Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/tag/orange-county-board-of-superivsors/)
As coronavirus hospitalizations continue to rise in Orange County, the politics of face coverings continues its downward spiral. If there’s anything more disconcerting than the rise of a vitriolic opposition to commonsense precautions designed to keep us safer, it’s the deafening silence from public servants charged with safeguarding that safety.
Orange County Supervisors on Tuesday formally took a stand against police brutality when they adopted a resolution condemning the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd.
Many children will have to return to daycare requiring bold initiatives. There is likely no vaccine for COVID and herd immunity is years away. There is no relief for this pandemic on the immediate horizon and waiting for a cure is unattainable because science takes time. Our childcare programs will have to be reimagined with flexible thinkers leading the charge. Yet the OC Supervisors have yet to contact anyone in the educational community for assistance. The new normal should be led by campus sanitation specialists who rank in respect to principals and paid commensurate to professionals. Our daily structure needs to be rethought and turned on its head altogether. It’s time.
Friends of Harbors, Beaches and Parks supports a tree preservation policy going before the OC Board of Supervisors Tuesday. The precedent-setting policy will protect mature, native trees that improve our quality of life and contribute to the beauty of the environment. Distinctions on property size, location, and exceptions to this policy exist.
Orange County has one of the highest numbers of people hospitalized for the novel coronavirus, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Wednesday, following OC Supervisor Don Wagner’s comment to ease confusion over OC’s business reopening guidelines.
Orange County supervisors triggered widespread misunderstanding Tuesday adopting a set of voluntary guidelines for businesses that they were allowing businesses to re-open, when in fact they were not and acknowledge they have no power to do so.
We believe it is possible to protect the health and safety of our communities without bankrupting them as well. If we act now and put together a plan to restart the OC economy as well as minimize health risks, then businesses can begin the process of contacting vendors, employees, customers and preparing to smoothly transition and reopen.
Orange County health care officials announce an effort to step up mass testing for Coronavirus. Meanwhile, County Supervisors adopted a patchwork of policies that seek to reopen golf courses for recreation, keep beaches and parks open and require retail employees to wear masks, as the novel coronavirus slowly spreads throughout the county, killing 33 people out of 1,691 confirmed cases.
Inaction by the Orange County Board of Supervisors could result in infection, sickness, and death from COVID-19 for many county residents including innocent children. The lack of action by the OC Supervisors is so serious, we believe, that cities like Irvine, Costa Mesa, Seal Beach, and Buena Park have had to take matters into their own hands, passing ordinances to mandate face coverings like masks for essential workers. While we wait like cattle for herd immunity to develop, we must have a strategy to re-emerge. Part of a safety plan should be, we believe, a requirement for face coverings.
Essential workers and the customers they serve demand clear and consistent regulations that don’t vary from city to city or store to store. The particular guidelines that the Board of Supervisors established are thoughtful and reasonable. But the time for issuing guidelines is over. Too many people will get sick while we wait and hope that the industry will implement them. We need enforceable requirements, and we need them now.