Opinion: State, L.A. County Overstepping in Emergency Actions
Photo by Gage Skidmore
By Jaivon Grant
Soon after the COVID-19 pandemic first took its toll on California earlier this year, Governor Gavin Newsom declared a public emergency and ordered Californians to stay home and businesses deemed non-essential to shut down. These measures, as Californians were assured, served as necessary, but temporary, remedies to get the initial spread of the virus under control and to minimize the burden on our health care system.
However, more than six months later, while Governor Newsom was quick to grasp a hold of these emergency powers, he has been exceptionally slow in ceding them back to local governments. Instead, he continues to take advantage of the broad scope of emergency powers afforded to him, dictating changes that affect everything from plastic bags to weddings, and which directly impact how local governments operate.
Cities have not taken this power grab lightly. They have taken steps to curtail the Governor’s overreach. For instance, the cities of Milpitas and Novato threatened to sue over planned Project Homekey (a state program to establish permanent housing facilities for people experiencing homelessness) sites in their cities. The state is forcing these programs on cities without prior consent or input. Other cities have also made attempts to curtail this abuse of power. In the city of Norwalk, their city council unanimously passed an emergency ordinance that required any public agency to consult with the city prior to placing a homeless or COVID-19 facility in Norwalk. This was an attempt to ensure collaboration between state, county, and city government. Was this not the purpose of Gavin Newsom’s statement that “localism is to be determinative?”
So how are cities supposed to deal with these limited options, where they are left with little to no say in what will affect their residents? Los Angeles County has been overstepping its powers through emergency actions as well, but it’s finally being restrained. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge James Chalfant recently ruled that Los Angeles County health officials acted "arbitrarily'' and without a proper "risk-benefit" analysis when they banned outdoor dining. Some cities, such as Whittier, have even considered creating their own health department to opt out of falling under the jurisdiction of L.A. County public health. Additional litigation efforts have been made to curtail Newsom’s unilateral power. An ongoing lawsuit has sought to build on recent federal decisions against gubernatorial overreach.
Unfortunately, for resource-limited municipalities, they have limited options even in the face of negative consequences for their city and residents. The city of Norwalk who on several occasions, has taken steps to limit the state’s attempts to leverage emergency decision-making, yet the state and county proceed undeterred. One of the most contentious examples of this has been the state’s efforts to purchase a local Motel 6 as part of its Project Homekey program.
Project Homekey is meant to build upon the earlier efforts undertaken as part of Project Roomkey, through which the state and county governments rented motel and hotel rooms for homeless individuals in order to minimize their risk of contracting COVID-19. However, Project Roomkey was, by and large, an abject failure in Norwalk and several other cities. Approximately 206 homeless individuals were provided with rooms, but at least 184 have abandoned those rooms. This means that the county of Los Angeles, in executing this program, has exacerbated the problem of homelessness by now adding 184 individuals who are now unaccounted for and roaming the streets of Norwalk! In addition, the purchase of Motel 6 would cost the city more than $140,000 in tax revenue each year for up to a period of 55 years. The city objected; the county did not care. Their response? Their interests in this program supersede the revenue lost by the city of Norwalk.
This abuse of power by Newsom should not be meant to provide indefinite cover for policymaking. They are supposed to be used only with caution and in the best interest of the people. We have long since passed that point, and the right thing now is to bring these emergency powers to heel and give control back to the local and legislative bodies to which to they are rightly designated.
Jaivon Grant is a political commentator and former journalist with Our Weekly.