Porter: Lee Understands Questions About What Is Essential

Putnam County Mayor Randy Porter said questions will come up over the next few days about which businesses are essential and which are not.

And Governor Bill Lee understands that too. Porter joined other city and county leaders in a conference call with the governor Tuesday. Lee ordered non-essential businesses to close beginning Wednesday.

“I think that you may have a business that thinks are essential that might not be,” Porter said. “And so I can see enforcement being an issue with some of those, but I don’t think it’ll be a major problem in Putnam County.”

Porter said his office has fielded some calls from employees concerned that their place of employment will remain open. An honest and open conversation with managers and HR staffs, Porter said, will be the best course of action.

“Just like we do with any of our county employees, if they have concerns and health issues that they don’t feel comfortable working, we’re working out the solutions for them,” Porter said. “And that’s what we suggest to the folks, if they’re working for a company is to tell H.R. and and figure out is there something they can do, because ultimately those are private companies and it’s up to the company to to resolve those kind of issues.”

Lee said Tuesday in his daily briefing he did not expect enforcement to become an issue with his safer-at-home order. Porter said Putnam businesses followed Lee’s first orders, for example, closing restaurants and bars to dine-in.

“I think our county’s done really well,” Porter said. “Most of those folks did a good job of closing down and doing carry out and delivery.”

Porter said the governor has setup a liaison in his office specifically to assist cities and counties with needs. In addition, the State Health Department has shipped medical supplies to every county in the state.