Matt Doebler, also of Ballwin, said the council needed to trust people to make their own decisions.
“It’s time to end rule by mandate,” he said.
A small number of people took the other side, including Alonzo Adams Jr., a pastor from Ferguson.
“We don’t have to fight this mandate,” he said. “Let them do what they can to help people.”
But of more than 40 people addressed the council Tuesday night, nearly all of them opposed the mask mandate. And after the vote to rescind it, the room erupted in cheers.
Upstairs in his office afterward, Page cast the crowd as part of a vocal minority and predicted most people would continue to follow his administration’s lead.
He also noted that Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas announced his own order Tuesday night, so St. Louis and St. Louis County are not alone.
“Some people will not follow it,” he said, “but I expect we’ll see compliance similar to what we saw before. Over a period of days or a few weeks, most people will ultimately start wearing masks again.”
Downstairs in the council chambers, Fitch, who sponsored the resolution to terminate the order, chuckled.
“State law gives us the authority to do what we did tonight, and the mask mandate has ended,” he said.
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Originally Appeared Here