SLO County backs off local plan to reopen economy after receiving tough state criteria
San Luis Obispo County officials backed away from their week-old reopening plan Friday and announced they will instead follow state guidelines on how to gradually emerge from the coronavirus shutdown.
The turnaround was a surprise from just one week earlier, when officials unveiled a detailed three-phase reopening plan.
Instead, they said they will not renew the local coronavirus stay-at-home order set to expire later this month and will cede control to state leaders while following Gov. Gavin Newsom’s plan to reopen the economy.
County leaders hope to still use elements of their plan to help businesses and residents navigate the path ahead, but it’s clear it will not be the roadmap they intended it to be.
The change in direction came after Newsom on Thursday released a set of reopening criteria that counties must meet before allowing certain sectors of their economies to open. Newsom will not lift the state’s overall stay-at-home order — instead, local governments must reopen according to state guidelines.
In response to the discrepancy, Wade Horton, county administrative officer and emergency services director, announced leaders will not renew local stay-at-home orders when they expire on May 16.
The county will adhere to the state’s phased reopening plan, not its locally developed one. Businesses that move ahead of the state plan risk backlash from California regulatory agencies.
Horton said county leaders will continue advocating for their plan at the state level. Dr. Penny Borenstein, Public Health officer, has submitted a Board of Supervisors-approved declaration to state leaders attesting to the county’s readiness to move to the next phase of reopening.
“I am disappointed by this outcome,” Horton said. “We had great hope, alongside of you, that we would be moving forward to open more of our work spaces and community spaces. The governor’s roadmap is still being updated, but based on what is published, it will be a longer path to reopening, and it will delay the reopening of certain businesses along different timelines.”
What happened to the SLO County reopening plan?
A week ago, county leaders released a much-anticipated guide to reopen the local economy, dubbed the “Steps to Adapt and Reopen Together,” or START Guide.
It laid out a three-phase plan to gradually lift restrictions on local businesses and public gatherings put in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus.
But the local plan does not work in conjunction with the standards laid out in Newsom’s four-stage “Resilience Roadmap” for California.
Under the state plan, counties must meet specific benchmarks to start reopening most businesses. Local officials must show their communities have kept their coronavirus case numbers and deaths below certain thresholds and must demonstrate they have the ability to test and conduct contact tracing at certain levels per capita.
When asked if the county was caught off-guard by Newsom’s requirements, Horton said he and other leaders anticipated things would go differently.
“A week ago, we were expecting the governor to say, ‘Execute your plan,’” Horton said.
“I thought we put together, with the community, a very good plan. It was thoughtful, it was deliberate, it was responsible and there was tremendous community input in that plan. It was a plan that was not only supported by the community, it was supported by the Board of Supervisors, and we thought that the governor would take a look at that plan and that he would give us approval to move forward and execute that plan, and it didn’t happen.”
Borenstein said she thinks the START Guide can still provide businesses, organizations and individuals with suggestions for how to safely operate, even within the state’s framework.
“All of the elements that comprise that START Guide are relevant,” she said. “In terms of the guidances that we built, in terms of the community input, in terms of business readiness, in terms of providing to each of those sectors ideas of how they can move forward — if it’s today or next week or next month. So in a lot of ways, none of that effort was for naught.”
This story was originally published May 8, 2020 at 7:02 PM.
