During the Greene County Supervisors meeting on Monday, a discussion took place regarding a recent change to a federal mandate.

Greene County Attorney Thomas Laehn told the Supervisors that last week the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals panel lifted the stay that blocked the implementation of a federal COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The mandate requires any employer with at least 100 employees to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19, otherwise any employee who is not is subject to weekly testing, at the employee’s expense; and is required to wear a mask. There are medical and religious exemptions, but Laehn said those employees are still required to be tested and have to wear a mask.

Laehn said he believes this mandate is unconstitutional and will only fight against the presidential executive order if the county were to file a lawsuit. He laid out concerns on both sides of the issue.

“If you do implement the policy I do think you’re going to risk losing employees. In theory, you would risk of being sued by an employee. But more realistically, and this is what I said a couple of months ago, by not implementing a policy, you are facing significant  financial liability. If I recall, they’re threatening $13,000 per violation (per week).”  

Supervisor Chair John Muir told Raccoon Valley Radio what they are doing in the meantime ahead of the January 10th deadline as outlined by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

“We’re trying to be as compliant as possible to this point and we were instructed (that) we needed to have a policy in place. We’re working on putting one together with our human resources people. That being said, our plan on implementation is, there is no planon that yet. Because it’s a day to day on what the courts are deciding. The life of it (the policy) depends on what the supervisors feel at the time we have to make a decision on whether we are going to uphold the Constitution or whether we’re going to choose a different path.”

The mandate goes into effect January 10th and by February 9th, the federal government can begin issuing penalties if an employer is found not to be compliant. Sources say Governor Kim Reynolds has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to reconsider the circuit court of appeals ruling.