SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO.com) — A “stay at home” ordinance for the city of Sioux Falls passed its first legal hurdle Wednesday.
The Sioux Falls City Council passed a first reading of the ordinance unanimously, despite several councilors expressing serious concerns. The ordinance will be up for final adoption Tuesday.
The ordinance, put forward by Mayor Paul TenHaken, tells Sioux Falls residents to stay in their homes at all times, unless they are working a critical job or out for an essential activity.
Essential activities include visiting the grocery store or pharmacy, getting drive-thru or takeout from a restaurant, or going for a walk.
The city defines critical jobs according to guidance from the federal Department of Homeland Security. Health care, construction and banking are a few of the exempt professions.
TenHaken said he empathizes with the business community that would be affected by the ordinance as a former entrepreneur himself. He said the move is necessary to keep area hospitals under capacity during the pandemic.
“I don’t want to, in five years, look back and say I didn’t do enough,” the mayor said.
City Public Health Director Jill Franken said the proposed ordinance was in light of a recent surge in COVID-19 cases in South Dakota. She said Sioux Falls had among the highest per capita rate of COVID-19 among certain “peer cities,” communities that are demographically similar to Sioux Falls.
Franken said Sioux Falls’ cases are concerning even without accounting for the outbreak at the Smithfield food plant, where over 400 employees have tested positive.
Businesses are encouraged to stay open in the ordinance’s text, but the rule makes it difficult for non-critical businesses to stay running while it is in effect. Business owners from around Sioux Falls spoke at the meeting urging the council to vote against the proposal.
“The desire to protect public health beyond our current efforts is well-meaning,” said Nathan Sanderson, executive director of the South Dakota Retailers Association, “but making allowed activities harder to define, confusing to implement and tough to enforce has never served the public.”
TenHaken said the ordinance does not shut down businesses, but asks non-essential businesses to “operate in a new way,” using online fitness classes as an example.
“If businesses can stay open and adapt and innovate, we’d love for them to be able to do that,” TenHaken said. The mayor did acknowledge there are certain businesses the ordinance puts in a difficult spot, like stylists.
Several councilors expressed concern over how the ordinance treats businesses.
“The contradiction between saying ‘everyone should stay open and be innovative’ and ‘we’re not closing you down,’ is really a slippery slope,” Councilor Christine Erickson said.
Erickson said the ordinance sent a message that “if you’re not essential you’ll be closed, but we didn’t do it.”
Mayor TenHaken said the city is setting up a dedicated phone line and email address for business owners to call the city and get clarity as to whether they are essential. The city is deferring to federal guidelines to define which jobs are critical during the pandemic.
Read those guidelines in full here.
