Eradicating pandemics one signature at a time – the Recall Reopening
By Sen. Scott Wilk
If there’s one thing that’s consistent with Gov. Gavin Newsom during the pandemic, it’s inconsistency.
Constantly moving goalposts have caused more economic harm in California than anywhere else in the country. While our unemployment rate hovers at around nine percent, one of the highest, more than 19,000 businesses have closed their doors forever. Many others remain on the brink of collapse.
Understandably, the frustration and anger is palpable among businesses owners, parents, students, and millions of Californians struggling to access unemployment benefits.
The ever-changing and inconsistent rules do not appear based on science or data as the governor promised. One week we are bogged down by complicated and obtuse rules based on color-coded tiers, and the next we are told things look so great we will be able to reopen by June 15. Just like that, the threat of the virus went away. It does not take a rocket scientist (no offense to them) to connect the dots between the looming recall qualification and the sudden change of fortune for California.
If the governor’s “recall reopening” happens – and it is actually safe to bring California back to life – we welcome the news. It will be a tremendous relief for those who have been struggling for more than 13 months to keep their business afloat, educate their kids at the kitchen table, or work from home– but I won’t hold my breath.
One of my local school districts received a waiver to reopen late last year, they held off because of the surge and set a reopen date earlier this year only to be told a few days before students were set to return that the governor was changing the rules again. The reopening previously approved would have to wait. The money forked out to reopen was gone; parents would again be adjusting their schedules, as would all of the school personnel. So, we have been down the governor’s yellow brick road before….
If things are looking as rosy as the governor wants us to believe, it is also time to end his emergency powers. California’s Emergency Services Act, written decades ago, before all of the technological advances that allowed remote working and distance learning, reflect a time when people were afraid a catastrophe would completely shut down government. That is not the case during the COVID-19 pandemic and it is well past time to end Governor Newsom’s authority.
Senate Republicans have introduced several bills that would end his one-man rule and restore our constitutional three co-equal branches of government. They include:
· Senate Concurrent Resolution 5 (Melendez) would terminate the governor’s current emergency power and restore checks and balances between the branches of government. This would allow local governments to handle the pandemic in their own communities, instead of the top-down mandates the state has subjected them to for the last year.
· Senate Bill 448 (Melendez) would require future emergency orders to be narrow with a stated duration and scope. It would also restore some balance of power in future emergencies by allowing for some oversight of the governor’s decisions by the Legislature.
· Senate Bill 209: (Dahle) would require the legislature to revisit the governor’s emergency power after 45 days thus preventing what we have today – a never-ending emergency with zero effort to restore the balance of power.
With 13 months of inconsistencies, it is hard to take the governor at his word on a June 15 reopening. One can hold out hope that with the threat of a recall he actually takes the pulse of Californians, and sticks with this date. I’ll believe it when I see it.
This op-ed was originally published by the Southern California News Group.
Category: Business, Covid-19, Government, Local News, National News, Politics
