TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) — When it comes to addressing impacts seen due to COVID-19, Leon County Commission Chairman Rick Minor says he is open to a special meeting.
"With the new changes in Florida Law, we need to be very thoughtful on what steps we take to make sure that the options, if we were to have an emergency meeting, we need to make sure that those options are available to us at a legal standpoint."
On August 27, Commissioner Kristin Dozier sent a letter to Minor requesting that the board meet ahead of the commission’s next scheduled meeting in September.
In the letter, Dozier cited the increase in the county’s positivity rate with the Delta variant, along with low vaccination rates in Leon County communities for a need to see if the county could be doing more.
"I think this is a critical time in our community," said Dozier. "We have been doing this far too long. We've lost too many people and we need to really make sure that we have all hands on deck to push forward, get control of this variant and hopefully prevent another surge in the future."
At the request of Chairman Minor on Monday, the board of commissioners received information from the county administrator on hospitalizations, vaccinations and the use of funding to address pandemic impacts.
When it comes to ways the county could further look at stopping the spread with a countywide mask mandate, Minor says with changes to state laws, there is now a higher standard for policies like mask mandates to mitigate the virus.
"We need to be very deliberative in how we move forward. Before we jump, we have to know where we’re going to land," Minor said.
If a special meeting is not called, commissioners are scheduled to meet again on September 14.
Editor’s Note:
This story has been updated to correct a previous version that indicated that Commissioner Minor denied Commissioner Dozier’s request for a special meeting.
