Vaccine Policy Addressed by City Council

The Sheridan City Council met for their first regularly scheduled business meeting of the year Monday night. Sheridan Media’s Ron Richter has the details.

The City Council elected to not take action on a draft vaccination, testing and face covering policy. The decision was announced by Mayor Pro Tem Aaron Linden just prior to over an hour of public comment in opposition to the proposed policy and federal vaccine mandate. The draft policy is in response to the Biden Administration’s vaccine mandate for businesses with at least 100 employees. In November, OSHA issued a Vaccination and Testing Emergency Temporary Standard, or ETS that requires that businesses with at least 100 employees ensure that their workers are vaccinated against the coronavirus or undergo weekly COVID-19 testing and wear a face covering.  A federal appeals court had temporarily blocked the rule, but the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals lifted the stay on December 17th in a consolidated action, meaning that employers will have to comply unless the U.S. Supreme Court rules otherwise. The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments this upcoming Friday regarding the legal challenge to the vaccine mandate. City Human Resources Director Heather Doke.

Doke explained the possible penalties the City would incur if the directive is upheld by the Supreme Court and the City does not comply with the ETS.

City Public Works Director Lane Thompson said if the federal government decided to withhold funding for not complying with the mandate, the City could lose anywhere from $6 million to $9 ½ million of federal funding annually. We’ll have more from the Council meeting in future stories.