AUSTIN (Talk1370.com) -- COVID-19 will again be the topic for the Austin City Council on Thursday, as local leaders continue to push for another possible shutdown of the local economy.
The special called meeting, set for Thursday at 10 a.m., calls for a briefing and discussion on two items. The first is an ordinance that would declare "a site that fails to meet certain standards designed to prevent the transmission of COVD-19 between humans as a nuisance, authorizing civil enforcement, and declaring an emergency."
The second item council members are scheduled to discuss is an ordinance "authorizing the health authority to adopt rules to protect individuals from COVID-19, creating an offense and penalty, and declaring an emergency." Based on the draft ordinance, violations of those rules would be punishable by fines up to $500.
Austin Mayor Steve Adler, in several media interviews, has called for the city to undergo a new 35-day shutdown, scaling back to restrictions that were in place in March and April. He calls it the best way to ensure that schools open in the fall. With Austin ISD schools set to open on August 18, time to implement that shutdown - if the city even can - is running out.
Adler has also called on Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to give local officials more control, a request that Abbott dismissed Monday evening.
"If you look at the county judges or mayors who are asking for more authority to take action, or to really shut things down completely back into lockdown mode that would really force Texans into poverty, I've found one thing to be consistent," Abbott said in an interview with Beaumont's KFDM-TV. "All of these local officials who are asking to shut Texas back down have absolutely refused to enforce the current executive orders that are already in place. What they need to show is action, not absenteeism... they need to show up, enforce the law as it is, before they are given any further authority."
