Fresno’s shelter order will likely change this week. Here are the proposals and who supports them
Fresnans can expect more changes to the city’s shelter-in-place order this week.
What exactly those changes will be won’t be clear until Thursday when the City Council meets and comes to a decision in conjunction with Mayor Lee Brand.
Councilmembers Luis Chavez and Garry Bredefeld both proposed changes to the emergency orders, but only Chavez’s proposal appears likely to move forward. Bredefeld proposed ending shelter-in-place completely, which a majority of councilmembers told The Bee they don’t support.
But each councilmember and the mayor expressed support for aspects of Chavez’s proposal, which includes requiring face coverings, giving money to Fresno County to fight coronavirus, and decriminalizing egregious social distancing violations.
Chavez said he’s working with the mayor on his proposal, and the changes could come in the form of an executive order.
Chavez proposal
Chavez on Monday released a five-point proposal that included:
▪ Reopening dine-in restaurants pending county and state approval.
▪ Modifying the shelter-in-place order to encourage vulnerable populations to continue to stay home, and for other populations to follow Centers for Disease Control safety guidelines.
▪ Removing the jail penalty for social distancing violators, except for egregious instances.
▪ Providing $10 million to Fresno County to increase COVID-19 testing capacity and contact tracing, two important elements in state criteria for reopening. As of Monday, nearly half (585 of 1,263) of the county’s total positive cases were in the city of Fresno. The county has had 17 deaths, 157 hospitalizations and 383 recoveries.
▪ Requiring face coverings indoors in public buildings and other shared spaces.
Chavez said Tuesday he’s working with the mayor to include some of the requirements in an executive order, and he’s open to changes.
Brand said in a statement to The Bee, “I agree with Luis in principle but there are a significant number of details missing in this proposal. My staff and I are working with him and his colleagues on a more comprehensive version that meets all our needs for opening restaurants and other businesses safely while still protecting the health of our entire community.”
Chavez emphasized that everyone on the City Council and the mayor supports reopening businesses, but that has been lost in the “hyperbolic rhetoric” about the city’s shelter-in-place policy. The important thing is that reopening businesses is done safely, he said.
“I’ve never seen this as a choice between constitutional rights and a public health issue,” he said. “I think we can achieve both of those if we cut through a lot of the rhetoric and find a way to reach a consensus.”
Five of Chavez’s council colleagues said they’d support some version of his proposal. Only Councilmember Paul Caprioglio did not respond to a voicemail left by The Bee.
Council President Miguel Arias said city leaders are trying to strike a balance and closely watching health indicators. It’s alarming that coronavirus is disproportionately affecting African American and Asian residents and testing remains scarce for those groups, he said. But he’s “cautiously optimistic” because the county’s health care system and hospital capacity remain stable.
Arias commended Chavez for being open to compromise and Brand for his steady leadership during the pandemic.
Councilmember Mike Karbassi said he supports Chavez’s proposal and likely will cosponsor it.
“For the most part I think it’s the most responsible and measured approach,” he said. “There’s no greater economic bailout or help than letting people work, but we want to make sure it’s safe.”
Councilmember Nelson Esparza said he thinks the city should add “more teeth” to the face-covering policy in order to protect small businesses. Customers may be more likely to follow the rules at places such as Costco as opposed to smaller mom and pop shops, he said.
“So my intention is to level the playing field for these businesses and give them cover so they don’t have to choose between doing business and having a safe work environment for themselves and employees,” he said.
Councilmember Esmeralda Soria said she is especially supportive of the mask and testing elements of the proposal.
Even Bredefeld may support some aspects of the proposal.
“The City Council and Mayor have destroyed businesses, disrupted lives, and caused tremendous human suffering in our city with these draconian and unconstitutional orders. We’ve put tremendous pressure on them for weeks, and now they’re finally listening to the pain of their constituents,” he said about Chavez’s proposal. “I’ve been relentlessly fighting to get them to remove the house arrest ‘shelter in place’ orders, mandatory wearing of masks that CDC only recommends, the idiotic one person per 500 square feet in a business, and the outrageous threats of jail and fines to our law-abiding citizens and community. I will support any actions that frees our businesses and repeals these cruel and destructive orders.”
Bredefeld proposal
Bredefeld’s proposal likely won’t gain a second at the dais and go to a vote, unless Caprioglio chooses to be the second. Caprioglio hasn’t commented publicly on Bredefeld’s or Chavez’s proposal.
Each of the other councilmembers offered bluntly critical comments on Bredefeld’s proposal.
Soria called it “counterproductive” because it removes Fresno’s local control. Esparza said he definitively opposes it.
“The removal of a plan is not a plan. That’s why you don’t see councilmembers wanting to entertain that,” Chavez said.
Karbassi pointed out that completely repealing each of the executive orders also removes protections for workers, such as temperature checks. It’s important to continue encouraging high-risk groups to stay home, he said.
Arias offered the most searing analysis of the proposal.
“A one-sentence proposal is not worthy of being labeled a proposal, much less one the council takes seriously. I don’t expect it to arrive at a decision,” he said.
Furthermore, Arias said the pandemic has exposed the double standard of both city and county elected officials who have built their political career on championing “law and order” policies.
“Once they disagree with the rule or law, and once the law inconveniences them from getting a haircut, anarchy should take place in their view,” Arias said.
Those politicians were the ones requesting exemptions for golf courses and for the city not to enforce the emergency order, he said.
“It provided further evidence that that handful of loud voices was never about the rule of law,” he said. “They were about the rule of privilege for themselves and their friends.”
In response to the critiques of his proposal, Bredefeld said the pandemic is forcing his council colleagues to be accountable. The council could’ve voted at any time to rescind the emergency orders but refused to, he said.
“The council and the mayor have received their salaries despite their horrific policies putting people out of work,” he said. “My placing all of the executive orders on the agenda was designed to force the council to be accountable, to repeal the specific draconian lockdown orders, the arbitrary and irrational shutting of businesses, the forcing people to wear masks though CDC only recommends them, and the threatening of our law-abiding citizens with jail and thousands of dollars in fines.
“With no place to hide any more, other councilmembers are now putting forward proposals to remove these insane policies,” Bredefeld said.
More changes and moving forward
Soria said city leaders need to be thoughtful about the future effects of their immediate actions.
She noted that the council’s budget subcommittee soon will begin meeting, and she hopes there will be discussions about how to use federal relief money to address issues such as supporting small businesses, increasing testing capacity and a long-term strategy to house the homeless.
“We have the opportunity to start having conversations about what it is we want to bring forward to the entire council so we can get those dollars back to the street,” she said. “This money was given to us so we can put it back in our communities to address and mitigate some of the impacts we are seeing. … That’s what I’m interested in.”
Arias acknowledged that residents are being bombarded with information about the pandemic and policies are changing daily across the country, state and city.
“Every individual must own their self responsibility to be part of the solution,” he said. “And the vast majority of residents have done so.”