Sheriff Honsal Talks Consequences for SIP Violations, a Baseball Team Coached by Law Enforcement Opening Tryouts, and More

Humboldt County Sheriff Honsal has been answering questions since the stay-at-home orders were instituted on a two question per media outlet roughly two times a week basis. The Humboldt County Joint Information Center takes the questions, and reads them to the county official on camera for their response. The resulting video, called a Media Availability, is then provided to news outlets at the end of the day.

Here are some of the main points covered in the May 19th Media Availability session with a fairly close transcript of answers by Sheriff William Honsal, followed by questions we would have liked to ask in response if appropriate.

Media Question:  Dr. Frankovich said the increase in cases is likely caused by people not following the shelter in place order. There have been reports of people reopening their gyms for secret sessions, people getting haircuts from hairdressers in their homes. Is the county still taking an education stance and what kind of violations would need to take place for the county to shift to an enforcement stance?

Answer by Sheriff Honsal: 

So, as a law-enforcement officer you know, we have discretion, right, when we’re talking about infractions or misdemeanor type violations of the law, and so we take every case as a case by case basis. We weigh it versus spirit of the law versus letter of the law.

So there’s a lot of common sense that we use in law-enforcement, and again we take every situation as a fresh perspective. Now, what we might get is a little bit different tone is when we are back there for a second offense or a third offense. So again, likely, we want to be in compliance–we want voluntary compliance throughout the county with the Shelter in place order in the public health officers guidelines. We understand that as this kind of keeps continuing, we are in the eighth and ninth week, that people’s patience will get less and less. People trying to test the boundaries.

We will get those phone calls and we got phone calls last week regarding some businesses that opened early, we contacted those businesses and they shut down. So we haven’t had to be able to issue citations for those people. So you know, it’s very very important but you know, one thing is, no one is going to jail over this issue right now. If there needs to be a citation issued for noncompliance, there will be a citation issued and that kind of thing, but again we are not going to be releasing people from jail in order to fill it with people that are violating the shelter in place order. So that’s not going to happen.

But, you know, it is a misdemeanor and you can face a fine, $50-$1000 so there’s a lot of issues that can come with that, but we want to make sure that people are aware that it’s a commonsense approach we want people, law-enforcement agencies to use discretion with this and take an education type approach and try to get people to abide by the order.

Media Followup questions we’re unable to ask because of the format: 

  • If you are aware or able to determine that a business owner is intentionally pursuing business activities prior to being authorized, for example a business slated for Phase 3, would you still entertain the idea of education as a remedy for that willful violation of the health order? 

2 mins 25 sec in:  

Media Question:  As we see cases continue to increase in our community, do you expect law enforcement to have more of a presence out in the community, enforcing social distancing guidelines for mass gatherings, masking etc. Will there be more of a shift from education to issuing citations or fines?

Answer by Sheriff Honsal: 

So again, we’re taking it case-by-case basis. We were up at one of our local beaches because of a crowding issue. People were crowding the roads, parking lots, and that kind of thing, we got  complaints. So we went up there, we checked things out.  Even though the parking lot was crowded, there was physical distancing on the beach- everyone was doing well. There was one issue where people needed to be congregating a little closer than that, we talked with them and they disbursed. So it wasn’t a big deal.

Right now, I think it’s one of those things that, again, we want to get compliance with people. The last thing we want to do is have to fine people and issue citations for things like this, but we are taking everything serious.  We want people to wear masks when out in the public, when they can’t social distance, when they’re inside of buildings and also to make sure that they’re not testing boundaries and keeping in place.

Media Followup questions we’re unable to ask because of the format: 

  • Can you give an example of a situation in which you would feel justified in issuing a $50 fine?  
  • Can you give an example of a situation in which you would feel justified in issuing a $1000 fine? 

3 mins 40 sec in: 

Media Question:  What kind of enforcement is there for sports leagues, such as The Humboldt Eagles, that are beginning team functions Monday? 

Answer by Sheriff Honsal: 

You know, sports leagues will be coming online very soon. The governor even made an announcement yesterday that he could see sports being played in June, okay, and here we are at the end of May and so it’s just around the corner. There are people, there are athletes that are working out, that are doing group training and parks in that kind of thing and maintaining their physical distancing and those kind of aspect of things. We know that that is occurring. By having sports leagues, Kind of things get together and start conditioning, is one of those things that each league is going to have to consider what their youth programs are going to look like.

Again, contact sports and different sports, we’re not allowing that to happen right now. That’s against the social distancing order, recreation and physical exercise, is a part of the order and people can go and exercise and recreate. 

We want people to maintain their physical distancing, we want to make sure all the guidelines are in place, but that’s very very important.

So, I did contact the people that are in charge of the league, and saying ‘Listen, what are you considering?’ They’re not gonna be playing baseball, they’re not gonna be doing those kind of things, they’re going to exercise and maintain physical distancing and those kind of things, and then they’re going to wait until the shelter in place order is lifted for games to continue. You know, I’m not giving them permission to do that, but I’m just checking in with them to see if we do get complaints about them violating the shelter in place, we will follow up with them and make sure that they are following the guidelines as outlined by California Department of Public health and our local health officer.

5 mins 45 sec in: 

Media Question:  The team is reportedly coached by a member of law-enforcement. Has that allowed the team more privileges with the county?

Answer by Sheriff Honsal:

No, it hasn’t. So, they are not allowed to violate any kind of the shelter in place guidelines, they are not allowed to break the law. So, I get phone calls from a lot of different people every day talking about these kinds of things and their frustration, or what they propose and looking at the guidance and seeing how things could work and what their proposals are. So you know, you know there’s no special privileges granted by one league or another. I do know that there are people don’t have, working out together in different parks in different settings, and parking lots and things, and maybe it’s not organized but they are getting together, and people may not be going to a gym so to speak, but people are gathering while maintaining their physical distancing, not touching equipment, not touching common objects, but using their body weight to do different exercises and, you know, in the meantime I believe that meets the requirements of the health officers order.  

6 mins 50 sec in: 

Media Question:  You’ve talked about safety precautions taken at the jail to reduce COVID exposure for correctional staff and inmates. Can you talk about what the process would look like if COVID did make its way into the facility? For example, if the whole building needed to be disinfected/cleaned, what would that process look like? Where would inmates be housed temporarily?

Answer by Sheriff Honsal: 

Right. Because our population numbers are low, we are able to shut down one portion of our correctional facility.  And so, that could be an area where we could push inmates over if there was an outbreak in the jail.

We do have, again, essentially a clinic inside the jail that is equipped to handle people that do have Covid.  And so we could isolate them in one of our rooms, making sure that they maintain that separation from the other inmates. 

We would obviously disinfect, we have disinfecting protocols, we have disinfectants, we have a way we can completely clean those dorms.  We can shelter those inmates that are exposed in a different area.  We would essentially quarantine them for essentially 14 days, while we are testing them to make sure that no one else would be testing positive for the virus.

So we do take that serious.  That’s why we are maintaining this quarantine for everyone that gets booked in the jail, that’s going to stay for 14 days, we are testing everyone and making sure that our correction deputies are wearing masks and doing disinfectant protocols.

As well as, when an inmate has to go over to court, they are going to be wearing a mask and requiring everyone in court to also wear a mask to protect them from potential exposure.

8 mins 35 sec in:  

Media Question:  The Bear River Casino says that they are opening on May 24. Did they get approval from you and the health officer to move forward with re-opening, and do they need your approval?

Answer by Sheriff Honsal: 

Well, let’s just talk about tribal land. So tribal land here in California, it is a public law 280 state which means state law does apply on tribal land.  But civil and regulatory state law does not apply to tribal land and they can come up with their own civil regulations and that those kind of things.

We have been working with Bear River throughout this whole process. They voluntarily came under the shelter in place order. They shut down their casinos and their restaurants, and all their operations during this time. 

But, they are sovereign. They are a sovereign nation.  As far as civil and regulatory goes, they can open up without the public health officers approval, and so the public health officer has come out and said you know, we do not believe that this is a good time to open up right now, and we strongly recommend that they do not.  But they are sovereign and they can do it.  I know that they have come up with a plan, it’s a thorough plan, I know there’s other rancherias and casinos here that are also looking at the same thing. They are also looking at the casinos down south, and I know there’s several large casinos down south in Southern California that are challenging the governor, and the governor’s order.  And they are telling the governor that they are going to open up despite his displeasure with that, and so they are in talks with them. 

But I know that when these casinos want to open up it does potentially expose our community to people gathering together and touching commonly touched objects and those kind of things.  So, you know, we urge them to use whatever precautions necessary to ensure the safety of their employees and customers that may show up there.

Media Followup questions we’re unable to ask because of the format:  

  • Are you aware of the number of laid-off or furloughed casino employees throughout the county resulting from the public health orders, and if so can you give us an idea of what that number is?

10 min 30 secs in:

Media Question:  Even with some restrictions, doesn’t opening table games and slot machines put the public at higher risk for Covid?

Answer by Sheriff Honsal: 

Yeah, for sure. It’s those control measures that someone can put in place, so you know, we want to make sure that commonly touched objects are cleaned and disinfected.  They may have a plan- that every machine that is touched, they wipe down afterwards- I don’t know what their plan’s going to be.  How they’re going to play table games and still physically distance and make sure people don’t touch things, people wearing gloves, are people going to be wearing masks, I don’t know. 

And so those are the things that people are going to have to feel comfortable with.

One of the things that I am stressing throughout this whole process here is that, number one, we want people to feel safe when they go to work, and we want consumers when they go shopping or go to visit one of these stores or retail establishments and businesses to feel comfortable doing business at these places.

And so they’re going to look as soon as they walk in the door -what kind of control measures do they have in place- you know, what cleaning protocol might be there, how are they protecting you as a customer walking into their store or their casino? So those are the kind of questions that I hope the casino will answer for their customers and set an example for the rest of the county. 

So far, the casinos have done a lot you know for our community and I know they care for our community.  And so, these tribes, they really do a lot. 

And I hope they listen to what the public health officer is saying. And I know they want to open, but definitely to a reduced manner and with Control measures in place to hopefully ensure the safety of our community.

Additionally, Sheriff Honsal asks community members to do whatever they can to make sure the community is safe- washing hands, wearing face coverings and maintaining physical distance.

Anybody who has questions or concerns can call 441-5000 to get information or relay a comment. 

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13 Comments
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Willie Bray
Guest
3 years ago

🕯🌳So what he’s saying is they don’t do nothing if they catch someone breaking there rules as long as they make there present known to the public like they tried to do something but didn’t?

FanOfGuest
Guest
FanOfGuest
3 years ago
Reply to  Willie Bray

I just wear a bandanna around my neck. If someone says something i tell them “oh, it must have falling off my face.” Make sure you yell at them from at least 6 feet away. If there old and hard of hearing, just yell louder.

Alf
Guest
Alf
3 years ago

So for a non native community member would going to the casino be considered a violation of the stay at home orders? I say yes it would. Shut down the roads into the casinos and see how long they can stay open. Didn’t he say law enforcement is going to use common sense to enforce the order? Let’s see a little less talk and back it up with some action, Sheriff.

Ullr Rover
Guest
Ullr Rover
3 years ago

“…we want voluntary compliance throughout the county with the Shelter in place order in the public health officers guidelines…”

Sheriff Honsal, as a self proclaimed Constitutional Sheriff, can you hope for anything more than this from the public at large? Also, despite the California Emergency Services Act can you argue that handing over virtually unlimited power, without end to the Governor does not violate the guarantee off a Republican form of government(Article IV, Section 2 US Constitution)?

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displayText.xhtml?lawCode=GOV&division=1.&title=2.&part=&chapter=7.&article=3.

https://www.politico.com/states/california/story/2020/04/22/newsom-executive-orders-test-constitutional-bounds-and-legislative-goodwill-1279094

Papa Wheelies
Guest
Papa Wheelies
3 years ago
Reply to  Ullr Rover

Nice post.

FanOfGuest
Guest
FanOfGuest
3 years ago
Reply to  Ullr Rover

I thought the shelter in place order was for two weeks, 2 months ago?

Sal
Guest
Sal
3 years ago
Reply to  Ullr Rover

Did you even read the Politico piece? Maybe you should. Even the Republicans concede Newsom hasn’t strayed from constitutional boundaries, either in California law or US.

States are afforded broad authority under constitutional law, which grants them “police power” to improve the health, safety, morals and general welfare of the population. Under California’s Emergency Services Act, the governor’s powers are virtually unlimited — he can suspend any law or regulation during a state of emergency.

“Under the law, that act instantaneously activates a huge transfer of power from the legislative branch to the executive branch,” said Garry South, an adviser to former Gov. Gray Davis during the 2001 energy crisis. “The governor can ignore laws, unilaterally suspend [environmental laws] and other regulations, spend state funds in ways other than those allocated by the Legislature, and essentially govern via executive order.”

Ullr Rover
Guest
Ullr Rover
3 years ago
Reply to  Sal

Of course I read it. I am asking questions; you are assuming position.

Did you read A4 S2 of the Constitution ? Is the governor violating the Constitution through making unilateral policy decisions?

Perspective
Guest
Perspective
3 years ago

Casinos were cesspools before the pandemic and will surely become even more of a shit hole when they open back up. I’d like to say let them open and let the virus run its course, but the zombie tweekers that frequents these establishments, unfortunately live in our communities. The road to Bear Shit Hole should be a one way road. You go in, you don’t come back out, LOL!!

Guests
Guest
Guests
3 years ago

Nice places are opening up.

screw them
Guest
screw them
3 years ago

Ban travel of our citizens into the reservations.

Thirdeye
Guest
Thirdeye
3 years ago
Reply to  screw them

The Yurok and Hupa tribes agree. COVID-19 was brought to this neck of the woods by white people.

Willie Bray
Guest
3 years ago

🕯🌳But the local gyms and bars are cool ,right? No old people go there or Pharmacies or grocery stores or just out for a walk? Hmmmmmm. 🐸🖖🌍