CADDO MASK ORDINANCE NEEDS FURTHER CLARIFICATION BEFORE ENACTED

The amended mask  ordinance approved fo the Commission vote on Thurs. July 9  needs more clarification.

Initially it does NOT have an effective date. The original draft had an "effective on passage" language which is clearly impractical if not illegal.

Commissioner John-Paul Young,  author of the amended ordinance, has advised an effective date of Friday July 10 at 5 p.m. will be suggested as an amendment.

Unlike Shreveport mayor Adrian Perkin's emergency executive mask order, the Commission ordinance does NOT have an "end date. " (The mayor's order is for 30 days, subject to renewal.)

The mask requirement will thus be required UNTIL  the commission approves by a majority vote to repeal the same. Some citizens have suggested that the ordinance should have a required review date, or better yet have an expiration date that could be extended by a commission vote.

Additionally the amended ordinance does NOT include a sample business sign that must be posted--NO Mask, NO service. Young advises that the sign mandated in the Shreveport mask order will be offered as an amendment tomorrow.

The ordinance on the agenda for Thursday also will have language--that is yet to be drafted--authorizing or directing the parish administrator to hire private persons/entities  to monitor compliance by businesses and establishments with the ordinance. In other words, to check to see if the mask mandate is to be enforced by business owners.

Presumably these private persons/entities would only report a suspected violation and provide appropriate documentation to the Caddo Parish Sheriff's office. The costs for such monitoring service is not known.