Although the Board of Supervisors has authority over County issues, under State law, when an emergency of this nature is declared and there is a pandemic of this magnitude, the Health Officer of each County has the legal authority to impose whatever orders she or he deem necessary to protect the public.
On Tuesday, April 21, the Board of Supervisors formed this ad hoc committee to advise the Health Department on COVID19 impacts. The goal of the committee is to work toward having a sustainable COVID-19 mitigation and recovery plan. The committee will be working with the community and industry on issues of concern, advising the Board of Supervisors and the Health Officer on possible ways to interpret and apply Health Orders so they will continue to keep the community safe, but allow more businesses to re-open and provide common-sense applications to outdoor activities.
The Committee has so far conducted 12 public meetings on May 7, 14, 21 and 28; June 4, 11, 18, and 25; July 2, 9, 16 and 23, 2020, covering recreation and lifestyle services, in-home and other personal services, small businesses, religious gatherings; a plan to move to fully to Stage 2 and, regrettably, the second surge that required postponement of many planned Phase 2 re-openings. A record of those meetings is posted on the County website at this link. The committee plans to change its meeting schedule to bi-weekly unless changing circumstances dictate otherwise, taking up issues relating to different business/community sectors at each meeting.
The Committee and the Health Officer also discuss updates to the State and County Health Orders and projected timeline for reopening business and community activities and answer questions received each week via the Supervisors' offices.
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