Some Lafayette Business Owners Could Face Fines If They Don't Enforce New Face Mask Ordinance
LAFAYETTE, Colo. (CBS4)- The City of Lafayette is taking a different approach to compel people to wear face coverings. Under a new ordinance, business owners could be fined $50-$500 if their customers don't wear masks.
The ordinance was passed last week but business owners like Jason Bushman, owner of PostNet in Lafayette, only received notice this week.
Bushman says he's not opposed to face coverings, "It's part of current life. We're all wearing them." But, he says if city council is going to pass an ordinance requiring face coverings, the city should enforce it not business owners.
"If I don't require everybody who walks in to my store to wear a mask, I could be fined $50, $200 on the second offense, $500 on the next. Our daily sales, generally are less than $2,000. The regular cost of goods sold is about half that. So, one or two of these fines would negate any sales made that day," said Bushman.
He says city council passed the ordinance at an emergency hearing without any notice to the business community and even changed the city code to make it possible.
"They looked at this said, 'We want to do this. There is no way we can do this under the current city code, so we need to change the city code to make legal for us to do this."
Lafayette Mayor Jamie Harkins says if they hadn't changed the code, the offense would have been criminal instead of civil. She says city council felt an urgency to pass the ordinance right away because businesses were reopening and the city was receiving complaints.
"I haven't received any notification from the city that I have a new law that will negatively impact me if I don't enforce the new law," said Bushman.
Harkins also says the city doesn't have a big enough police force to enforce the face coverings policy alone, so it needs help from businesses. She says only business owners who refuse to post a sign about the policy and inform customers about it if they aren't wearing a mask will be fined.
