Councilwoman Michelle Fiore attends a City of Las Vegas council meeting at City Hall, downtown, Wednesday, July 8, 2020.
Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2020 | 4:01 p.m.
Las Vegas City Councilwoman Michelle Fiore brought forward a motion to end the city’s COVID-19 compliance ambassador program during today’s council meeting, labeling representatives tasked with educating businesses on the governor’s mask directive and social distancing requirements as “snitches.”
The safety program’s 65 ambassadors have visited more than 8,300 businesses, most of which are following standards out of coronavirus concerns. In existence for one month, they’ve observed 580 violations, nearly all of which were corrected once owners were versed on the requirements, officials said.
But Fiore sees it differently, saying “we have sent out 65 snitches into businesses to then call code enforcement on them to harass them.”
But the motion had support from only two others — Mayor Pro-Tempore Stavros Anthony and Councilwoman Victoria Seaman — in failing, 5-3.
Councilman Cedric Crear, who voted against the motion, said the ambassador program was not the “Gestapo” it was being portrayed as.
“We need this intervention. We’re finding people that are not complying, and COVID is not something that happened yesterday,” said Councilwoman Olivia Diaz, who also voted against the motion.
The ambassadors weren’t enforcing Sisolak’s directive. Rather, they were observing behaviors and verifying violations, officials said.
If enforcement action needs to be taken, that is done by a business license officer. Since the ambassador program began a month ago, business license officers have issued 194 notices of violation and seven civil penalties.
Officials did agree to scale back the program from 65 city employees to no more than 12, which is the result of businesses following safety protocols. Ambassadors were assigned to the job from other city departments.
Mayor Carolyn Goodman said it’s essential that all businesses comply with health directives in order to stay open.
“If we go ahead and do something that the governor says you can’t, they’ll shut the whole city down,” said Goodman, who was vocal during the spring about reopening businesses after state-order closures because of the pandemic.
Some of the state guidelines include: face coverings for customers except for when actively eating or drinking, 6 feet of distance between tables, parties not larger than six and 50% maximum seating capacity.
Robert Kingston, owner of Saddle N Spurs Saloon on Jones Boulevard, told the council that many businesses are confused about the directives they need to follow. Some of the potential violations could simply be an unintentional misinterpretation of the guidelines.
“We need to understand what the rules are so we can train our staff,” he said.
City Manager Scott Adams said the city hasn’t been able to give businesses proper notice of some of the directives because state mandates are constantly changing. But, he stressed, the compliance initiative was not meant to be oppressive.
“The intent was to be business friendly, not strong armed,” Adams said.
