During Tuesday morning’s meeting of the Brownwood City Council, Rusty Howell spoke on behalf of approximately 100 citizens urging the elected officials to sign a resolution protecting against overreach by the federal and state governments, which resulted in a near 90-minute discussion.

“Our constitutional rights are being violated, our civil rights are being violated, our medical rights are being violated, and it’s very concerning when all that happens and it seems there’s no action on the backside of that,” Howell said in his opening remarks. “The problem is being instigated by a pandemic called COVID, that’s the vehicle they’re using to take our rights away.”

Howell further spoke of mandates that are being enforced in which employees are given the option of receiving a COVID vaccination or being terminated from their job.

“The God that we opened up in prayer to, the God that we pledged allegiance to, one nation under God, that God, we believe, created the perfect healing machine,” Howell said. “Man and science cannot improve upon on that and the government sure can’t legislate it. COVID, if we did absolutely nothing with that virus we have a 97 percent chance of surviving it. What does that mean? The kind of draconian and tyrannical government overreach that is taking our rights away, our rights to choose, our right for freedom of speech, that is way over what they need to be doing over a 97 percent survivable virus.”

Howell closed his opening remarks by stating, “We’re asking this city to sign a resolution to make this city a constitutional city.”

Brownwood Mayor Stephen Haynes, who stated he appreciated the group for bringing their concerns to the floor of the council chambers, questioned exactly what measures those in attendance want taken.

“I took an oath 12 years ago and I have honored that oath,” said Haynes, who then recited Matthew 5:33-7 from the Bible. “Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but fulfill to the Lord the vows you have made. But I tell you, do not swear an oath at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.”

Asked for a simple yes or no answer, Haynes said, “I have said yes,” which drew loud applause. Haynes then continued, “I have said I will stand beside you beyond the constitution, that is not saying I will sign a resolution because in doing so, that violates the very scripture I just read.”

Haynes later stated he would be opposed to signing a resolution as he feels that would be violating the constitution.

“I’m personally not in favor of it because I feel it violates the oath I have already taken,” Haynes said. “I also don’t think it’s a good idea because it undermines the very purpose of the constitution. It tells the people of our community and our world that somehow I can sign an additional piece of paper in 2021 and somehow modify what our founding fathers did, and that’s just not the case.”

Jill Russell, who stated her husband was facing potential unemployment over not receiving a COVID vaccine, addressed the council and said, “I realize Brownwood is not responsible for this decision. As you pointed out, this is our outlet to come to, so if y’all can help us, what are we going to do? Tell me?”

Asked what measures the city would take, Haynes stated he was not in favor of imposing mandates on private businesses, but was in favor of with meeting with those businesses to have discussions about any potential vaccination mandates.

“We simply don’t have the ability to redress a lot of what the issues and concerns are, they’re simply above our pay grade in a sense,” Haynes said. “If there are specific actions, like looking at our subsidies and saying whether or not we should give a subsidy to a company that’s requiring mandates, going to our industries and finding out what their plan is, I don’t have a problem doing any of those things. The problem is always going to be that next step. When we start asking government to pass mandates on private businesses we start running afoul of the constitution ourselves.”

On Monday, Gov. Greg Abbott signed an executive order stating no Texas business could enforce a vaccine mandate.

Whether the resolution will appear on a future agenda was not determined Tuesday, as Haynes offered city council members time to research the matter themselves.