On Tuesday, Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego, following Mayors Coral Evans of Flagstaff and Regina Romero of Tucson declared a State of Emergency for the city because of the threat of the Coronavirus.
This proclamation called for the closure of public social gathering locations like restaurants and bars.
Since then Tempe Mayor Mark Mitchell has proclaimed similar guidelines as has Mesa Mayor John Giles.
Some members of the Phoenix City Council have reservations about allowing Gallego to unilaterally declare the State of Emergency.
Council Member Laura Pastor wants assurances that the food industry workers are taken care of while they are laid off.
Pastor and three other Council Members (Betty Guardado, Michael Nowakowski, and Carlos Garcia) issued a joint statement that said in part:
“To declare a ‘Great Emergency’ is to put one person solely in charge of all decisions.”
A required City Council Meeting, per city code, on March 18, 2020, to discuss and ratify the declaration lasted four hours with the only agreed upon vote was to continue the discussion and vote on the matter on Friday, March 20.
Social gathering locations like bars and restaurants remain closed.
Mayor Gallego responded to the concerns of the Council Members by speaking out through public statements through her office, social media, and interviews.
In the public statement released through her office, the Mayor said in part:
“……At this point, we are not only battling the virus, we are battling time. For every moment of inaction, we will, unfortunately, pay the price with the lives of residents………My decision to declare a state of emergency to temporarily change the operations of bars and restaurants in Phoenix was made after in-depth conversations with medical professionals, business leaders, and community groups. The medical professionals I spoke with said that doctors will be forced to make heartbreaking decisions about who gets a ventilator and who doesn’t. That’s why acting now, not later, is so crucial. By making decisions centered around one goal—stopping the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic—we are able to better collaborate on the many challenges that lie ahead, including economic recovery…..”
On social media, the Mayor repeated the urgency of maintaining the State of Emergency, posting on Facebook:
“Current models project that at the peak of #COVID19, likely in late Spring to early Summer, 17 of every 100,000 Americans will die per day. Phoenix has 1.7 million residents, that translates to 289 deaths a day related to this virus. The equivalent of a deadly plane crash—every single day.”
“Every minute wasted on anything other than stopping this virus is a life lost. #StopTheSpread.”
In an interview with KTAR Radio 92.3 FM, Mayor Gallego maintained:
“I want to do my part as mayor of Phoenix to stem the spread of COVID-19. I have the authority … to put in protections to keep our community safe.”
Yassamin Ansari, a candidate for Phoenix City Council District Seven this November agreed with Mayor Gallego, tweeting:
“This is wild to me.”
“Saving lives & protecting workers during a global pandemic is not an either/or.”
“Doctors & medical professionals are literally begging elected leaders to shut everything down so they can avoid as many deaths as possible. We have to listen.”
#StopTheSpread
Ansari is right. If the scientific and medical specialists are saying that social distancing measures as Mayor Gallego and the other Arizona Mayors have outlined will hinder the spread of the virus, then there really is no choice.
Of course, the workers should be protected from the financial hardships that will befall them but that is for local, state, and national government agencies to remedy through policy and legislative prescriptions.
Of course, no one wants Mayors to become local dictators. That is not happening here and if these council members really believed that, they could set up a time-specific review process, complete with scientific and medical specialist input, to ascertain if the need for the Emergency is valid after a certain interval.
This is not rocket science.
People need to be safe from this virus. They can not go back to work if they are ill or worse because the Phoenix City Council did not do the right thing and ratify the State of Emergency.
Hopefully, they will listen to science and see reason and reality on the afternoon of March 20, 2020.
UPDATE: The Phoenix City Council unanimously upheld Mayor Gallegos Emergency Proclamation today (March 20, 2020.)
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