City of Austin issued the following announcement on March 27
We have fielded quite a few questions regarding the orders that were issued yesterday. I will start first by going over what those orders were.
On 3-25-20, Governor Walz issued executive orders 20-18, 20-19, and 20-20. Order 20-18 is an extension of order 20-04 and 20-08 which dealt with the operations of places of public accommodation. It extends the dates of those previous orders until 5-1-20. Order 20-19 is an order implementing distance learning until 5-4-20. Order 20-20 is an order directing Minnesotans to stay at home. The full texts of these orders can be found at:
https://mn.gov/governor/news/executiveorders.jsp
I will not be addressing order 20-19 as it affects the school systems.
I will touch briefly on order 20-18 as it affects the operation of places of public accommodation. While this order does have the force of law behind it should compliance not occur, our agency has not received a complaint related to any violations or noted any ourselves. The business owners and their employees in Austin have been fantastic in their understanding of the order and its implementation. Our community owes them a huge debt of gratitude for the sacrifices they are enduring economically in order to keep our community safe. This order now runs through 5-1-20 where as it had been previously set to expire on 3-27-20.
The main focus of this update is to cover order 20-20 related to Minnesotan’s being directed to stay at home from 11:59pm Friday March 27th to Friday April 10th at 5pm. The State does have a frequently asked question page available. https://mn.gov/governor/covid-19/faq.jsp . I will cover briefly what this means in the city of Austin as it relates to the enforcement section in the document.
I’ll start with recognizing that this order does state that a willful violation is a misdemeanor. Local law enforcement, such as the Austin Police Department, would be responsible for enforcing the order. The order however is very broad in what activity is exempted and what professions and type of work are exempted. It is not a total exemption for all job categories however and you should review the order and attached CISA list to see if you are covered. Some work types will not be covered and we would ask that you follow the order. We are aware that for some additional businesses and employees this will be a hardship.
I would also note that the only way that the Governor’s and Minnesota Department of Public Health’s (MDH) vision and plan to change the potential time-line of this outbreak works is if all citizens willingly follow the order as intended. That is the true intent of the order and to not to accomplish its goals through the use of citations and fines. This can be achieved if everyone makes a good-faith effort to comply and responds appropriately to advisories offered by law enforcement. I have confidence that the people of Austin can and will do this. We are in this together. We want to help the Governor and MDH implement “Stay at home Minnesota” through education and the belief that the effort will be worth the sacrifices so many will be making.
Your individual constitutional rights will not be transgressed. We will not be randomly stopping pedestrians, bicyclists, or motor vehicles to check your destination or intent. We will not be asking to see any sort of letter of transit nor proof of employment in any random encounter.
We want you to get to work if you are exempt. We want you to continue to be a caregiver for others if that is your role. We want you to shop for the food and supplies that you might need at home and there is no need to rush into grocery stores today or tomorrow before the order takes effect. You can still go to the doctor. You can still take your kids to daycare if you need to work in a critical sector. Those activity exemptions are clearly listed in the order.
The City of Austin and surrounding area have done an incredible job so far in following the direction of our public health officials and state leadership. I have heard incredible stories of the work being done locally to support each other in these trying times.
We at the Austin Police Department can see stories coming out of other States and believe that the threat of Covid-19 is real. We also believe that our state and our local systems are positioning themselves to push off the peak of a potential outbreak in Minnesota. This will give us the time to prepare to treat our citizens.
Please join us in respecting these orders and help buy our local health care providers the desperately needed time to prepare to accept patients in the future. We will attempt to answer questions to the best of our ability should you have any.
Original source can be found here.
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