OCs Supervisors Challenge Gov. Newsom's Stay-At-Home Order

ORANGE COUNTY, CA —With Southern California under an at least three week long "regional stay-at-home" order, triggered by a drop in Intensive Care Unit beds, Orange County is balking at being lumped in with the likes of Los Angeles.

Gov. Gavin Newsom and the California Department of Public Health recently initiated a regional stay-at-home order after ICU beds for the total Southern California Region fell below 15 percent. With the new rules, nail and hair salons, card rooms, museums, and galleries must close. Hotels are closed to out of town guests. Businesses across the board are hurting as local law enforcement says they will not enforce the order, but merely educate the populace to wear masks, socially distance, and use common sense.

Please see my statement regarding Southern California being placed under the Governor’s regional stay-at-home order. pic.twitter.com/lgvvHGnasp
— OC Sheriff Don Barnes (@OCSheriffBarnes) December 5, 2020

Restaurants will once again return to take-out only, this just days after the county distributed another round of CARES act funding to those restaurants. That order is set to run to at least Dec. 28.

The stay-at-home order issued by Gov. Gavin Newsom will be in place for at least three weeks and bans gatherings of people from different households. Regions will be eligible to exit from the order on Dec. 28 if ICU capacity projections for the following month are above or equal to 15%.

Supervisors Don Wagner and Lisa Bartlett have proposed a resolution asking the state for more local control over issuing COVID-19 regulations. Wagner, an outspoken critic of the governor's management of the pandemic, said the county board of supervisors cannot "ignore those orders" from the governor.

Wagner calls this heavy-handed state control. His Healthy Communities Resolution was approved by the Board of Supervisors, Tuesday.

According to the resolution, Orange County is committing to principles that the county is best served to respond locally to COVID-19 and that the "county is geographically diverse and ill-suited to region-wide restrictions," according to a statement. The Orange County Board of Supervisors feels that school districts can safely open, provide in-person instruction to the greatest extent possible without further delay.

The resolution also states that Newsom's "one-size-fits-all" approach to reopening fails to follow flexibility to respond to what is happening in our county.

With vaccines on the way, Dr. Clayton Chau told the supervisors that the county expects about 25,000 doses of the first round of vaccines to be doled out nationwide.

If the vaccines are approved by the federal government this week, the county could receive its first portion by Dec. 15 to be administered to "critical health care workers," Chau said, adding that vaccines for the general public are expected in the late spring or early summer.

The board also asked for an extension beyond Dec. 31 to "encumber and spend the Federal CARES Act funding" in their county.

The frustration of those present at the meeting was palpable. Sixty-four residents signed up at Tuesday's board of supervisors to comment on the stay-at-home order, with most pleading with the county to ignore it.

One hair-dresser renting a space spoke out to Supervisors that he did not get the same PPP opportunities as business owners, and that the closures will be devastating.

Supervisor Andrew Do, the vice-chairman of the board, said, "We plow the same field over and over, and I still see the misperception in the community" about the authority of the county when it comes to the state regulations.

Do asked Dr. Clayton Chau, the county's chief health officer and director of the HCA, to reiterate the county's lack of control over the stay-at-home orders.

"I am the extension of the California Department of Public Health, so any guidance coming down from the California Department of Public Health I must follow," Chau told the board. "I can be stricter in terms of issuing guidance, but I cannot be more relaxed than the state."

Outgoing Orange County Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Michelle Steel, elected last month to Congress though still commanding her county post, criticized the governor's order.
Steel asked Orange County CEO Frank Kim to issue a memo on the consequences of ignoring the stay-at-home regulations. She addressed the frustration of her audience, saying: "All the businesses have been locked down, we cannot walk around, and we cannot gather. What's the next step here?"

The OC Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the Healthy Communities resolution I brought forward, Wagner shared on Twitter. "We recognize and do not approve of the horrific consequences inflicted on our youth and business communities due to lockdowns."

Here you go. Please note there will be some amendments coming. pic.twitter.com/NT0cm7Q5tb
— Supervisor Don Wagner (@DonWagnerCA) December 8, 2020

City News Service contributed to this report.