Sheriff Honsal Talks Citations for Trimmigrants, Beach Parties, and Park day Use

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 21 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: Will you be celebrating the Memorial Day Weekend outside at any public parks, and how would you advise the public for the holiday weekend celebration?
Answer by Sheriff Honsal:

So this weekend is obviously Memorial Day, a lot of people take this opportunity to go out of town, and/or have visitors come into our county. This is a destination for a lot of different people. At this point in time we are still advocating that people do not travel into our county.

There are several parks that are opening up, people want to come here, find some relief because the temperatures are rising in the valley, coming to the coast and coming to the beach. But we ask those people that are from another county, please stay in your county, please respect our county. Right now we still have a Shelter-In-Place (SIP) order. And we don’t want visitors right now.

We want to make sure our numbers and our levels go down, and we want to respect that.

We will be fully staffing patrol this weekend, 24 hours a day and we will be contacting people if they are violating the shelter-in-place order. We will be issuing them warnings, and if necessary issuing them citations. So we want people to make, you know, to respect our order. If you are in county- please, celebrate, come to the beaches, come to our parks. The state parks are opening up, the national park is opening up for vehicle travel, come there, use the day use area, maintain your physical distancing and those kinds of things. But, we live in Humboldt County for a reason.

I’ll be doing the same things. I’ll be going to the beach, I’ll be running in different areas in the county and exercising, and getting out with my family. That’s what this is all about and it’s going to be a great weekend. The weather is going to be nice, there’s no rain forecasted. And so you know let’s take this time to celebrate why we live here, in Humboldt County.

2 mins in:
Media Question: What is the sheriff’s office doing in collaboration with Park Rangers and staff to prepare for an influx of visitors to local parks for the holiday weekend?
Answer by Sheriff Honsal:

Great question. The state and national parks have been in contact with me. We’ve been talking about what the messaging is out there, so we do actually want to help them, and they help us in this whole situation. We want to encourage the parks for local users, for Humboldt County residents to use those local parks.

If people do come in from out of the area, we will be stopping and talking to them and making sure it’s a joint effort.

There is still no camping. There’s no camping allowed in the state parks. So it is just a day use area.

So we’re also encouraging the hotels, make sure that you are only offering lodging to our local residence, or those people who are coming in for essential services. They have to be essential services that they are providing here, not just because they have an essential worker elsewhere.

2 mins 50 sec in:
Media Question: With more national state parks opening soon, how will your enforcement of social distancing practices be impacted? Will there be more of a presence to make sure that there isn’t overcrowding at these areas?
Answer by Sheriff Honsal:

So we do have a highway vehicle team will be out and we’ll be patrolling the beaches, patrolling some of those public right of ways, and those kind of things making sure that people are physically distancing and kind of abiding by that Shelter-In-Place order. We are, still, in a time where households can congregate together but anybody outside of the household, we ask that you do not do that at this time.

We understand that everyone has Shelter-In-Place fatigue, SIP fatigue, we all have it, right? And so we are all ready to go onto the next phase. We are close.

I just want you to know that Dr. Frankovich is the same way, she’s looking to the state for guidance right now, The state hasn’t determined lifting their shelter in place order, and what constitutes a group, what are we going to go to next, is it a group of 10? How are we going to message this? So she is looking to the state to make sure that the guidance is there. Through the California department of public health those questions are being asked, and so we are hoping that next week the governor does clarify some of that.

Because we have virtually every county in the north state as of today, I think Marin North is on to extended Phase 2… maybe that’s Sonoma, north. So, we have essentially the whole north state that is in the expanded Phase 2, retail is coming online, eventually dine in is coming online, so there’s going to be some things that need to be made as far as state level, some changes that need to be made.

5 mins in:
Media Question: As our local cases continue to increase, has the Joint Information Center or the Sheriff’s Office seen an increase in calls from the community, or complaints or tips about people not adhering to social distancing or the health order?
Answer by Sheriff Honsal:

Yes. We are going to get the 6000 call today. So, we have been very, very busy. I think last Monday it was probably our busiest day- we received hundreds of phone calls. So we are still receiving the phone calls at 441-5000 if anyone has questions about the shelter in place order, if they have concerns they want to report, do a tip, have questions about businesses, call that number and we will refer you or answer your question.

So we are always there, we are working Monday through Saturday. Taking Sundays off. Saturday hours are going to be 10 to 5. Monday, 10 to 5 as well. And so people do have the opportunity to call, ask questions and inquire, you know, what’s happening?

I do want to add one thing, we are certifying businesses, there’s been over 700 businesses that have submitted applications, and we have close to, I think it’s near 400 businesses that are actually approved and being certified or have been certified. So they have a certificate out there that says that they are compliant with the health officer’s order, they have a stamp from OSHA, California Department of Public health, and the County of Humboldt, that they can post on their doors.

And so we are encouraging people, as you go out Shopping in retail, you look for those notices that say that these businesses are compliant. We will be publishing that list I believe tomorrow, tomorrow by Friday. And of all the compliant retail businesses throughout the county,

so if you were concerned about it you can go on our website at Humboldtgov.org, look at compliant businesses and shop at those compliant businesses, you know they have gone through the series of checklists, you know their employees are properly trained, we know that there’s going to be disinfecting protocols, physical distancing and everything in place for their business to be open.

6 mins 35 sec in:
Media Question: On Tuesday it was announced that the updated order now allows for funeral gatherings of no more than 10 people, to resume, does this also apply to weddings?
Answer by Sheriff Honsal:

Funerals, 10 or fewer, can occur. This does not apply to weddings. We know that within a very short time we believe that the governor will be kind of changing that. And then we will hopefully be changing that right after that.

But at this time, I think we recognize that as far as funerals go, you know, people need to pay respects and have maybe a small ceremony, so we are allowing that to happen.

7 mins 20 sec in:
Media Question: The term of the current county order for eviction moratorium is close to its end, will Humboldt be extending the eviction moratorium past May 31, why or why not?
Answer by Sheriff Honsal:

The eviction moratorium will be up to the Board of Supervisors, there’s also some cities that have created that moratorium, and based on conditions of the Covid situation has created- so, people that can’t pay their rent, and you know, there’s some restrictions in there. So, our civil team that are responsible for serving those notices from the court, about vacating and those kind of things and assisting with the eviction process, we are reviewing those.

People can actually start submitting that paperwork to the courts now, the courts are processing those. And if the courts deem that someone does need to be evicted, you know, that’s outside of the Covid compliance issues, and whether our local ordinance says, then we will serve the proper notice. There’s also due process through that situation, so people have the opportunity to contest it through the court system, and so we will be going through that process. There were, I think possibly a dozen or so evictions that were set to occur right before Covid hit, and none of those were served, so essentially those will be the first in line that do occur.

8 mins 35 sec in:
Media Question: With harvest on the horizon, what is the relationship between marijuana laborers and the potential of an autumn surge? Or earlier? What collaboration is being done between HCSO and the cannabis industry to mitigate that threat?
Answer by Sheriff Honsal: Here’s a clip of the Sheriff responding and the full transcript is below.

So we’ve already been talking to the cannabis industry, about potential- The big threat here is having travelers come, trimmigrants come from all parts of the world, that’s really what’s been happening over the last 20+ years. We want to discourage as much as possible. Especially now, the legal market has opportunity to go to different staffing agencies, Dark Staffing Solutions is one of them, so they can actually go to places and have a labor force dedicated to marijuana brought to their site and taken care of. And so we are encouraging that kind of activity to take place. There are people who have signed up that are willing to work. They are locals, looking for local work.

So please utilize that local workforce. That’s the way we are going to get back our economy on our feet, anyway. The people that are coming in from out of town, they are just going to take the money and run. OK? So, employ local. Employ local people, and also it ensures that, again, we’re not going to bring something in from out of the area.

Our deputies have been on patrol, we have seen an influx in Garberville, as one area, and I know that we’ve gotten reports as far as Willow Creek is concerned, that there are some trimmigrants, some people in town for trimming purposes,. And so we are out there talking to these people. They are on the side of the road. We are logging their names if they are here from outside of the county. We are giving them those notices and potentially issuing them citations for coming here in violation of the shelter in place order. So we want them to know that, out of towners right now are not welcome. There will be a time when that will occur in the future, but this is not that time, and then we will cite those people for coming in.

Because again, we see the clusters that have been occurring throughout the county right now are travel-related. So we would be in a different place if those people did not travel and didn’t expose themselves and bring it back here to Humboldt County.

Additional statement form Sheriff Honsal:

I just want people to continue to be patient with us, we know that eventually, you know some dining services will be opened up, and then the malls, destination retail, that’s next on the list. We believe there’s going to be movement into that Phase 3 real soon from the governor’s office and that things are opening up. As we all understand that Oregon is virtually open, Nevada is open, so people want to get their business open and I agree, it’s time for certain businesses but understand it is going to be a slow process. We have 6500 businesses here in the county that have business licensees, but again only 700 have applied so far. And so, it is happening at a slow pace. People are slowly coming online. We believe that is going to happen with restaurants too, there’s about 100 restaurants throughout the county that have applied. Right now, we will be processing those over the weekend, and hopefully giving notice is that it’s approved. We can’t certify you until it is approved through the county, but when that does hit you will get your compliance certificate, and you can open your doors.

We believe that’s going to happen, you know, soon, we keep saying soon, but we believe it will happen and we will be coming online and getting onto that next step.

But I appreciate everyone’s patience with the process, and I encourage people to wear their facial covering when they go out in public, and so we are going to get through this.

Community members are encouraged to call 441-500 with questions, concerns, or comments.