‘Open the damn city up.’ Fresno councilman, Crazy Bernie call for opening amid COVID-19
Fresno City Councilmember Garry Bredefeld said Tuesday the city’s leaders are acting authoritarian and should allow businesses to open immediately amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Bredefeld said businesses should be able to operate while following Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, including the use of masks, as well as social distancing and routine cleaning.
A number of Los Angeles-based businesses filed a lawsuit last week saying the state is applying its nonessential business orders unevenly, a lawsuit Bredefeld touted on Tuesday.
Bredefeld has not filed a lawsuit of his own. He has been the most outspoken opponent on the Fresno City Council against the orders to close businesses and for residents to shelter-in-place.
Bredefeld asked small business owners to speak during a press conference on Tuesday, saying many people are losing their livelihoods. “I invited four business owners,” he said. “I could have invited 40.”
One business owner, Karen Tesi said her small businesses — Tres Salon and Kiss Me Spa in north Fresno — require her to meet people in person.
“Under the current quarantine, we haven’t been allowed to generate any income to keep the businesses and our household running,” she said. “If this mandated lockdown continues even 30 more days, we are in certain peril of losing everything.”
Crazy Bernie’s lament
Though Bredefeld only invited four, the news conference included several business owners shouting their thoughts from the crowd gathered in City Hall.
Crazy Bernie Furniture owner Bernie Siomiak said there’s nothing big box stores are doing that can’t be replicated by smaller shops, he said.
“Open the damn city up,” Siomiak said.
He said he was given a $1,000 fine for selling furniture online, noting massive companies like Amazon are doing the same thing.
The Fresno City Attorney’s Office confirmed Tuesday that Siomiak was cited for operating outside the city’s nonessential business order.
Many businesses have taken a beating and employees have been laid off or taken cuts to their hours at work.
Salon owners, tattoo artists, wedding planners and other small entrepreneurs at the news conference said they believe they can work and not spread COVID-19. They held signs with slogans like “let us work.”
Crystal Childers, owner of closed Crystal Cosmo salon, said she’s trained to maintain proper sanitation and could work safely. Others around her said they worried about paying rent without any income.
“I’m a single mother supporting three children and I’ve been out of work for two months,” Childers said. “I don’t want free money. I just want to go back to work.”
The crowd applauded several times as Bredefeld made statements, including calling for the councilmembers who support continuing to shutter businesses to donate their salaries to the business owners.
Bredefeld said he would not be donating his own salary because he wants the businesses to open again. “I want these (business owners) working,” he said. “These people (other members of council) do not want them to work. There’s the difference.”
Fresno’s economic downturn was reflected in recent budget projections. Administrators said early estimates have the city’s budget facing a dip of about $39 million through the next year, compared to previous predictions. The city is working with a $1.1 billion budget this fiscal year.
Leaders have expressed concerns that the city could take a deep enough financial hit to require furloughs or even layoffs of city workers. That concern led to Councilmember Mike Karbassi’s call on Monday to re-open businesses.
More than 2.7 million Californians have filed for unemployment insurance in the past five weeks as the COVID-19 pandemic keeps people at home. Numbers specific to Fresno are not yet available.
Mayor Lee Brand declined to comment on Bredefeld’s news conference. His spokesperson Mark Standriff provided comment.
“The mayor’s very precious time and attention are focused entirely on the collaborative process protecting the health and safety of our residents and planning for a phased process of economic recovery to get people back to work and businesses thriving,” he said. “Anything else is a distraction he doesn’t have time for right now.”
Bredefeld’s plan
Karbassi said Monday he would to begin to allow businesses to open on May 7. Bredefeld was more aggressive on Tuesday, saying they should open immediately if the owners are ready and can follow CDC guidelines.
He noted that Fresno County has tallied seven deaths in a county of 1 million people. By comparison, more than 27,000 New Yorkers have died since the outbreak in a city of 8.4 million.
“Every death is tragic. We all agree, but we have to look at data,” he said. “We are probably the lowest per capita anywhere, yet we have the same lockdown and Draconian measures as New York does.”
Bredefeld called for the quarantine to continue for the elderly and those with compromised autoimmunity.
He argued city officials have not taken into account how the sheltering of residents and shuttering of stores has taken a toll on vulnerable communities, like those suffering from mental health issues.
Fresno County child welfare investigators have said they worry child abuse cases may be left unreported amid the coronavirus pandemic, and the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office has reported a spike in domestic violence reports.
Fresno’s orders to shelter have also been applied unevenly to the types of stores allowed to operate outside the city or in a neighboring town, Bredefeld said.
He also touched on the how the orders have closed churches, gun stores and any types of gatherings — all rights he says are protected under the Constitution.
“Nowhere in the Constitution or the Bill of Rights does it state that these God-given rights are to be removed if there’s a virus with a 98% or 99% recovery rate,” he said.
This story was originally published April 28, 2020 at 11:57 AM.
