Centralia city workers will be required to wear a mask unless there is a public safety reason not to do so.
The council was unanimous in support of the resolution at Monday night’s city council meeting.
City Manager Lowell Crow was asked what would happen if an employee didn’t wear a mask.
“The policy says they are subject to discipline if they don’t wear a mask. Talking to our labor attorney in both O’Fallon and Trenton, they are suspending them if they don’t wear their masks, if they are caught or reported.”
But Crow says there exceptions and he pointed to firefighters who do not wear masks as part of their gear on calls.
“The department had to make a judgment because of the safety involved in the work at that point they didn’t have to wear a mask and that was specifically brought to us by the Fire Chief. And I cleared it through our labor attorney and that is fine by our guidelines.”
Crow noted city hall staff were not wearing masks when alone in their offices but were required to do so when they were in contact with other employees or members of the public.
Councilman David Sauer doesn’t feel the request is out of line.
“I like for this to be minimally intrusive in people’s lives but I do think we have light at the end of the tunnel now on a very dangerous, killed over 300,000 Americans, more contagious now than ever, but we have a vaccine on the horizon I think it’s totally appropriate to mandate masks from our employees who have contact obviously with so many members of the public.”
Sauer noted the resolution requires a review every 90 days to make sure it fits with current CDC guidelines.
