County Courtroom Clash Over Mask Wearing

Weber: “Put on a Mask or Please Excuse Yourself, or We’ll Have You Removed”

County Judge Joe Weber got serious last Thursday about his rule for wearing face masks during a Commissioners Court meeting.

He kicked out of the meeting two groups of people who refused to wear masks. At least one of the people, William Bernsen of Plum, accompanied by his teenage daughter Katelyn, was there to speak against the coronavirus emergency orders enacted by the County and the State.

“Are you refusing to wear a mask?” Weber asked Bernsen at the start of the meeting, which took place inside the District Courtroom.

“Sir, I’m exempt,” Bernsen said.

“If you are (refusing), I’m going to ask you to either put on a mask or please excuse yourself, or we’ll have you removed and I don’t want to do that.”

“I’m exempt from the mask mandate,” Bernsen said.

“Out of courtesy to the people of this County,” Weber said.

“Out of courtesy of the Constitution of the United States and of Texas,” Bernsen said.

“Well let me tell you something,” Weber said with a raised voice. “That’s a little above this court. That’s going to be decided in the Supreme Court, not this court. We want you here, we want to hear your views. It’s important that we have a country where you can do that. But you’re going to give your views honoring the rules of our court.”

It was the first time since the mask order went into effect in May that Weber kicked anyone out of a meeting for not wearing a mask.

At the last Commissioners Court meeting two weeks ago, at least two county officials present did not wear masks during the proceedings.

Bernsen told Weber he would not wear a mask. Weber asked Chief Deputy Randy Noviskie of the Sheriff’s Office to remove anyone not wearing a mask. He accompanied Bernsen out of the courtroom without incident. Three members of the Hamborsky family of West Point also left.

They told the judge they were all members of the same household and they attempted to sit away from others in the courtroom. They were also asked to leave.

Bars to Reopen Oct. 14

The first item of business, which took place before the public comment period, was to extend Fayette County’s coronavirus disaster declaration for another two weeks. It has been in place since early March. Assistant County Attorney Blake Watson said he updated the declaration to reflect Governor Greg Abbott’s most recent orders, which include provisions allowing bars to reopen on Oct. 14 at limited capacity with consent of the County Judge. (After the meeting, Weber said he would allow bars to reopen in Fayette County). Watson said he also removed some language that no longer applies. However, the order signed and approved last Thursday retained the clause asserting that the County Judge has the power “to control the movement of persons and the occupancy of premises” within the County.

“We’re not in a good situation, and we all know we could get into a worse situation,” said Pct. 4 Commissioner Tom Muras. “This declaration of local disaster has some guidelines and things we need to do to keep us from entering into something worse than we’ve got.”

“I have disagreements with the governor,” Weber said. “But the fact of the business is he’s the governor. I don’t know if what he says or is asking us to do is constitutional or not. That will be determined, I guarantee you, after we get through all this in the Supreme Court. But he is our governor. The worst thing we can do as a State is say we’re not going to support him. And then we’ll be just like people in Washington, D.C. That’s not what Texas and Fayette County is about.”

Commissioners voted unanimously to extend the updated order. Bernsen returned a short time later, and the judge allowed Him to speak during public comments. Weber said after the meeting that Bernsen had a medical exemption.

“I just want to note that the oath y’all took when entering office says to defend the Constitution of the U.S. and the State,” Bernsen said before reading the oath of office. “It doesn’t say anything in there about following the governor’s orders. Your responsibility is to defend the rights of the people.”

Bernsen said the governor’s orders were not laws approved by an elected legislature. He read portions of the Constitution said, “It doesn’t say anything about safety in there.”

He read Section 28 from the bill of rights in the Texas Constitution, which states: “No power of suspending laws in this State shall be exercised except by the Legislature.”

“You shouldn’t need a legal department to read and understand the plain language in the constitution,” Bernsen said.

Another County resident, Polly Cisneros, questioned the science behind mask-wearing. She cited a study by the Centers for Disease Control from 2018 that said mask wearing by the public was not effective at preventing transmission of the influenza virus.

“The COVID-19 virus is smaller than the influenza virus, and a thousand times smaller than the holes in the masks that you’re wearing right now,” Cisneros said. She encouraged the commissioners to research the science she provided. Pct. 3 Commissioner Harvey Berckenhoff told Cisneros that her comments should be directed to state and national leaders.

“How are we affecting you?” Berckenhoff asked.

Watson noted that Governor Abbott issued the mask order, not Fayette County Commissioners Court. He said the County’s disaster declaration references the mask order, but the order came from the State. After the meeting Fayette County EMS Director Josh Vandever said the research that Cisneros provided was irrelevant to the COVID-19 pandemic. Fayette County Emergency Management Chief Craig Moreau added that mask wearing protects others, not the mask wearer. Furthermore, Moreau said he believes the efficacy of mask wearing may be due to behavioral reasons than the performance of the masks themselves.

“If you’ve got a mask on and walk up to a group of people who aren’t wearing masks, they’ll intrinsically socially distance,” he said. “I think it’s more of a reminder, a sociological impact in a lot of ways.”

When asked why ha hasn’t kicked anyone out of previous meetings for not wearing a mask, Weber said he had not noticed anyone violating the rules before.

“I walked in and saw four or five people sitting together with no masks on,” Weber said.