Save Newport Real News in Newport Beach
Earlier today, Gavin Newsom backed down from his threat to shut down the entire coastal area of California and instead said he was going to do a “hard close” on the beaches. He said that he was “working with the county” to accomplish this, a statement that Orange County (Board of Supervisors, Sheriff, and County Counsel) universally said was untrue, as they have heard absolutely nothing from the Governor’s office at all about this order, except through media like everyone else is– Newsom also said he is “trying” to open up California “in the next few weeks” (again).
Watch it here: https://youtu.be/tc8SQ2W353c?t=1325
Just a few hours ago, a press conference began with the County Board of Supervisors and Sheriff Don Barnes.
Through a series of questions by reporters, we got a few great soundbytes:
1) Sheriff Don Barnes said that he is “I have no desire to enforce any aspect [of that order] through the aspect of arrest.”
2) Sheriff Don Barnes said “I believe the residents of Orange County have been completely responsible within their actions, so the last thing I have any intention of doing is enforcing against somebody going out in the public space for whatever that might be– to either recreate, shop, [etc].”
3) Sheriff Don Barnes said “Do I intend to enforce the action? Well, I haven’t seen it yet [as Newsom hasn’t issued the order yet], I don’t know what’s contained in the order, I’d have to see that first, but I can tell you from the Sheriff’s department perspective– and I’ve been speaking with our municipal police agencies as well– […] and I can’t speak for them […] but it’s to NOT take enforcement action on this order, but then again I haven’t seen it yet.”
4) OC Supervisor Don Wagner: “It isn’t that he [Newsom] has *refused* to work with us, it’s more like we have not that opportunity to have those conversations.”
5) Spencer Custodio with Voice of OC asked “There have been indications that some non essential businesses may be allowed to re-open soon and that the sheriff’s wouldn’t come in and enforce state orders and basically shut down those businesses”
Don Barnes: Can you define what you mean by non-essential businesses?
Spencer: Um, let’s say bars, nightclubs, hair salons, nail salons, stuff like that
Don Barnes: Sure so first let me qualify what the health order is, the directive from the state, as I understand and I believe it’s consistent, there are approximately five types of businesses that are directly prohibited from operated. Those are in-restaurant dining, bars, gyms, and those that are specifically called out. All the other businesses that are essential or non-essential refer to the CISA document, which is a federal document, it’s on I think version 3.0 during COVID19, and that document specifically calls out sectors of government and commerce that are necessary or that could be considered non-essential. The key document in that CISA document though, I believe it’s paragraph 2, which says these are recommendations, these are not directives of the federal government. That makes it very difficult for us– law enforcement and government over all– to determine which of those are essential or non-essential when the language in and of itself is very ambiguous. So for the prohibited businesses, like in-restaurant dining, gym, bars, those were prohibited from operating and we have been able to get voluntary compliance from those businesses if they chose to operate. And over time we were able to get them into compliance. For those other businesses in the gray area, it’s very much more difficult to force something that’s not specifically prohibited from operating. I’m not trying to give them a pass, I’m not saying that they should or should not, but it’s not as simple as saying pick any one of those that aren’t directly prohibited to say you can’t operate when you could very clearly fall into one of those CISA sectors [] in the CISSA document.” “To date, we have not had to take any enforcement action”
6) A question regarding legality of Newsom’s order was answered as: “Generally, we don’t comment on questions of legal authority, but we have had conversations with the County Counsel, but I’m not really at liberty to share the results of that.”
7) OC Supervisor Michelle Steel: I will be looking into the right response to the governors over-reaction and abuse of power.
