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Maricopa County Board of Supervisors takes up masking requirements in executive session

Posted at 4:13 PM, Sep 21, 2020
and last updated 2020-09-21 21:20:06-04

PHOENIX — The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors is now starting to consider the delicate issue of whether it should relax county masking requirements.

In June, the Board voted to require people older than six to wear a mask in public as a way to help reduce community spread of COVID-19. But as the number of COVID cases and the rate of spread decreases, the number of people calling for a relaxation of the masking order grows louder.

“Masks, whether they’re good, they’re bad, they’re getting all that sort of input out there,” says Maricopa County Communications Director Fields Moseley on the response County Board members are receiving.

On Monday, the Board listened to county health and legal experts in an executive session for two hours.

“There is no deliberation during an executive session. It’s about getting that legal advice that’s based on the subject matter experts are telling them,” Moseley said.

Any decision by the Board of Supervisors to relax its masking requirements does not impact cities that issued their own orders.

“The Board has a lot to consider on any sort of decision to amend, eliminate or relax in some way that regulation,” Moseley said. “They will have that debate in public.”

The next scheduled public meeting is October 7. As of now, any reconsideration of the county masking requirements is not on the agenda.