Nashville Mayor John Cooper wants to deputize city employees to enforce coronavirus health orders

Nashville city officials are bracing for the likelihood they will see more violations of Metro's public health orders, particularly as they look to expand what residents and businesses are allowed to do during the coronavirus pandemic.

But the city is running out of people to enforce those rules. So Mayor John Cooper wants the ability to deputize additional city workers to help. 

The burden of the city's mask mandate and other orders has stretched the capacity of the Metro Health Department, already tasked with testing, contact tracing and enforcing existing health regulations.

Nashville council members will consider two pieces of legislation for final approval Sept. 15 that would broaden enforcement ability in certain Metro departments that already have permitting power, and another that would extend citation authority to any city employee.  

Related:Nashville loosens restrictions on gatherings, but only if you ask first

Allowing the mayor to tap other employees to serve as the "eyes and ears" across the city will allow Metro to more effectively enforce health orders as more businesses open back up, said Mike Jameson, Cooper's senior legislative affairs director.

"This is going to make opening more businesses easier while we rest assured that we have enforcement capacity of health orders," Jameson told Metro Council members Tuesday night. "It is intended to make citizens rest comfortably while we continue to open businesses in the coming months."

Asked if the administration has specific plans on who would be included on extra enforcement efforts and if training will be given to additional employees, Cooper spokesperson Chris Song said plans will be developed in consultation with the city's COVID-19 task force. 

"This task force includes personnel from the MNPD, Metro Legal, Public Health, the Beer Board, the Fire Marshal’s office, Metro Codes, and Metro TLC. By properly training and empowering personnel within these relevant departments to issue public citations, many of whom have already been directly involved in Metro’s public health enforcement efforts, we can enhance our enforcement efforts more efficiently and improve compliance with our public health orders throughout Davidson County," Song told The Tennessean. 

Council members raise concerns

Passage of the bills would not give blanket authorization to employees. Cooper will have to give a specific written order that gives the authority to specific people. 

Though council's health and public safety committees recommended approval with no discussion this week, some members during Tuesday's council meeting raised concerns about seemingly random city employees interacting with entities and businesses over health orders.

The city's Fire Marshal’s Office, Metro Public Works, Metro Water Services and the Department of Codes Administration already have permitting authority. Under the new ordinance, they would have the authority to issue stop work orders or suspend permits on any work site operating under a violation of one of the city's emergency health orders. 

It would be assessed as a civil penalty, at the rate of a $50 per day. A department head would also be able to request that utility services be cut off until the violation is corrected. Appeals for any stop work orders would be made to a city board or commission that oversees the related area. 

Some council members are skeptical about the need to broaden the authority to other employees outside those departments.

"It seems like such a stretch here," Council member Angie Henderson said. "With all the departments that already have the authority in a concerted effort, if it were a particular concern ... I don't know why that won't be sufficient."

In response, Jameson pointed to recent weekends when enforcement of the city's mask mandate was a struggle, "when the number of health violations was exploding" compared to the number of personnel the city had available to help. 

Ramping up enforcement

For weeks after the city's mandate went into effect, mask scofflaws, particularly on Lower Broadway, partied with impunity as police officers largely stood by watching tourists flout health orders. The city's health director Dr. Michael Caldwell, volunteers from the health department and officers passed out masks and fliers with little success. 

Enforcement:On Lower Broadway, partiers ignore Nashville's mask mandate with impunity

The city finally began to issue citations last month after a growing call for action to check behavior downtown. Interim Police Chief John Drake said widespread enforcement of the city's mask requirement would be his top priority moving forward after a softer approach under former Chief Steve Anderson.  

"We've had effective partnerships with the police department and others in effectuating that. This will go a long way towards making sure we got complete enforcement through citations when needed," Jameson said. 

Council member Robert Swope called the move a "massive overreach of government." 

"To have librarians issue citations on emergency health orders that only happen once every hundred years is insanity," he said. "This is also predicated on the fact that we expect emergency health orders to go up all the time. I don't believe that's going to happen. So I'm wondering why this is even necessary. And it's terrifying to know that ... theoretically the janitorial staff at MNPS can now write citations."

In all likelihood Cooper, Jameson said, will look to departments that already have citation experience, using the example of codes employees overseeing possible violations at movie theaters. 

Employees will be given citations to issue but it is not yet clear what training they might receive.

Yihyun Jeong covers politics in Nashville for USA TODAY NETWORK - TENNESSEE. Reach her at yjeong@tennessean.com and follow her on Twitter @yihyun_jeong.