It’s been a month since Sedona Mayor Sandy Moriarty’s proclamation mandating the wearing of masks in public. That doesn’t appear to be changing any time soon.

During an update on COVID-19 to the Sedona City Council — one he’s given for several months now — City Manager Justin Clifton shared statistics on the pandemic and also discussed masks. In terms of residents and visitors wearing masks, he said he and others have noticed a substantial, and immediate, increase in compliance since the mayor’s mandate.

“I’m always hesitant to put percentages or numbers to that, but when I ask people who make observa­tions in areas like Uptown, the low end of the number that gets reported is 50%,” Clifton said. “More common — the median number — is around 75%, and some have reported even higher. They report a higher percentage indoors, but certainly high participation in outdoor areas.”

He noted that reports on compliance vary but he feels it’s still much higher than prior to the mandate. But as the city anticipated, there have been some complaints about non-compliance in which the Sedona Police Department has been called to investigate. In all cases so far, police have informed those not wearing masks about the mandate and, to date, no citations have been issued.

Anyone over the age of 5 can be fined $2,500 or face six months in jail for not wearing a mask. The procla­mation stipulates a medical exemption and that police cannot ask for evidence of health issues.

Clifton shifted gears on the mask topic and clarified some issues surrounding Moriarty’s proclamation on June 23, which was made without a vote by council.

“I think there’s been some confusion,” he said. “Council did provide input on the mandate but the mechanism to implement that expeditiously — and consistent with most of the ways these have been implemented across the state — was by proclama­tion using the emergency powers provided to the mayor,” he said.

“I apologize if there may have been some confusion about that. I take responsibility. We decided to have that mask conversation after the governor allowed local jurisdictions to set their own policy. A COVID-19 update was already on the agenda and we probably should have amended that agenda to be clear that we were seeking direction from council but that the mayor would be exer­cising her emergency authority.

“I understand why that caused some confusion among members of the public.”

Late last week, the mayor of Cottonwood extended his mask mandate by another 30 days. In June, Cottonwood City Council voted 4-3 against a mandate, yet the mayor immediately imposed a mandate after losing the vote. It has no penalty.

In terms of Sedona, Clifton said on July 17 Moriarty’s mandate does not have a firm expiration or timeframe for re-evaluation.

“That said, the mayor is in multiple meetings each week assessing changes in COVID-19 transmission, hospital­izations, capacity and other key indicators,” Clifton said. “As the governor described in a press conference just yesterday [July 16], we are just starting to see some posi­tive signs of things improving.

“But it is too early to tell if this is a trend that will be sustained. As long as these indicators lead the governor to impose new restrictions or sustain the ones implemented recently, I doubt there will be any reconsideration of the mask mandate. That mandate is more likely to be evalu­ated when other precautionary measures across the state are lifted.”