(TNS) - City officials, growing increasingly frustrated as Laredo’s positivity rate and death rate continue to rise, are mulling changing their tune from COVID-19 education to enforcement.
“Because we’ve been saying the same thing since March — we’ve been saying The. Same. Thing. Since. March. — it’s probably not a lack of education at this point,” said City Manager Robert Eads. “It’s a refusal to do the right thing.”
The city needs to change their tactic from carrots to sticks, he said. This likely means tightening their emergency order, or sending code enforcement and police into neighborhoods and bars, Eads said.
But the city cannot enforce penalties stricter than what the state allows, noted Mayor Pete Saenz.
At the end of July, two weeks after Laredo City Council approved an emergency order to close restaurant dining rooms, bingos, maquinitas and ban social gatherings, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott only gave his approval for half of the request. He stopped short of approving the city’s ban on gatherings or the closure of restaurant dining rooms.
Saenz also worried about Laredo’s public health as other cities in Texas, operating under the same set of rules, are in a recovery stage.
“I’m taken aback in the way that other communities have succeeded but we haven’t yet,” Saenz said. “And it’s the same tools that we have. They’ve been able to bring down the level of positivity rate in their cities, but we haven’t yet. In fact we’re going the opposite. And it’s very, very troubling.”
He said Laredo needs to do something different, and that he was open to suggestions.
City officials have been speaking with stakeholders about why their message has not been getting through to people.
“It’s just too many fatalities,” said Interim Fire Chief and Emergency Management Coordinator Ramiro Elizondo. “It’s getting out of hand.”
LPD Investigator Joe E. Baeza, interim public information officer for the city, said the police department is citing and enforcing the current city and state orders. And they’ve noticed some businesses are being too lax in their practices.
“There’s no difference in activity, and it seems to be business as usual. These numbers are alarming and surprising, and we need to stop these rates from going up,” he said.
He asked the community to report anonymous tips through the Laredo Police Department app.
“If you work in a place that’s unsafe, we want to know about it. If you’re in a location where there’s a gathering, we want to know about it,” Baeza said.
Julia Wallace may be reached at 956-728-2543 or jwallace@lmtonline.com
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