City passes resolution to condemn vaccine verification mandate as discriminatory

The Enumclaw, Wash., City Council voted unanimously on October 25 to pass a resolution declaring that "…citizens and businesses should be treated equally without discrimination, regardless of vaccination status."

The resolution stated, "This mandate was announced on September 10, 2021 during peak case counts and hospitalizations due to the rapid surge of the COVID-19 Delta variant wave."

"…in the roughly six weeks that has passed between the announcement and the implementation of the vaccine verification the hospitalizations and case count within King County has dropped significantly."

The council also recognized "…that private businesses have not been given training over vaccine verification, testing verification or de-escalation training for mandates in which they were not given a choice in implementing," and that the council "...does not support government mandates or restrictions promoting COVID-19 classification, grouping, segregating, or discriminating in our community."

Therefore, the council "...views requiring testing documentation as a requirement for select business… as an act of discrimination that will disproportionately target lower income citizens, minority communities, citizens who adhere to religious beliefs, citizens with disabilities and citizens with a medical condition," and that the city "...should not take part in or support a mandate designed to discriminative against its citizens."

According to the Courier Herald, Council member Anthony Wright, author of the resolution, stated that he began drafting it in September after several news outlets reported the council was not following Washington state's or King County’s mask mandate.

Pushback against Democrat Governor Jay Inslee's mandates continue to grow in Washington. The week before, The Eatonville School Board voted not to terminate employees who would not comply with Inslee's vaccine mandate for all employees, on-site contractors and on-site volunteers in K-12 schools.

Washington state Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal has threatened to withhold funding from the schools and told King 5 that the district has been given a notice and will need to provide proof that they are complying with the mandate within about two weeks. Reykdal added that his office has had to send letters to two other school districts about mandate compliance.

Inslee has already fired nearly 1,900 state workers, including hundreds of first responders, that did not submit vaccination records, a requirement ordered by Inslee that had an October 18 deadline. Those numbers don't include workers that were fired by their local governments or those that opted to quit or retire early after hearing about the mandate. Those numbers combined are predicted to be in the thousands.