GUILFORD COUNTY, N.C. — On Wednesday night, Guilford County Commissioners voted, 6 to 3, to adopt a Board of Health Rule as way to enforce Governor Cooper's executive orders.
Commission Chair Skip Alston explained that it gives Guilford County Health Director Dr. Iulia Vann and her staff the authority to enforce the gathering restrictions, the capacity limits, the mask mandate, and the upcoming curfew - and fine businesses who refuse to comply.
"The application of this rule is from border to border throughout the county. It applies even within the cities," said Mark Payne, the Guilford County Attorney, "This gives us more flexibility, more opportunity to enforce where we have to."
Payne said the penalties aren't crafted to get people into trouble. The county is seeking compliance - but will crack down on businesses who are blatantly disregarding the rules.
Leaders spent about an hour discussing the proposal before voting.
"Masks are important, I agree with that, I agree that we have to have some mechanism in place - but we also have to utilize some common sense to make sure we're not creating panic," said Commissioner Alan Perdue.
After a first official warning, you could be fined $300 to 500 dollars for violating the rules. Businesses face a penalty of $100 per person over the capacity limit. Enforcement officers from the health department can also shut down businesses for 24 to 72 hours if violations persist.
As written in the Board of Health rule, the county wanted to emphasize that penalties in some cases need to be "significant enough to ensure they won't be dismissed by violators as the 'cost of doing business'" during a public health crisis.
"You have some bad apples out there," said Alston, "People that don't want to wear a facemask. There's businesses that will let people come in their business without having a mask and not practicing social distancing.
"People are dying. The hospitals are crowded. All we're saying is we want to try and do something to try and stop that."
Commission Chair Alston said they're in talks with the City of Greensboro to drop its ordinance, so coronavirus-related penalties will be uniform across Guilford County.
