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Newspaper story fuels tumultuous Waynesville town meeting
Dozens of people flooded the Waynesville Board of Aldermen meeting last week to protest a mask mandate that wasn’t on the board’s agenda.
November 4-10, 2020
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BY CORY VAILLANCOURT STAFF WRITER routine housekeeping measure intended to clarify who, exactly, can declare a State of Emergency on behalf of the Town of Waynesville — and, for what reasons — devolved into a disruptive shouting match over a non-existent “mask mandate.” Town officials, including Mayor Gary Caldwell, attribute all the fuss to a sensationalized story containing multiple inaccuracies.
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he agenda published in advance of the Oct. 27 Town of Waynesville Board of Aldermen meeting contained, among other things, a mundane procedural item regarding emergency powers. Ordinances regarding States of
Smoky Mountain News
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Emergency typically delineate who is authorized to declare such an emergency and reasons warranting such a declaration. Usually, they are natural or human-caused emergencies like ice storms, industrial accidents or civil unrest. A State of Emergency grants local governments additional powers, including the ability to declare curfews, close alcohol and gun shops, and ban the sale of gasoline. They’re designed to keep people off the streets and out of harm’s way so first responders can tend to the emergency without distraction. As it turns out, the town’s existing ordinance was based on a state law that had been repealed and replaced. Town Attorney Bill Cannon was put to work updating it. “He had to rewrite our basic State of
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Emergency ordinance in conformance with a new law that the legislature passed after they repealed the old one,” said Waynesville Town Manager Rob Hites. “The new law states that the board of aldermen can delegate the power to declare an emergency to the mayor and in his absence, the mayor pro tem.” The updated version also added “public health” to the list of emergencies that could warrant such a declaration. On the agenda, the action associated with the revamped emergency ordinance was to authorize the mayor pro tem to declare such an emergency if the mayor is incapacitated or unreachable. Attached to the ordinance, however, was a “sample” proclamation — Cannon’s vision of what a mask mandate might look like.
That item was referred to as a sample throughout the agenda packet. No action was associated with it, no public hearing was called for it and there was absolutely no indication on the agenda that any vote would be taken on it. That’s why several of Waynesville’s elected officials took issue with a story published by The Mountaineer the day before the meeting, that stated, “Waynesville is expected to issue a state of emergency proclamation Tuesday evening mandating face coverings within the town limits, barring certain legally allowed exemptions.” Mayor Gary Caldwell blasted the story as inaccurate. “That statement would not be accurate,” said Caldwell. “Definitely not.” Caldwell explained that the since the sample proclamation wasn’t listed as an action item on the agenda, and no public hearing was associated with the item, saying a mask mandate was “expected” was way off base. He also said that even if they’d decided to consider Cannon’s “sample proclamation,” there were too many defects — for example, how does it apply to schools, to churches and to private businesses? “Before you can even pass a proclamation like that, you would have to have those answers to go with it,” Caldwell said. Alderman Anthony Sutton echoed Caldwell in saying he did not find the statement in The Mountaineer to be accurate. Alderman Jon Feichter said he wouldn’t make any decision before a public hearing. “I don’t know that there would have been an expectation that we would have passed that exact proclamation,” said Alderman Chuck Dickson. “I can say that I expected that we would talk about it. As far as the particular agenda item, it was actually not on the agenda. The only thing that was on the agenda was the emergency ordinance.” Mayor Pro Tem Julia Freeman agreed that the sample proclamation was not actually on the agenda, although she understood why it could be perceived that way. Another inaccuracy in The Mountaineer story, according to Sutton, was a statement saying: “Town board members are unanimously backing the local mask mandate although the order would technically be
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