Fort Myers city leaders to discuss mask mandate

Reporter: Morgan Rynor Writer: Jackie Winchester
Published: Updated:
Credit: WINK News

The City of Fort Myers announced Tuesday that city leaders will discuss a mask mandate this week.

The meeting is scheduled for 9 a.m. Thursday and comes after WINK News spent four days pushing city and county leaders to answer calls to address the surge in COVID-19 cases locally.

Reporter Morgan Rynor on Tuesday called Fort Myers City Manager Saeed Kazemi’s office for the fourth day, hoping to speak with him, but she was told he was in a meeting all day – again.

Councilman Johnny Streets forwarded Rynor an email he sent to Kazemi.

The subject line: Procrastination.

The message: The pandemic and why there hasn’t been a special meeting to address it.

“I’m in his office or calling him on a daily basis either by email or text or something. I’m not one to sit idly by knowing that we have issues and let something happen,” Streets said.

“This thing about all these excuses, that’s totally unacceptable.”

Streets said the city needed to hold a meeting a long time ago to address possible ways to stop the spread of COVID-19, and it’s important to let the public know they’re worried about them, too.

“I’m never going to give up when it comes to our people and saving lives and doing what’s right. And that’s what we have to do. It’s easy to do what’s right,” Streets said.

Thirty minutes later, the city issued a notice of its special meeting, scheduled for Thursday.

Streets said he’s glad Kazemi called the meeting, but he also wanted to apologize to the people of Fort Myers for taking so long to get to this point.

One other note: the Village of Estero holds its regularly scheduled meeting Wednesday. The mayor will only go so far as to encourage people to follow CDC guidelines, but he believes the issue of masks will come up.

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