Fresno orders fines up to $10,000 for big New Year’s Eve parties hours before they begin
The Fresno City Council adopted a policy Thursday to fine New Year’s Eve party organizers and property owners for parties of 50 or more people.
The 5-2 decision to levy $1,000 fines for first offenses came during a special meeting just hours before parties tend to begin on the holiday. The no votes came from Councilmembers Garry Bredefeld and Paul Caprioglio, according to Council President Miguel Arias.
Repeated offenses could go up to $10,000, similar to other COVID-19 violations.
Fresno City Attorney Doug Sloan issued a statement following closed session.
“Given that hospitals are overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients, the city attorney and code enforcement have been directed to enforce all emergency orders prohibiting mass gatherings, including any New Year’s parties and similar gatherings,” Sloan said.
While businesses flouting COVID-19 closure orders can expect warnings first, the order for New Year’s Eve parties gives code enforcement the power to hand out $1,000 citations without warnings.
There was some discrepancy among the council about the size of the tickets. Arias said Thursday that initial fines could be $10,000. Councilmembers Mike Karbassi, Luis Chavez — both of whom supported the citations — and Bredefeld said the initial ticket could be $1,000.
Despite the surge in cases in Fresno and the San Joaquin Valley, so-called underground parties have been held in the past month or so, according to Arias.
Bredefeld said large parties are unwise under the pandemic’s conditions, but hadn’t heard of any in his district. He voted against levying fines.
“I believe in people making their own decisions and deciding what is dangerous, what is risky and keeping themselves safe,” he said. “I don’t believe in government threatening people with large fines.”
Some public health experts have blamed what they call “pandemic fatigue” as a reason why partygoers may attend events that could put them at risk of infection.
“The new scary monster that we do have to deal with right now is something called pandemic fatigue,” Dr. Rais Vohra, Fresno County’s interim health officer, warned in a news conference in late October. “That will create a real nightmare scenario for us if we allow our apathy, our complacency, our sense of fatigue to overwhelm all of these really good preventative strategies.”
California’s stay-at-home order affecting Fresno County and the surrounding Central Valley region went into effect on Dec. 3 and has since been renewed. The order is expected to last until the region’s ICU bed capacity meets the 15% availability requirement needed to reopen the local economy.
As of last week, the region’s ICU bed availability stood at 0% — one of the lowest in the state next to the Southern California region. Just seven beds were available countywide on Thursday for a population of about 1 million residents.
Food boxes for seniors
During the special meeting, the council also unanimously approved $1 million to extend food programs available to seniors. That brings the total spent on the program started in August at $2 million in CARES Act relief.
Arias said the plan is meant to stabilize food programs for the next 60 days until more federal food programs are expected to fill in.
The program was originally co-sponsored by Caprioglio, Luis Chavez and Mike Karbassi.
“It’s been a huge success,” Caprioglio said. “We’re not just giving out a lot of starches and carbs; it’s actually a well-balanced box of food.”
The boxes are put together and distributed in conjunction with Pardini’s Catering, whose contract was also extended on Thursday.
To get a delivery or find the location for pickup in Fresno, call 559-621-7237 or go to fresnocovidhelp.com/safr.
This story was originally published December 31, 2020 at 5:20 PM.
