GOOD HOPE — The Good Hope City Council had a short discussion about private business’ COVID-19 vaccine mandates after hearing from a concerned citizen Monday night. 

Good Hope resident Taylor Wisner asked the council to either pass an ordinance that would ban the city’s businesses from requiring COVID-19 vaccines or pass a resolution encouraging businesses to not implement a vaccine mandate. 

He said he is not making an argument about whether the vaccine is good or bad, and would also oppose any business that tried to prevent any employees from getting the vaccine, but he believes it should be up to the individual employee to decide. 

Wisner also attended last week’s council meeting to ask for the same thing, but was told by Mayor Jerry Bartlett and City Planner Corey Harbison that businesses are allowed to implement vaccine mandates in the United States and it would be unconstitutional for a city government to put that kind of restriction on a private business. 

“I don’t think as a city, we need to be passing mandates for any private business,” Bartlett said during the council’s Aug. 16 meeting. “I don’t think it would be worth a hill of beans, and I don’t think it would go anywhere.”

After Wisener returned again for Monday’s meeting to ask for the same thing, City Attorney Rita Nicholas explained the legal issues that would come from the city trying to prevent private businesses from implementing their own vaccine rules. 

She said the U.S. Department of Justice and Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall have said private businesses can require their employees to get the vaccine.

Alabama is also an employment at will state, which means employees are able to leave their jobs at any time they want, but also means employers can get rid of an employee for almost any reason as long as it does not violate any laws. 

Nicholas said she understands that Wisner believes employees are feeling coerced into getting the vaccine, but employers are allowed to require vaccinations. 

“There is no law that says an employer can not require a vaccination,” she said.

Nicholas said residents should also be wary of asking the government to impose new rules on private businesses or telling employers how they should run their businesses. 

“That’s a slippery slope away from a democratic society,” she said. 

Harbison, who serves in the Alabama House of Representatives, said the issue came up during the last legislative session and the legislature did pass a law that prevents any state agency from requiring the vaccine. 

The legislature did not pass a similar law for private businesses after the attorney general’s office said it would be unconstitutional for the state to make that kind of mandate to a private business.

“That’s something that was pushed hard last year, and that’s why the legislature didn’t act,” he said.

Harbison said the city could pass an ordinance that could go on to be challenged in the courts, but the city would then have to pay all of the legal fees to carry that case forward. 

Bartlett said the council did have the option of passing a non-binding resolution that would encourage businesses to not require vaccines but not create any new rules to follow, but none of the council’s members made that motion.

“I just want to say that I fully support what these guys are trying to do, but I am totally on the fence,” said Councilman Eric Phillips. “I am not prepared to do anything tonight, for sure.”

Wisner said he would attend the council’s next meeting on Sept. 13 to ask for the same thing and to see if the council member’s opinions have changed, but Bartlett cautioned him that he may not be able to make a comment for the same reason three meetings in a row. 

“We don’t have to let people talk,” Bartlett said. “If you’re coming for the same thing again, there’s no need to do this.”