CITY of ALBUQUERQUE
TWENTY FOURTH COUNCIL
COUNCIL BILL NO. R-20-40 ENACTMENT NO. ________________________
SPONSORED BY: Brook Bassan & Don Harris
RESOLUTION
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Directing The Mayor To Evaluate And Amend For The City As Appropriate The Public Health Orders Requiring The Continued Broad Closures Of Business And Facilities In Response To The Statewide Public Health Emergency (Bassan, Harris)
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WHEREAS, on March 11, 2020 Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham issued Executive Order 2020-004, Declaring a Public Health Emergency in New Mexico relating to the spread of COVID-19; and
WHEREAS, in subsequent weeks the New Mexico Department of Health has issued orders limiting public gatherings and requiring non-essential businesses to close or limit business activity; and
WHEREAS, these orders purport statewide applicability in New Mexico even though the threat level and the availability of responsive resources are not uniform across the State; and
WHEREAS, Albuquerque is uniquely situated as the State's only major metropolitan area, and as a result it serves as the State's central economic, retail, medical and general services hub; and
WHEREAS, even as necessary as the public health orders may have been, the economic, social, cultural, and recreational interests of the residents of the City have suffered immensely as a result of the ordered closures, and these impacts have been especially hard on the City's small businesses and retail and service workers; and
WHEREAS, notwithstanding the closure of "non-essential" businesses, those businesses deemed "essential" appear to only include national chain stores and big box retailers which sell or provide both "essential" and "non-essential" products and services, while local businesses and more limited retailers offering similar but more limited "non-essential" products, and their employees, have continued to experience significant hardship by the ordered closures; and
WHEREAS,...
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