{"id":50300,"date":"2020-11-21T00:51:22","date_gmt":"2020-11-21T07:51:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/covid-19-enforcement-its-unsettled-in-durango-statewide\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:50:54","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:50:54","slug":"covid-19-enforcement-its-unsettled-in-durango-statewide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/covid-19-enforcement-its-unsettled-in-durango-statewide\/","title":{"rendered":"COVID-19 enforcement: \u2018It\u2019s unsettled\u2019 in Durango, statewide"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Discussions
Discussions about how to enforce COVID-19 public health restrictions remain an unsettled conversation in Durango and statewide.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Enforcement in the form of penalties for violators of COVID-19 restrictions \u201cis not crystal clear,\u201d says the leader of San Juan Basin Public Health.<\/p>\n

But Liane Jollon, SJBPH executive director, said the goal has never been to emphasize penalties; rather, it\u2019s more about getting everyone to recognize the seriousness of the pandemic.<\/p>\n

Statewide, the goal has been for local agencies \u2013 from health agencies like hers to police departments and sheriff\u2019s offices \u2013 to coordinate their efforts to educate residents so they\u2019ll treat COVID-19 restrictions as seriously as a homeowner on the Florida coast during a hurricane or a homeowner in the north Animas Valley during a forest fire.<\/p>\n

\"Jollon\"
Jollon<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cI don\u2019t think the pandemic is different from other types of emergencies,\u201d Jollon said. \u201cThese conversations come up when we talk about evacuations. Enforcement during an evacuation order is not crystal clear either.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is the enforcement mechanism if individuals don\u2019t clear brush around their homes prior to fire season? I don\u2019t think there\u2019s a good enforcement mechanism for that. But if you don\u2019t abide by those practices, you can put a whole community, a whole neighborhood in jeopardy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Discussions about how to enforce COVID-19 restrictions continues across the state, but Jollon said the issue remains \u201cunsettled.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, with a pandemic, it is occurring over a long time period, when we have an unsettled enforcement pathway,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Failure to put teeth in enforcement of COVID-19 restrictions has become an issue locally \u2013 for example on social media with people calling for authorities to come down hard on Top That Frozen Yogurt, a Main Avenue dessert shop that advertised 10% discounts for people who come into the shop without face masks.<\/p>\n

\"A
A Facebook post from Top That Frozen Yogurt in Durango.<\/span>Courtesy of San Juan Basin Public Health<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The \u201cunsettled\u201d nature of enforcement discussion was clear Tuesday when the Durango City Council discussed the issue \u2013 but failed to agree on any action to take.<\/p>\n

City councilors discussed creating a mandatory mask zone downtown \u2013 with fines ranging from $50 to $500 for noncompliance.<\/p>\n

Mayor Dean Brookie and several community members wanted to extend the order to include the entire city \u2013 to nab mask-ordinance flouting customers in big-box stores, gas stations and grocery stores.<\/p>\n

But Durango Police Chief Bob Brammer said patrol officers are short-staffed, and it would be more feasible to enforce an order in a smaller area.<\/p>\n

City Councilor Kim Baxter suggested using federal COVID-19 relief money to help with enforcement \u2013 perhaps hiring employees to help the short-staffed DPD enforce public health orders.<\/p>\n

In the end, no enforcement-related votes were taken.<\/p>\n

\"Brammer\"
Brammer<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Currently, Brammer said police officers will investigate calls about violations of COVID-19 restrictions, document the incident, assess the validity of the complaint and compile the reports. He said any decisions about enforcement actions would be up to the District Attorney\u2019s Office or SJBPH.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll assist in any investigation, we\u2019ll look at it, and we will develop the information through our partnerships,\u201d he said. \u201cWe just don\u2019t have the statutory power to take action upon it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ultimately, it\u2019s not individual penalties for violating COVID-19 restrictions that are as important as getting the word out about how serious it is for the community\u2019s safety to abide by the rules, Jollon said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen will the hammer come down? The hammer will come down when the hospital cannot function and services are not available in our community. That\u2019s the hammer. That\u2019s the real hammer,\u201d Jollon said. \u201cWe as a community need to get this right. And that\u2019s the conversation we need to have, rather than the whose-job-is-it-to-enforce conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n

parmijo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

director: More important than penalties is compliance to protect the community<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50301,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1615,685,28,52],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-50300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-constitution","tag-coronavirus-covid-19","tag-headlines","tag-law-enforcement"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50300"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50300\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87723,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50300\/revisions\/87723"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50300"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=50300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}