Kennedy Club Fitness loses another COVID appeal. It’s time to give up and pay the fine

Finally, common sense prevails.

A Superior Court commissioner has ruled that Kennedy Club Fitness violated COVID-19 lockdown orders and owes the city of San Luis Obispo $7,000 in fines.

There was never any question that Kennedy Club broke the rules.

The popular fitness center didn’t even try to hide the fact that it allowed clients to exercise indoors during a period of time when several types of businesses were limited to outdoor-only operations.

Rather, Kennedy claimed the city did not follow proper legal procedure when it adopted emergency rules — first in the form of a resolution and then in an ordinance — to enforce the state’s COVID-19 public health orders.

When the city of San Luis Obispo served Kennedy with notices of violation, the gym appealed, first to a city-appointed administrative review board and, after losing there, to Superior Court.

In a written decision released Aug. 20, Superior Court Commissioner Leslie Kraut dismissed Kennedy’s arguments and concluded the city had acted properly.

Assemblyman Jordan Cunningham, who also maintains a private law practice, represented Kennedy.

“My clients are disappointed in the outcome, obviously, but respect the process,” Cunningham wrote in an email. “Their initial appeal raised issues with the city’s enforcement regime — issues that the city had to fix by passing a new ordinance and applying that ordinance retroactively. We continue to believe this was unconstitutional and legally improper, and are looking at options for further appeal. “

Kennedy Club’s decision to remain open during the lockdown was motivated in part by economics, but as Commissioner Kraut’s ruling points out, operators of the gym also believed they were providing a valuable service that helped keep members healthy.

“KCF believed they were doing more good than harm by remaining open for their patrons despite the prohibition against indoor gym use when the citations were issued. However, KCF, as well as any other gym, restaurant, school, theatre, or indoor-gathering organization, was not qualified to make public health determinations about risk to the public’s health,” the ruling says.

That cuts straight to the heart of the matter; Kraut’s well-written decision clearly, succinctly and unequivocally recognizes that only public health agencies have the authority to make public health decisions.

That needed to be said, loud and clear. Throughout this pandemic, far too many people have decided they know better than the medical experts, and we see where that’s gotten us.

We’re approaching the year-and-a-half anniversary of the initial lockdown, and COVID-19 is surging again, bringing with it another round of hospitalizations, deaths and misery for those left behind.

Picking and choosing which rules and recommendations to follow has a lot to do with that.

As much as we sympathize with the financial hardships businesses have suffered during this awful pandemic, given the circumstances, it’s hard to overlook the fact that some chose to violate health rules.

In his email, Cunningham wrote that Kennedy Club is “glad to be open and safely serving their customers.”

“It is a fact that not a single case of COVID-19 has been traced to any of their fitness facilities, and they remain committed to safe operation with the highest health standards,” he added.

That’s good to know, but whether or not there were COVID cases traced to Kennedy Club Fitness is not really the point.

If it were, it could just as easily be argued that it’s OK to run a stop sign or shoot off illegal fireworks or drive drunk just as long as no one gets hurt.

The fact is, all those actions are inherently dangerous, which is why they’re prohibited.

Nobody is above the law, not even a respected business like Kennedy Club Fitness, and especially not when lives could be at stake.

It’s time for Cunningham and his client to cut their losses and for KCF pay up.