Mayor Drew Bessinger clarified the city’s decision to lift its emergency orders and what it means for local businesses in a virtual meeting Wednesday, May 6, hosted by the Clovis Chamber of Commerce.
The Clovis City Council voted to lift three of its emergency orders Monday, May 4. The orders mandated the closure of non-essential businesses, as well as the closure of picnic areas and playgrounds in city parks.
“We have pulled our orders back and now only the state orders are in effect,” Bessinger said. “We’ve also made it very clear that we are not going to enforce most of the stay-at-home things, that we are going to put that back on the state and the county. That is going to be their function.”
After the vote was cast, many in the community were confused about what the decision meant for local businesses, as the state and county shelter-in-place orders still remain in effect.
Bessinger said the city’s decision to lift its emergency orders was “the first step to get people back to work and get things to start to normalize a little bit.”
“We want businesses to have an opportunity to get back in business,” he continued, adding that he expects to see some businesses reopen as soon as Friday, May 7.
City officials said Monday that if the police department receives a call reporting a non-essential business that is open, the police would refer the caller to the Fresno County Department of Public Health rather than dispatch an officer to the reported businesses.
Bessinger said the city would only enforce the state’s shelter-in-place order in the case of an extreme violation where social distancing is ignored.
“We do reserve the right to deal with some extreme situations, if they come up,” he said. “Let’s say a bar decides they are going to open, and they are going to have a big shin-dig and they are going to pack it to the maximum, there is going to be no social distancing, there is going to be no precautions taken, and their attitude when we contact them is, ‘Too bad, we are not going to do it.’ That would be an extreme violation.”
The city would handle such situations by issuing a citation of up to $1,000.
Businesses planning to reopen may still face consequences from the county and state, however. The state can enforce the order by taking away business licenses from businesses that chose to reopen.
On the other hand, some businesses may not need to worry about getting penalized from the state, if they fall under Gov. Gavin Newsom’s list of businesses that are allowed to reopen in phase two of California’s reopening plan.
Phase two begins Friday, May 7, and see’s the state loosening shelter-in-place restrictions and reopening retail businesses, including clothing, book, music and sporting goods stores, as well as florists. Non-essential manufacturing will open as well.
The state requires all reopening businesses to follow social distancing and health safety guidelines.
Dine-in restaurants, bars, shopping malls, and offices are still closed for at least another few weeks, according to Newsom’s four-stage plan.
Newsom is also allowing individual counties to speed up their approach to opening businesses, if they meet the state’s criteria. That includes proving they have low numbers of COVID-19 cases, meet testing and contact tracing criteria, that their health care systems can handle a potential spike in cases and that they have plans in place to protect vulnerable populations.
But whether Fresno County meets the criteria or not, the City of Clovis will not enforce the state’s guidelines, Bessinger said.
As far as businesses that want to reopen but do not fall under Newsom’s list of stage two businesses, Bessinger said the decision is ultimately up to them.
“People will need to make a decision based upon their personal circumstances and their business on whether they want to open back up,” Bessinger said.
“We are not going to be the hammer of the state or county when people are operating a business which six weeks ago was lawful, and hopefully in two weeks will be lawful, and they are doing it in a responsible manner where they are caring about their employees and their customers.”