Idaho Dispatch

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Lewiston Votes Against Mask Mandate After Unusual Meeting

By • September 28, 2021

Several cities and school districts throughout Idaho are passing mask mandates once again.

Boise was one of the first to reimplement a mask mandate. The city of Victor passed a mask mandate, but the Teton School District is refusing to comply.

Last night, the city of Lewiston voted 3 to 2 against reimplementing its mask mandate after a protest against the mandate and an unusual agenda change that divided the city council.

Before the meeting beginning, a protest took place outside.

Wilson Boots, a candidate for Mayor of Lewiston, organized the protest. Wilson told Idaho Dispatch his estimates of the crowd size was approximately 150 people.

Idaho Dispatch asked Boots what he thought about the council’s decision not to reimplement the mask mandate. Wilson said,

Tonight’s mask mandate being defeated just goes to show you the power that the public has if we will just show up and say ‘NO!’ I’m proud of everyone that came tonight and made a real difference.

During the meeting, the vast majority of testimony was against the mandate, according to Wilson.

After lengthy testimony, City Councilmember John Bradbury made a motion to reimplement the mandate. However, no “Second” was ever announced, and the motion apparently failed.

Sometime after the crowd left, Councilmember Kathy Schroeder, who was watching on Zoom, announced that she couldn’t hear Bradbury’s motion and would have supported it.

With the crowd gone, a discussion ensued between councilmembers on whether to vote on the mask mandate or push it to the next meeting.

Councilmember John Pernsteiner said he was adamantly opposed to holding a vote because the citizens had gone home, believing the item was closed. Pernsteiner noted that even if the law allowed the meeting to continue, it was not right to do it without citizens present who had shown up for the mask mandate debate.

Pernsteiner motioned to push the mask mandate discussion to the next meeting, but the motion failed.

Bradbury then motioned to vote on the mask mandate itself, effective immediately for six months as the mandate was previously implemented. Schroeder supported the motion, and debate about the mask mandate was open.

Bradbury told the council that he wished the citizens were still in the meeting. He said,

The reason that I really am upset about it being handled at this meeting instead of the next meeting is because I wanted to address the people who were here who were complaining about the mask mandate and I won’t be able to respond, and they won’t be able to hear my views so I think I am being denied that right, and I think they’re being denied that right that the open meeting’s law contemplates occur. But I will say first of all to them, and I’m sorry they aren’t here to hear me say it, because I want to say it to their face, and I’m not given that opportunity. But to say that we have a constitutional right to not have a mask mandate is simply not right.

Additionally, Bradbury said he believed the mask mandate was needed and cited the increase in deaths and infections as part of his debate in favor of the mask mandate. He told the council, in part,

When we had the mandate for four and a half months, we had one death and we had an average infection of one a day. Since we have taken off the mandate, we’ve had almost 30 deaths, I think it’s 28 deaths, and we have an average incidence of infection of 10 or 11 a day.

Councilmember Kevin Kelly told the council that while he believes masks would be an excellent way to slow Covid-19 and pleaded with people to get vaccinated, he thought that a mandate would further divide the community.

After Kelly’s comment, the council voted on the mandate with the following results:
John Pernsteiner – No
Michael Collins – No
Kevin Kelly – No
John Bradbury – Yes
Kathy Schroeder – Yes

City Councilmembers Bob Blakey and Cari Miller were not present for the meeting.

Do you think cities should implement mask mandates? Let us know in the comments below!

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Tags: Bob Blakey, Cary Miller, John Bradbury, John Pernsteiner, Kathy Schroeder, Kevin Kelly, Lewiston, Mask Mandate, Michael Collins, Wilson Boots

10 thoughts on “Lewiston Votes Against Mask Mandate After Unusual Meeting

  1. Their attempt to pass a mandate is contrary to the law of the land. The tactic of the one person to get it back on the docket was obviously an illegal ploy to manipulate the system. It should have been roundly defeated.

    I don’t think the current vote will stand because of that.

  2. People are rightfully concerned on these various CCP Variants.

    However false actions by government “Officials” is not only false promise, it is leading to further harm.

    We need therapeutics, over the counter, without doctors or hospitals interfering.

    Masks should potentially be banned.

    Synthetic Pathogen injections should be banned, deemed illegal, and class action lawsuits begun against any and all responsible for developing or administering this harmful, dangerous and life threatening jab.

  3. I’m a nurse. Masks are for bacteria. Bacteria, not viruses. I refuse to wear one and it doesn’t matter what you mandate. I never did wear them and I never will. Come and MAKE ME.
    You will get a talking to that you never expected.
    Asymptomatic spread is a myth.
    And I suppose you all forget that most of us have had the Sars virus very early on.
    How about asking why we won’t take the shot?
    Fools!

    1. April, thank you for being brave enough to tell the truth! Anyone who is willing to do basic research knows that everything you’ve just said is true. The current lack of critical thinking and common sense is frightening. Again, thank you!

  4. Study after study show mask mandates make no statistically significant difference in the spread of COVID. They don’t work. But they do cause disease by creating a petri dish of moist pathogens right in front of a person’s nose and mouth.

    Delta is very contagious and the reality is no one can escape it. The good news is there are some great and very effective early treatment protocols. Do your homework and get prepared. Don’t put yourself in the hands in the hospitals and corporate doctors who will just tell you to stay home until you turn blue and then your life is in danger. Treat it early and stay out of the damn hospitals.

  5. No mandates! They are based on unprecedented propaganda and lies from the political and government establishment and medical industrial complex. Yes–Fauci was ‘up to his neck’ funding coronavirus research in Wuhan, but destroying liberty, the economy and peoples’ lives with mandates is not going to solve the real problem, which has yet to be addressed or even considered by our establishment rulers and masters: https://www.peakprosperity.com/bombshell-damning-evidence-leaked/

  6. http://www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph
    Above is a link to an artical on a medical journal siting 45 studies regarding masks and 65 articles. The science indicates that the face masks do not stop the spread of a virus. The science also stated that the prolonged use of the face masks are detrimental to health. The only thing that will stop a virus is a hazmat suit. If face masks are mandated I will not comply as I did not with the first mandate.

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