Milwaukee Alders Raise Concerns About Lifting Mask Requirement June 1

Steve Hawthorne says he has closely followed science throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and has invested money to keep his employees safe. Now, the owner of Hawthorne Coffee Roasters on Milwaukee’s south side believes it’s time to end the mask mandate in the city.

“I definitely share the concern for keeping unmasked children safe, but I am confident in my ability as a parent to keep my children safe and employing the skills we have learned over the last year,” Hawthorn said Wednesday, testifying during a special hearing held by the Milwaukee Common Council’s Public Safety and Health Committee. “For my business, my employees and I are going to meet to determine how we are going to handle operations after June 1. We’ll make our decisions based on science.”

As COVID-19 cases dwindle in Wisconsin, Milwaukee and communities across the state continue to grapple with how best and how quickly to ease public health restrictions.

On May 18, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and Health Commissioner Kirsten Johnson announced the city’s mask requirements and other limitations would be lifted June 1.

Two days later, Alders Marina Dimitrijevic and Cavalier Johnson said more transparency and discussion was needed around the decision and called for the special hearing. During Wednesday’s proceedings, it was clear alders were upset they were not involved in Barrett and Johnson’s decision to end the mask mandate.

“Considering since the day we were sworn in, and I was chair of this committee, this was item No. 1, it was certainly surprising and disappointing that we had no idea this was going to happen,” Dimitrijevic said.

She was echoed by several other council members who expressed frustration they weren’t told about the order being lifted. Still, after 90 minutes of discussion, Dimitrijevic admitted the council has no authority over setting or lifting health orders and the meeting was only being held to express concerns.

About 48 percent of city residents have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, but vaccination access has not been equal across the city.

One neighborhood on the city’s west side still has a vaccine rate of 21 percent.

Several alders said they are worried Black and brown people were not being vaccinated and were at heightened risk for contracting COVID-19 with the mask mandate expiring.

“I don’t think anyone in this meeting can feel good about a 20 percent vaccination rate, and I don’t believe 80 percent of people are hesitant, and we have been suggesting they are,” Dimitrijevic said. “And when you rescind the health order, you are symbolically suggesting that things are over, and they are not.”

Johnson repeatedly told the committee Wednesday that masking is not a substitute for vaccination and her department would continue to put its resources toward getting people vaccinated.

She said the decision to lift the mask mandate was not based on the vaccine rate but rather the prevalence of the virus in the community and the continued decline in cases. There are about 52 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people in Milwaukee, Johnson said.

“Every decision that has been made in this pandemic has been incredibly difficult,” Johnson said. “Expiring the health order does not mean we couldn’t put it back in place. If we were in a scenario like we were last year, I would not hesitate to put another health order in place.”