The internationally famous South Coast Plaza, immediately east of my District Office, has a nearly empty parking lot again. This great shopping experience, visited by tourists from around the world, on July 13 was largely shut down again on orders from Gov. Gavin Newsom. The order affects 29 counties, where 80% of Californians live, including Orange County.
The budget of the city of Costa Mesa, already severely damaged by the governor’s earlier statewide shutdown, will be hurt even more.
It’s true in recent days California has experienced a spike in coronavirus cases. For Orange County, in the middle of July, new case totals rose above 1,200 daily for a few days, double the amount a month earlier. Yet at press time, these numbers were trending down. Furthermore, OC deaths are 1.7% of cases, according to county data, compared to 2.8% in Los Angeles County and 4.4% nationally. Orange County has 7.5% of the state’s cases, compared to 40.8% in Los Angeles County (see chart).
Democratic republics allow the executive to assume extraordinary powers only during a crisis. When an emergency ends, rule returns to the elected representative body, such as a legislature or county Board of Supervisors, to pass budgets and enact laws. The executive branch then returns to its more limited functions.
This emergency is now going on four months. The response of March is not appropriate for July. And Newsom’s leadership has been characterized as “confusing” by none other than Willie Brown, former Assembly Speaker and San Francisco mayor.
Residents, again, have been ordered to shelter in place and wear face masks. Why are residents being threatened with a heavy hand by an individual more than 400 miles away?
The governor’s office claims the authority stems from Executive Order N-33-20, issued on March 4. Is he a benevolent dictator or a struggling bureaucrat? On June 25, he threatened to cut funds for counties that don’t enforce his order because, he said, the state budget supposedly gave him “a little bit of leverage in that conversation.”
But the law is neither plain nor coherent.
At least five sheriff departments, including Orange County’s, have said they won’t enforce it. But the sheriff only contracts with a small portion of Orange County’s population. So, the governor is ratcheting up his own centralized enforcement.
At his July 1 press conference, he said “multi-agency strike teams” will combine the California Highway Patrol, the Department of Consumer Affairs, the Department of Business Oversight, Cal/OSHA, the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control and the Board of Barbers and Cosmetology.
The Governor of our great state said that recalcitrant businesses—which are struggling to stay alive—will be “targeted.”
At his July 6 press conference, he said he cracked down over the Independence Day weekend on three areas.
“We had close to 6,000 in-person visits to bars and restaurants just from the Department of Alcohol and Beverage Control,” he said.
Cal/OSHA and the Department of Industrial Relations reported “over 440,000 individual contacts that were made—phone calls, visits, emails.”
And the Board of Barbering and Cosmetology “targeted licensees that we had received complaints about.”
Unlike county health professionals, these state code enforcers likely are not experts in such things as properly wearing masks. Checking the content of an alcoholic beverage or if a purchaser is age 21 or older is far different from inspecting customers’ personal hygiene.
The Governor bases his executive orders on the California Emergency Services Act in Government Code sections 8550 through 8669.7. Let me expand.
Section 8569 reads: “The Governor shall coordinate the State Emergency Plan and those programs necessary for the mitigation of the effects of an emergency in this state.”
But Section 8558(b) defines a state of emergency, in part, to be conditions “which, by reason of their magnitude, are or are likely to be beyond the control of the services, personnel, equipment, and facilities of any single county, city and county, or city and require the combined forces of a mutual aid region or regions to combat.”
And Section 8629 mandates the Governor or his complicit supermajority in the Legislature “shall terminate” the Declaration of Emergency: “The Governor shall proclaim the termination of a state of emergency at the earliest possible date that conditions warrant. All of the powers granted the Governor by this chapter with respect to a state of emergency shall terminate when the state of emergency has been terminated by proclamation of the Governor or by concurrent resolution of the Legislature declaring it at an end.”
So, we need to ask whether the Governor needs to continue implementing a one-size-fits-all policy for 58 counties, or if these jurisdictions can manage the coronavirus independently. I’m beginning to think that local Boards of Supervisors could do a better job of dealing with the pandemic, in conjunction with their city councils, in a more tailored manner, than a bureaucracy 400 miles away.
With some 40 million residents, maybe the Governor needs to let go and rely on the 58 Boards of Supervisors to address the coronavirus locally.
The state has an awkward track record. Overspending on a non-occurring surge was an early, incorrect management decision.
Nursing homes and prisons were initially ignored, while closing beaches was prioritized. Earlier this month, Gov. Newsom ordered California prison officials to expedite the release of up to 8,000 inmates.
Ask yourself: Will these convicted felons follow the stay-at-home rules? Not likely. The Governor is freeing the prisoners and putting the rest of us under house arrest.
Crashing the economy again will have dire consequences, from increased suicides to the destruction of the dreams of the owners of small businesses. Chapman University’s June 23 Economic Forecast found the California recovery lagging the rest of the country.
Newsom shut down the economy earlier than most other states, was slower to reopen and now has panicked in again shutting down the economy. The state’s high taxes and stifling regulations are heavy boat anchors for struggling businesses.
Maybe it’s time for a different approach. Let local boards, as Yolo County is doing, fine their own residents for non-compliance. At least accountability and consensus are available at the local level. Orange County has a population greater than some 20 states. This urban county doesn’t need dictates from the state.
I recommend that Newsom terminate the statewide state of emergency and delegate the pandemic response to the county level.
Editor’s Note: John M. W. Moorlach, R-Costa Mesa, represents the 37th District in the California Senate.
