Santa Cruz County confirms plan to give businesses a voice in economic recovery - Santa Cruz Sentinel
Santa Cruz County confirms plan to give businesses a voice in economic recovery - Santa Cruz Sentinel |
| Posted: 07 May 2020 05:08 PM PDT  SANTA CRUZ — Amid mounting calls from business leaders for a seat at the table to plan how to safely reopen the local economy, Santa Cruz County is set to launch an economic recovery team that appears aimed at doing exactly that. Santa Cruz County spokesman Jason Hoppin confirmed the economic recovery team is in the works and said a formal announcement is likely forthcoming Friday. "We recognize that economic recovery is a very important part of this, and we want to provide a venue between the health care leadership and the business community," Hoppin said. Who will be invited to the economic recovery team, which is expected to be formed next week, couldn't immediately be confirmed. Business and community leaders involved with or briefed on the plans said the team will mostly be made up of representatives from local industries, who would help advise health officials on industry-specific guidelines and best practices — and more broadly, would function as a conduit for information to flow to and from businesses and county health officials. Susan True, CEO of Community Foundation Santa Cruz County, first confirmed the plans Wednesday, saying she had been cleared by county officials to discuss them in advance of the interview. "We are going to form an economic recovery team across industry leaders," True said. "It will be a small team. Its purpose will be to work with Dr. Newel to think about, at first, the governor's stage two businesses — we're not talking about huge events, yet — and to identify what the safe practices will be, how we will really reopen." That confirmation prompted optimism from some business representatives, who in interviews just a day earlier had raised concerns about their lack of involvement in — and awareness of — the county's plans. "Now that we have a means of communicating, we're optimistic," Santa Cruz County Business Council CEO Robert Singleton said Wednesday. To date, there has been little if any formal communication between local business leaders and the county health officials who ordered the bulk of the local economy on ice. According to Casey Beyer, CEO of the Santa Cruz Area Chamber of Commerce, there has been "no communication. Zero." The clamor for more involvement has been mounting since many local businesses closed their doors or drastically scaled down operations, sending unemployment claims skyrocketing in the wake of Santa Cruz County's first shelter-in-place order, which took effect March 17. As Singleton sees it, the impact of the order to the county's economy has been "borderline cataclysmic." Unemployment in Santa Cruz County shot up to 7.9% in March. April data is not yet available, but a University of the Pacific report projects unemployment could exceed 19% in Santa Cruz County in May. A single week, March 22-28, saw more than 8,300 unemployment claims filed in the county — more claims than were filed in any single month during the Great Recession and subsequent recovery. Some local businesses, such as 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall, have shuttered, while other eateries forge ahead with takeout orders. The Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk is indefinitely closed and confirmed this week it is canceling its summer concert series. "Everyone was unprepared for an order of this magnitude to essentially shut down the entire economy — beyond essential businesses — and it's been devastating," Singleton said Tuesday. The county's order has since been eased to allow more low-risk business activity such as construction and auto and real-estate sales. And starting Friday, curbside pickup for a number of retailers is also permitted. Further easing of restrictions, health officials have said, will require more widely available COVID-19 testing and increased capacity for contact-tracing and quarantine. Broad outlines of those requirements were released last week as part of the SAVE Lives Santa Cruz County initiative, mirroring guidelines detailed by Newsom. Last week, Beyer, Singleton and other local business representatives sent a letter to county Health Officer Dr. Gail Newel. The April 28 letter requested more communication and to move forward with a conversation around what it would take to reopen specific local industries. "Santa Cruz County continues to perform well in adhering to the Stay at Home and Shelter in Place orders, however, many local businesses, their employees, and other strategic partners are continuing to suffer as a result of the tremendous economic impacts that have followed," the letter states, in part. "While we recognize the importance of continuing these valuable practices in deference to, and with respect for public health, we believe that a more comprehensive analysis and planning effort needs to take place for when and how these orders should be loosened, especially in light of the seasonal nature for many of our County's largest industries and companies." In a joint interview Tuesday — before plans for the economic recovery team were confirmed — Beyer, Singleton and Santa Cruz Works Executive Director Doug Erickson said they had yet to receive a formal response. "What I'm hearing from a lot of the small businesses that I represent is they're wanting to honor the SIP (shelter in place) from both the governor and our public health officer, but they have really no idea what that means in terms of a go-forward plan," Beyer said Tuesday. His view was largely echoed by Singleton and Erickson. "Businesses need to be a part of the conversation and know they're being heard," Erickson said. Singleton said Tuesday that getting back to a semblance of economic normalcy would require confidence on the part of business owners and investors. That won't easily happen without more clarity around how health officials are looking at easing economic restrictions, he said. "I don't necessarily need a date when shelter-in-place is going to end, but I need some kind of framework for understanding how your decision-making is being done, and we haven't even gotten that," Singleton said at the time. "I know the decision behind shelter in place has been a paramount focus on public health," he added. "But I really wish they would expand the definition to be public health and well-being, because while someone may be healthy, if they're struggling to provide for their family, if they're struggling to like make ends meet and get food on the table, that's not a wonderfully healthy lifestyle." Confirmation of the economic recovery team plans came the next day following inquires to county officials and True, the Community Foundation CEO — one of many sign of how quickly the landscape of coronavirus response can shift. Those plans, according to Singleton, now provide reason for optimism. "I feel like we've been included now in the conversation and there's a clear path forward for businesses to be having these discussions we've been seeking," he said. "It took a little bit for these channels of communication to open, but I feel pretty good that we now have a legitimate mechanism for business input on best practices for phase two of shelter in place." |
| Bay Area breaks from governor, maintains ban on curbside pickup at retail stores - Pleasanton Weekly Posted: 07 May 2020 04:18 PM PDT  Health officers in six Bay Area counties and the city of Berkeley warned residents Thursday that the regional COVID-19 coronavirus shelter-in-place guidelines will remain in place through at least May 31 despite Gov. Gavin Newsom's announced changes to the state's order. While state health guidelines will allow more restaurants and retail stores to operate with curbside pickup and delivery, health officers from Berkeley and Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, Santa Clara and San Mateo counties will continue to prohibit curbside pick-up at non-essential, non-outdoor businesses. "We need to continue to work together so those sacrifices don't go to waste," the seven jurisdictions said in a joint statement. "It is critical to maintain our gains." During a Thursday afternoon news conference, Newsom and state Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly said that the state will slightly loosen its health and safety guidelines starting Friday, allowing manufacturing facilities, some retail stores and other "low-risk" businesses and industries to resume operating, provided that they enforce state health guidelines like physical distancing. The Bay Area's revised order that went into effect Monday only permits businesses that operate primarily outside to resume operating. As a result, construction projects and real estate transactions could be completed and retail nurseries, landscapers and gardeners could reopen for business. "We know that COVID-19 has impacted different communities and different counties across the state in very different ways," Ghaly said. "There have been some counties with few cases and no deaths for many, many days and that has contributed to the excellent data that we've seen across the state." In addition to the modifications announced Thursday, Newsom and Ghaly said state officials are discussing how to safely allow the resumption of seated dining in restaurants and the operation of shopping malls, offices that have not been able to work from home, and outdoor museums. "While the Governor's Order allows for non-essential business curbside pick-up, he also recognizes jurisdictions across California have been impacted differently from COVID-19. Pleasanton has made great strides in slowing the spread within Alameda County, and we don't want to lose any of that progress," Pleasanton City Manager Nelson Fialho said. "Timing of the County's Health Department directives on when we can safely enter the next phase will be crucial to maintaining the health and safety of our community, as well as our businesses," he added. The city of Livermore's Twitter account shared the news with this comment, "The City will continue working with (ACPHD) to make progress on safely reopening more businesses and activities. At this time, curbside pickup from non-essential, non-outdoor businesses is not allowed." From the local business perspective, Pleasanton Chamber of Commerce CEO/president Steve Van Dorn said, "The Chamber understands that the science behind the spread of the pandemic must be the guiding principle for opening businesses in a safe way. We also believe our business community stands ready to adjust to new protocols so their employees and customers will be safe when they return to work and customers visit their place of business." "Even though Alameda County is not following the State's lead in allowing non-essential businesses curbside service, we feel confident this will happen in the next week or two," Van Dorn said. "Our focus moving forward at the Chamber is to begin sharing information to our members so they are prepared for the 'new normal when Alameda County begin to open more non-essential businesses." State officials have monitored six factors in deciding when to begin reopening the state's economy, including the number of coronavirus tests conducted each day, the strain on the state's hospital system, and the state's capacity to vacillate between strict and looser shelter-in-place guidelines. Newsom said more than 843,000 coronavirus tests have been conducted across the state and the state is averaging around 30,000 tests per day, half of the state's goal of 60,000 to 80,000 tests daily. The spike in testing has allowed multiple jurisdictions -- including Los Angeles, Napa and Contra Costa counties -- to make coronavirus tests available to all residents, not only those with symptoms or a doctor's referral. "This is an iterative process," Newsom said of reopening the economy. "It is a dynamic process. This is not etched in stone. We want to continue to work with people across sectors and to address unintended, not just intended, consequences of these meaningful modifications to the stay-at-home order." "We share the urgency to reopen and restore our economies and our normal activities, and the equal importance of doing so in a way that is safe, responsible and does not cause a significant increase in serious illness and death, or overwhelm our health care delivery systems," the seven jurisdictions said in their statement. |
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