City of Galveston orders businesses to require customers wear masks

The city of Galveston has issued a mayoral order requiring face coverings in all businesses that serve the public, following a similar measure implemented by Harris County last week as COVID-19 case totals continue to soar throughout Texas.

The order, which was signed by Mayor Jim Yarbrough on Monday and goes into effect at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, requires all commercial entities in Galveston to develop a health and safety policy that requires employees and visitors over than age 10 to wear face coverings when inside a business and in close contact to others. Face coverings may include homemade masks, scarves, bandannas or handkerchiefs.

Business owners who violate Galveston’s mask order will face a fine of up to $1,000, but will be given a grace period of five days after the order’s effective date to comply. The order will be in effect for seven days, although that is a technicality as the City Council is expected Thursday to extend Galveston’s emergency mayoral orders for one month, at least until its next monthly meeting in July. Yarbrough said the city marshal’s office would be the primary entity enforcing the order, but said any local law enforcement agency could do so.

“The bottom line is, we don’t have many tools left available to us, and we have to do everything we can to slow this thing down,” Yarbrough said in a phone interview.

Yarbrough added that he would have implemented the same order weeks earlier if he had known Gov. Greg Abbott would have allowed it, and he criticized the governor for not providing clearer guidance on face-covering orders.

Abbott’s executive orders reopening Texas beginning May 1 left local leaders across the state with the impression that they lacked the authority to require masks. The governor last week endorsed Bexar County’s proposal to require businesses to enforce face coverings, adding that cities and counties always had the ability to do so. Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo followed suit last week.

“Show us how we can do it, don’t just leave us out here guessing,” Yarbrough said. “To me, that’s six weeks lost, and it was the worst six weeks of the whole (pandemic). Ifwe had been smart enough to figure it out earlier, we would’ve done it a month ago.”

Galveston’s mask order comes amid a surge in COVID-19 case totals in Galveston County, mirroring a similar uptick across Texas over the last several weeks. As of Monday, the Galveston County Health District reported 1,247 active cases, 60 percent of which were reported after June 1. Last week, Dr. Philip Keiser, the county’s local health authority, held a press conference saying the county is at a “critical juncture” and pleaded for residents to change their behavior to help alleviate the strain on local hospitals.

Galveston is the second city in Galveston County to issue a mask order. The city of La Marque issued a proclamation on Saturday urging people to wear masks in public, although it will not fine issue fines for violations.

Yet county officials remain reluctant to impose a mask order countywide.

“Galveston County will not be issuing such an order,” Galveston County Judge Mark Henry, a Republican, said Sunday in a lengthy Facebook post. “Individuals and businesses need to take personal responsibility in following the recommended best practices in slowing the spread of COVID-19. … If you find that a business doesn’t appear to have taken steps that have been recommended in Governor Abbott’s reopening plan, then don’t reward them by doing business with them. It’s that simple.”

Yarbrough, a former county judge who recently announced his resignation as mayor effective July 15 due in part to health concerns stemming from the pandemic, said ideally the county would have consistent rules in place to prevent people from finding loopholes in COVID-19 restrictions.

But Yarbrough was able to coordinate his mayoral order with Harris County officials, reasoning that Galveston attracts many visitors from the Houston area and he anticipates a large crowd from the mainland traveling to the island for July 4 weekend.

“I’ve had telephone conservations with (Houston Mayor) Sylvester Turner and Judge Hidalgo early on in this thing because I didn’t want (Galveston) to be a more relaxed environment than Harris County,” he said. “I wanted to make sure we were in sync and try to stay a step ahead of it, where they wouldn’t be coming down here because they have rules in Houston we didn’t have.”

Brooke A. Lewis and Julian Gill contributed to this report. nick.powell@chron.com