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PORT ANGELES – Opponents of the September 4 COVID-19 proof of vaccination warrant from the Northern Olympic Peninsula are proposing to pay fines to restaurateurs who defy public health order, said Dr Allison Berry, head of health for Clallam and Jefferson counties.
“Restaurants contacted us concerned because they weren’t comfortable with the interaction,” Berry said in a series of text messages Thursday and Friday.
Some naysayers were also rude and verbally aggressive with restaurant staff who had to uphold the mandate, said staff at some restaurants and Marc Abshire, executive director of the Port Angeles Chamber of Commerce.
Opponents of the mandate went door-to-door in Port Angeles and Sequim, according to business owners and Clallam County Commissioner Mark Ozias. They said they would also cover penalties for violating orders relating to the health of the masks, the contractors said.
They include Bob Stokes, whose gallery and entertainment venue, Studio Bob, is located in downtown Port Angeles.
Stokes identified Jena Stamper, a candidate for position 3 on the Port Angeles city council in the Nov. 2 election, as the woman who approached him on Tuesday as he stood on the sidewalk near his business.
“She said they are running a campaign and having a fundraising program for any bar and restaurant that wants to fight this mandate, that they will pay their fines,” Stokes said.
Stamper, who is running against incumbent Lindsey Schromen-Wawrin, did not respond to calls for comment on the matter Thursday and Friday.
She said she opposed Berry’s proof of vaccination health order at a general election forum on Tuesday.
Stokes said she offered to pay fines for violating COVID-19 vaccination and mask warrants. He said he replied that a fine would compromise his liquor license.
“I don’t want that black mark,” he said.
Mike French, the incumbent candidate for Port Angeles City Council position 2 and owner of First Street Haven restaurant in Port Angeles, said a woman dropped off a two-page flyer at her restaurant last week when he didn’t was not there.
“A class action will soon be launched,” he says.
“You have civic rights. Segregation and discrimination are against the law.
“Don’t let bullying and bullying control you. Text the Port Angeles Voice Facebook group if you are being harassed. ”
Becky Penrose, administrator of Port Angeles Voice, did not respond to a Facebook post for comment.
The leaflet included detailed text of the revised Washington Code on “Freedom from Discrimination – Bill of Civil Rights” and “Denial of Civil Rights – Defined Terms”.
French said he had no intention of violating the sanitary order.
“The mandate protects us,” he said.
Lotus Rose Massage Therapy, next to First Street Haven, accepts all “masked or masked” clients, according to a large sign outside the company.
Governor Jay Inslee’s mask mandate, “Washington Secretary of Health Order 20-03: Statewide Face Coverings,” which was amended in June, states that “Every person in Washington state must wear a face cover that covers its nose and mouth when it is in a place where there are people outside their home or in a place generally accessible to people outside their home. Exceptions include “when obtaining a service that requires the temporary removal of the face covering”.
Lotus Rose owner Lindsay Rieker was offered the opportunity to make a statement on Saturday, but declined unless the Peninsula Daily News guaranteed that it would print the entire statement as content from news before providing it. She also wanted to review the questions in advance and record the interview for her use.
French opponent John Madden urged restaurants last week to violate the vaccination mandate.
At a Nor’Wester Rotary election forum Friday on Zoom, Madden spoke out against the vaccination health order, calling it “government overtaking” and a dictatorship.
“You can’t have a dictator telling everyone exactly how they’re going to act,” he said.
“I am against the mandate, as are so many people, and we are making our distaste for it known in public,” he said.
He said on his Elu John Madden Facebook page on September 8 that he planned to visit businesses the next day to help them violate the health order.
“We will be reaching out to restaurants tomorrow morning to let owners know that we are behind them for ignoring ‘illegal’ warrants,” he said on the page.
“We then plan to knock on the door. Go out!”
Madden did not return calls for comment on Friday.
Ozias said businesses in downtown Sequim contacted him last week with concern over woman handing out packages from Snohomish-based constitutional law group, “volunteer patriots” providing “assistance of a lawyer, ”according to its website, constitutionnallawgroup.us.
The package states: “Mandates are not laws !!! And offers signs for Mandate Scofflaws that say, “Welcome!” We are a constitutionally compliant company. By law, we do not follow any orders or suggestions from the governor, mayor, health department, or other government agencies regarding social distancing, wearing masks, or Vax IDs / passports. ”
A message sent to a referral email in the package, [email protected], was not answered on Friday.
“The information disseminated does not comply with the law and is used to create confusion and does not serve, at least in my opinion, to support the business world or the public health of our community,” said Ozias.
French said opponents of the vaccination “are taking an aggressive stance in restaurants against these warrants.”
Carmen Dalgardno, a waitress at Shirley’s Cafe in Port Angeles, said on Friday that a woman got angry the week of September 5 because she was told, like all customers, “we need you to wear a mask. , please, then we are going to ask if you are going to have dinner there or if you are going to take out, ”said Dalgardno.
“She just said you are violating my rights, that’s discrimination,” Dalgardno said.
“We’ve heard it all.
“We were all going to be sued. She was going to sue us all.
“I said, I’m sorry you felt that way, I’m sorry you’re upset, we can get you some take out, and she just didn’t stop.” And we finally said, you have to go, have a nice day, we have customers eating, ”said Dalgardno.
“This is what we do when customers are frustrated. ”
The man with her called Dalgardno “childish and rude,” Dalgardno said.
“He insulted us and I said no, we asked you to leave because you were embarrassed, which he was,” she recalls.
Dalgardno posted a complaint about Madden on his Ele John Madden Facebook page.
“If the situation had been presented differently, we would have been more than happy to have a conversation with adults,” she said in part. … “In addition, this is a private company and we have the right to refuse service. Mandates or others. We didn’t want your help and we weren’t asking for it!
Others stepped in, with Madden saying in response to a critic, “I have been very supportive of Shirley since this COVID attack began, and they have been extremely rude and childish with us today.”
Shirley owner Jim Mackrow said his business was down about 30% on a Friday due to health orders, but expects the restaurant to survive.
“It is difficult to apply it as an owner and a worker. It’s hard to put the burden on us, ”he said.
“It doesn’t matter whether I agree or not, that’s what we have to do.”
Customers overwhelmingly support health order, Mackrow said.
“A lot of people are frustrated with this, but don’t blame us,” he added.
Abshire said most restaurateurs appreciate the vaccination mandate because it protects them and their employees.
Contrary to the notion that businesses feel intimidated by the warrant, some restaurant patrons opposed to the warrant have acted like bullies, Abshire said.
“I have heard of customers intimidating restaurant owners and employees, calling them names and being mean to them for simply offering [that they] sit outside, ”he said.
“If everyone got the vaccine, there wouldn’t be a warrant. There wouldn’t be any need. ”
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Senior Editor Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at [email protected]
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