One of the chronic shortcomings of local government is an institutional difficulty with nuanced ideas, including that its authority needn’t always be a hammer, as every issue is not a nail.
This week’s assembly debate over 14-day quarantine is only its most recent failure to paint policy with anything other than black and white colors.
Some assembly members wanted to remove a “requirement” for quarantine of residents and seasonal residents entering town; others wanted to maintain it.
Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy first muddied the waters a month ago when he exempted from the state’s 14-day quarantine requirement seasonal fisheries and construction workers. Many if not most residents supported universal quarantine.
Haines Borough leaders didn’t believe the municipality could establish regulations more strict than the state’s (although the Sitka Borough did just that, mandating universal quarantine). In the interim, a public backlash started against restrictions.
As a result, the assembly this week made matters murkier yet, watering down a borough policy from “requiring” quarantine to “encouraging” it. If even for the right intentions, the assembly made the wrong move.
Absent passing a local law mandating quarantine, as well as enforcement and penalties, the Haines Borough can’t “require” anyone to isolate themselves, nor should it. Besides creating an enforcement nightmare, policing citizen observance of health restrictions would only create antagonism, stir division in our community and lead to intentional noncompliance.
Quarantine was a suggestion all along, but one with strong support from the community.
The question then isn’t how to enforce, it’s how best to express the borough’s intent in a way that makes it stick. Weakening the language was not the way to go.
The borough could make as its official policy a statement that, “It is the intent of the Haines Borough that everyone entering the borough quarantine themselves for 14 days.” Or it could say, “All people entering the Haines Borough should quarantine themselves for 14 days.” Or it could say, “The Haines Borough strongly urges all people entering our community to quarantine for 14 days.”
Unfortunately, as a culture, we too quickly reach for rules, laws and police to maintain community norms. Perhaps it’s our nation’s Puritan history that gives us more faith in commandments than in conversations. Maybe that’s why we are so heavily staffed with cops and lawyers.
Most people want to do the right thing. That’s human nature. Most people don’t want to sicken or kill others. Most people want to observe the norms of the community they’re living in, even if they’re just visiting a few weeks or months.
The Haines Borough didn’t need a “requirement” or “an encouragement.” It only needed to state its intent as the voice of the people who live here.
A strong message can be articulated in friendly language, along the lines of:
“We, the citizens of Haines, love our town, our neighbors and our visitors. Because we want to remain a happy and health community, it’s the intent of the people of Haines that everyone arriving here quarantine in isolation for 14 days before going out in public. Thank you for you compliance. We welcome you into our community.”
No iron fist needed. Not even a velvet glove around an iron fist. Just a friendly statement from the folks who live here.