Governor Gavin Newsom said he would ensure counties comply with state COVID-19 rules and regulations by withholding the next $2.5 billion budget allocation. But some county officials say he is going about enforcement the wrong way.
“We are now at a stage of this pandemic where we have to demand more accountability and that’s why we’re attaching $2.5 billion to that pledge,” Newsom told journalists at a June 24 virtual press conference. “When it comes to the appropriation of that 2.5 billion, we are not going to do it on an annual basis because I know how people game the system. We are going to do it on a monthly basis. We mean business.”
The warning arrives in response to a rising number of COVID-19 cases after state officials began reopening California’s economy.
As of June 28, there were 211,243 coronavirus cases statewide and 5,905 deaths, according to the Department of Public Health.
But Rex Parris, mayor of Lancaster, said that county officials are powerless over law enforcement that refuse to ticket residents who parade around town without a face covering.
“I've been wanting the Sheriff's Department to cite people for not having a mask on and they've refused,” Mayor Parris told the Southern California Record. “They don't want to do it and we are a contract city, which means our law enforcement is contracted. I can’t fire anybody.”
Newsom's new measure would apply to counties that fail to follow health care guidelines.
“If counties submitted that they need more state money to address this pandemic but are unwilling to enforce the rules and laws related to mitigating that pandemic, it seems not only counterintuitive that you would continue to provide those resources but actually harmful to the broader effort and so we don't want to be harmful,” Newsom said. “We want to be helpful. We want to be collaborative.”
According to media reports, the $2.5 billion budget will attach "considerations and consequences" for counties following their own reopening criteria instead of the state’s plan.
“We continue to maintain a collaborative spirit of cooperation and hope and expect that we don't have to trigger any reduction in funds for counties that choose not to be supportive of public health,” said Newsom.
County officials will likely dip into reserves or borrow from banks if they are refused appropriations or if the state doles out allocations monthly rather than annually, according to Parris.
“The cost of borrowing that money until they get their monthly allotment is going to further deplete the reserves they have,” he said. “If they spend reserves, they've lost the investment value of those reserves. We have banking relationships. We're a pretty good bet for banks and we get good rates but we'd prefer not to borrow.”
Instead, Parris would like to see Gov. Newsom enforce his COVID-19 rules and regulations.
“There ought to be a serious effort to enforce the mask rule and you don’t have to just rely on police departments,” Parris said. “You can have building and safety officials ticket people or the health department cite people who aren’t wearing a mask or face covering.”
As previously reported, the Department of Public Health recently issued a new mandate requiring the use of cloth face coverings by the general public when outside the home.