’s ordinance supporting the county health fine law, Stutsman announced in a news release late last week that he had decided to change course away from the proposed ordinance, tabling its second reading indefinitely in favor of working with the Goshen Chamber of Commerce and other local business leaders on a “focused education and outreach to businesses” utilizing informational packets, direct consultations and on-site visits.
A TOUGH DECISION
“It was a very tough decision. Things aren’t always black and white with my job, and there is often times you’ve got to think about several affects that something you’re trying to do would have, and also the pluses and the minuses,” Stutsman said of his decision to table the ordinance. “I thought I saw an opening for a path of doing the education piece with the business community. So, I wanted to attempt that before we went down the road of fines.
“Right now, our ordinance has passed first reading, and it’s still sitting on the table, and it could come back for second reading for another vote,” he added. “But during the presentation, when I brought this to the council, I said that we really wanted to stress the education piece, and we were hopeful we wouldn’t have to write any fines. When I saw that door opening, I was hopeful that maybe we could make that work without having that ordinance actually instituted.”
Stutsman informed the council that he had met with chamber officials Tuesday to begin the discussion on how best to move forward with his education initiative. The mayor said he expects to release more information about that process later this week.
“We’re starting off with creating two teams that are going to go out with packets of information,” Stutsman said of the plan. “There’s something we want to make sure that our community knows, and that our county knows: we have governor’s orders, and we have county orders. The governor’s orders, every last bit of that is in the county order. The governor has given the counties the ability to be more stringent in certain areas, depending on what that county’s needs are. So, we really need our community focusing on the county order. That is going to have everything the governor’s order has, plus whatever the county officers have strengthened.”
Stutsman said the primary goal of his new outreach effort will be to ensure that all city businesses know what COVID-19 rules they need to follow, and how best to implement their individual mitigation plans moving forward in order to ensure they are in compliance with the county’s ordinance.
“We’re going to make sure that they know where to get the signs, and give them sample plans so that they can have those created,” Stutsman said. “This outreach is going to start quickly. And then, as the county is receiving on their hotline the complaints, Goshen will still be getting those, and we’ll still be able to respond to those.
“It’s my belief, and my hope, that the business community in Goshen will respond to this, and work with us,” he added. “If they don’t, if we see our numbers going up while Elkhart’s are going down over the next few weeks, if anything like that happens, we still have the option of bringing back the ordinance for second reading, and discussing how that moves forward.”
COUNTY AUTHORITY
For his part, council president Brett Weddell noted that even without the city’s ordinance, the county — through the board of commissioners’ ordinance — still has the authority to investigate and fine city businesses for failing to abide by the COVID-19 safety protocols outlined in the county ordinance.
“The county’s ordinance is still in play, and so those fines are still in play in the city of Goshen,” Weddell said. “The county officers can come and enforce it in the city of Goshen.”
Stutsman agreed.
“The difficult thing here that we’re working with is, we do have very different communities within Elkhart County,” Stutsman said. “Nappanee is its own entity, Goshen and Elkhart, we all have different populations, different businesses, and we’re all finding what we believe is the best way for us to move forward during COVID-19 with working with our communities. So, there will be some differences, even though the mayors, and the commissioners, are on the same footing of what we need to do to get ahead of COVID-19.
“So, we’ll keep working on this. It’s what we’ve been working hard on all year, and I feel Goshen has made some very, very good steps throughout the year keeping our city employees safe, and really speaking out to the community and going above and beyond with a lot of communication,” he added. “We’re going to continue that, and we’re going to step it up in this direct piece of making sure businesses know what they’re supposed to be doing directly.”