Outcry Delays Jackson County COVID Public Health Takeover!!!

Thanks to some of the very best denizens of the local discourse . .  Our KICK-ASS TKC BLOG COMMUNITY put this story on blast FIRST to start the day. 

Even better . . .

TODAY THE COURTHOUSE CONFRONTED EPIC OUTRAGE OVER HAPHAZARD PUBLIC HEALTH POLICY!!!

A lesser blog attempted to make excuses for hapless politicos . . .

Jackson County is mulling whether to enact its own set of rules for managing health emergencies after a court ruling last fall negated the state regulations that the county was relying on to manage the COVID-19 pandemic.

The county has the authority to do so under its constitutional home rule charter. But some members of the county legislature on Monday expressed concerns about the proposal as presently written, and Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt took to Twitter as legislators met and threatened a court challenge in a series of tweets.

“This ordinance proposal that I just read out of Jackson County, MO is truly insane,” Schmitt posted from his personal Twitter account. “It essentially grants unilateral authority to the Jackson County Health Department. It would basically create a public health dictatorship.”

County legislators Tony Miller and Jeanie Lauer said they worried that the ordinance would give too much power to the county health director to order businesses closed and enforce quarantines.

But the county administration and the sponsors of the proposed regulatory framework, legislators Jalen Anderson and Crystal Williams, said the ordinance is not an overreach. It borrows liberally from the health regulations that Kansas City, which also has home rule powers, has on its books and were not affected by the Cole County court ruling.

TV news was a bit more direct in dealing with the hot mess . . . 

Here is where the concerns come in. The health director would have broad authority to investigate including "persons who are suffering from or who have been exposed to communicable diseases…and represent a health threat to others, may be placed under isolation or quarantine restrictions," according to the proposal.

People could also face punishments for non-compliance.

"One person is given the authority to close down schools and buildings and I think that's too much. One person is given the authority to have your health records, which I believe goes against HIPAA violations," Legislator Theresa Cass Galvin said.

An apt closing line and cause for real world concern . . . 

Explanations have not calmed expressed concerns over the proposal allowing the county to "inspect any premises that the health director has reasonable grounds to believe are in a condition conducive to the spread of the disease."

There will be more discussion on the proposal next Tuesday.

And so . . .

As the MSM tells us . . . See you next Tuesday . . . Here's the upshot . . .

VOTERS LIT UP PHONES AND OFFERED OVERWHELMING PUSH BACK AGAINST THE COURTHOUSE PUBLIC HEALTH POWER PLAY!!!

And so this clandestine power play was pushed back by the power of Democracy and people unwilling to trust politicos with unspeakable power.

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com news link . . .

Passage unlikely for Jackson County 'contagious disease' ordinance

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A proposal before the Jackson County, Missouri Legislature Monday would take bold steps to curb the spread of COVID-19. Too bold, according to a large group of skeptical legislators who, for the moment, have taken a hands-off approach. The discussion largely focused on the potential for abuse of power under the proposed rules.