Mayor Sylvester Turner and the Texas Republican Party began facing calls on Tuesday from elected officials and the country’s largest medical society to cancel the July state Republican convention, which would be one of the city’s first major indoor gatherings during the coronavirus pandemic.
Turner swiftly rejected the idea, telling council members that he would “leave it up to the political personalities of the political convention, and the people who are going to be attending, to make wise decisions.”
Yet, a review of the mayor’s recent updates to his COVID-19 executive order shows that he removed his own authority to cancel the convention on Monday.
The order Turner originally issued in March imposing restrictions to stem the spread of COVID-19 was updated June 23 to force cancellation of all events of more than 50 people in city-owned buildings — unless the mayor authorized an exception.
Under an amended order issued Monday, however, Turner had removed that language. Only events permitted through the mayor’s office of special events were to be canceled.
The 50-person cap in the previous version had included “events organized, sponsored or produced by parties under contracts between third parties and the City of Houston or entities managing City of Houston property.” That language appeared to include the convention, as the George R. Brown Convention Center is owned by the city and operated by Houston First Corp., a public nonprofit that serves as the city’s convention arm. Turner thus would have had the authority to cancel the GOP convention, but he stripped that language.
The cries to call off the convention began when the Texas Medical Association, a nonprofit group that represents about 53,000 physicians and medical student members, wrote in a letter to party officials — including Chairman James Dickey — that the in-person convention should be canceled “for the safety of your delegates, officers, staff, vendors, the convention workers, and the people of Houston.”
Shortly after, state Rep. Sarah Davis, R-West University Place, made the same request to the state GOP on Twitter. And during a virtual city council meeting Tuesday afternoon, Councilmembers Robert Gallegos and Abbie Kamin urged Turner to call off the event.
Gallegos took exception to the party’s decision not to impose a mask requirement at the convention, which he said could pose problems for hospitality workers at the convention whose health insurance is set to expire at the end of July. The convention is scheduled for July 16 to 18 at the George R. Brown Convention Center.
“We as a city should take the lead and demand that they wear masks, and if they don’t wear masks, then they’re not welcome,” Gallegos said. “Whatever we can do, mayor, let me know, because this is just a recipe for catastrophe.”
Turner signaled that he does not plan to cancel the convention and views it as the party’s responsibility to implement safety precautions for those who attend. His comments came a day after he asked Gov. Greg Abbott for the ability to order the same COVID-19 restrictions imposed in March and April, when Houston and Harris County were under a stay-at-home order that would have banned the convention from occurring.
A spokeswoman for Turner did not respond to questions about the mayor’s amended order. Turner later responded on Twitter, criticizing the Chronicle’s story.
“Easier for the reporter to criticize me than the Governor who is the political head of the Republican Party in not canceling a state Republican Convention,” Turner tweeted. “Something is wrong with that picture.”
Mike Morris contributed to this report.
jasper.scherer@chron.com
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