Temecula Council Member Stays Quiet After Her Rosa Parks Comment

TEMECULA, CA — Temecula City Council Member Jessica Alexander has come under scrutiny both locally and nationally after she compared "taking a stand" against California's COVID-19 health mandates — particularly mask-wearing — to Rosa Parks' struggle against racial segregation.

At Tuesday's City Council meeting, Council Member Zak Schwank "respectfully encouraged" Alexander to apologize for her April 13 comment.

"Wearing a mask is not a civil rights issue. It’s not a battle. It's not a civil rights battle," Schwank said. "Equating the two is offensive, and quite honestly, it breaks down all the work that we’ve done over the past year."

Alexander argued against state health measures and equated the restrictions to racism at an April 13 City Council meeting on Zoom. "I think something we can all understand and agree with is that look at Rosa Parks, she was accommodated to the back of the bus, but she finally took a stand and moved to the front, because she knew that that wasn’t lawful. It wasn’t true. So she took a stand," Alexander said. "At what point in time do we? I’m getting to the point in time where I’m getting accommodated in my office. I’m getting pushed to the back of the bus. This is what I’m telling you I feel like."

City Council members heard hours of public comments during the meeting, many criticizing Alexander and calling on her to apologize or resign. Some residents defended her. About 100 comments were made during the meeting.

Alexander, who was elected to her post in November, did not apologize or issue a statement.

Some commenters also criticized the city's Race, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Commission. The commission was established last year following the Black Lives Matter protests and the resignation of then-Mayor James "Stew" Stewart over a controversial text he sent that some in the community felt was racist. He was re-elected to his seat in November by a wide margin.

The Tuesday meeting followed "The Late Show" host Stephen Colbert's comments blasting Alexander on national television in a segment called "Mask-Holes."

The context in which Alexander made her Parks comment was not unfamiliar in Riverside County, where the politicization of COVID-19 health mandates has become fierce and polarizing.

Riverside County has seen a decline in COVID-19 cases due in large part to health mandates, vaccination and some level of immunity in recovered patients, local health officials have said. As state restrictions eased, earlier this month Temecula City Council placed the question of holding meetings on Zoom or in person on its agenda.

Alexander advocated for in-person meetings without masks — something the state has not OK'd.

In the April 13 council meeting, members voted 4-1 to continue meetings on Zoom until the state relaxes health restrictions. Alexander, who said she refuses to wear a mask, was the lone dissenter.

Council Member Stewart voted in favor of the Zoom meetings but pondered his decision. During discussion on the matter, he argued that masks are ineffective.

Holding a mask in front of his computer camera, he said, "Anyone who thinks this stops anything is nuts. I'm just not a believer."

Schwank said he was "frustrated with the narrative."

"We're not going to be in this virtual environment forever," he said, pointing out that the state is poised to reopen June 15. "We're almost over this."

Mayor Pro Tem Matt Rahn, a scientist with a Ph.D., lamented the failure of public health messaging that has led to the politicization of COVID-19 health mandates. No health measure is 100 percent protective — not seat belts, smoke alarms in homes, child bike helmets or earthquake building codes— but they do save lives, Rahn argued.

"It's to help reduce risk. It's not perfect," he said.

Rahn, Schwank and Mayor Maryann Edwards agreed that while there is a cost and benefit to health mandates, the council was bound to follow laws and guidelines set forth at the federal, state and county levels.

Rahn said the council is "not special" and should abide by the same rules as everyone else.

Schwank echoed the sentiment. "I can't, in good conscience, do whatever, I want," he said.

Edwards said she was fully vaccinated against COVID-19 so her risk of catching the virus and passing it on is low. But she said she knows constituents who have lost loved ones to COVID-19 and others who are concerned about spreading the virus.

Following the rules was her duty, she said: "I'm doing it out of respect."

During Tuesday's council meeting, Edwards said that flouting state mandates could risk the city's eligibility to receive millions in COVID-19 relief dollars.

This week, the federal government released new guidance on face masks, and the state is following suit. Over the last year, Riverside County agreed to follow state and federal guidelines rather than buck the rules and risk losing federal COVID-19 relief funding that will likely total nearly $1 billion by this summer.

The Temecula City Council is awaiting further direction from state and local health officials on in-person meetings and is scheduled to revisit the matter no later than mid-June.

—Patch Editor Kat Schuster contributed to this report.