Boise Mayor McLean shows leadership with new order to fight COVID-19 spread

Boise Mayor Lauren McLean’s announcement Thursday that the city would begin enforcing its health order requiring masks to be worn in public was a demonstration of leadership in the face of tremendous political pressure.

The new order will “create consequences,” leading to potential penalties for people and businesses who refuse to follow the guidelines amid a pandemic.

McLean, who had already faced a misguided recall effort this summer, did the right thing, in the name of public health, and she deserves our support and the support of the entire community.

It’s also a signal to other leaders — locally and at the state level — that they should do the right thing, too, and if they do, they will have our support.

“What we are currently doing is not working,” according to McLean in a press release. “If we do not change our approach, our health and our economy will suffer.”

It’s important to note that this order, much like Idaho Gov. Brad Little’s move back to Stage 2 of the state’s reopening plan, does not shut down businesses.

In fact, we see these efforts to enforce mask mandates and social distancing guidelines as a way to ensure we can keep our businesses open and our economy humming along. This is an option that allows businesses to stay open, preventing economic hardship, while still offering the accountability that we’ve all been asking for those who don’t follow the basic “suggestions” outlined by health districts and the governor.

It’s clear that Idaho is headed in the wrong direction in terms of new cases, hospitalizations and deaths.

Idaho’s largest health care system is projecting a crisis by December, if the spread of COVID-19 continues unabated. Idaho hospitals may be forced to begin choosing which patients receive life-saving medical care, especially as we head into flu season.

In the face of these dire warnings, McLean made the right move.

Boiseans will be able to file complaints against businesses whose employees or customers won’t follow health orders, McLean said in a news release. Businesses that pose “a clear and immediate threat” will have their city licenses suspended for at least 10 days on the first violation. The second violation would be a license suspension of at least 20 days, and the third would lead to a yearlong revocation.

That’s a change in Boise, where officials have repeatedly declined to enforce past orders on mask wearing and social distancing, instead opting to “educate” violators and rely on Idahoans to do the right thing.

A violation of the order also would be a misdemeanor, punishable by up to a $1,000 fine and six months in jail, just as past orders were.

Much has been made about “snitching” or being a “tattle-tale,” a childish concept befitting the mindset of some of the people we’ve seen showing up at mask protests, burning masks and vowing to “disobey.” These people aren’t choosing “freedom”; they are choosing a dangerous virus over public health and safety.

McLean acknowledges that this new system of whistleblowing for customers and businesses is untested and will come with challenges and growing pains. The mayor herself pointed out that they are going to learn as they go. This untested method is launching with many unanswered questions about how effective it will be, whether it will strain the police department and whether response times will help address those who refuse to follow the rules.

But even with all those caveats, we applaud the mayor for trying to do something. We would rather have a mayor who is working to find a solution than a public official who does nothing and just lets the pandemic rage on.

City councils, county commissioners and public health districts across the state are struggling with decisions about whether to issue mask mandates, facing often unruly and unreasonable pushback from residents who are repeating conspiracy theories and misinformation about the coronavirus and masks.

Of course, Gov. Little could ameliorate these problems and just issue a statewide mask mandate. But he has shown no interest in taking that step.

In the meantime, we applaud real leadership from public officials like Mayor McLean who make efforts to keep the public safe, keep our health care system from becoming overwhelmed and keep our economy moving.

This story was originally published November 21, 2020 at 4:00 AM.