Dine-in Available at Restaurants Today, Enforcing Face Masks in Businesses (or Not), Etc.

Humboldt County’s Sheriff Billy Honsal has been answering questions since the stay-at-home orders were instituted on a two question per media outlet roughly two to three times per week basis. Staff takes the questions, and reads them 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 28 Media Availability session with a recap of answers (not transcribed word for word but close) from Humboldt County Sheriff-Coroner William Honsal, followed by questions we would have liked to ask in response if appropriate.

Before Sheriff Honsal addressed the questions submitted by local media, he gave this statement regarding updated policies from this week, stating:  

Number one is that the governor made an announcement that churches are available to be opened this week.  And so right now churches have the ability to apply for this certification online. They are not mandated to, but they are encouraged to, and we can guide them through their operational process of opening back up safely. 

They’re supposed to have 25% percent of capacity, or 100- whatever is less, and so there are some churches that are going to plan on opening up for services this weekend, and there are other churches that continues to be shut down and doing online activities or other various type of activities. 

So you know, there are things that are slowly opening up.  I know the casinos are opening up as well. 

And then also we have dine-in services that are opening up this Friday. So there are over 100 restaurants in the county that have applied for the certification to reopen.  We have gotten through most of all of those dine-in restaurants, and there’s still applications coming in today.  And so our goal is to get all of those applications processed so that all those dine-in restaurants can open tomorrow.  And so, if you’re curious as far as their restrictions or what, you know, kind of things they are going to do kind of mitigate, and kind of control measures- you can go online and you can look at those restrictions, and you can look at those things that- so you can help educate yourself about what those restaurants are doing to make sure that you’re safe, that employees are safe, and that you’re going to have a dining experience that you know that, you know,  will not affect your health. 

And all these things are going to be backed up by our local Environmental Health, and there will be  inspections.  And so we want to build confidence in our community that our dining restaurants-if you chose to go that way is a facility that is going to be safe to eat at.

2 mins in:

Media Question:  With more and more businesses submitting certification plans and re-opening (and more sectors given the green light to open in the next few weeks), can you talk about what enforcement will look like? Will there be more of a law enforcement presence out and about to make sure businesses are following plans, aren’t opening prematurely, etc.?

Answer by Sheriff Honsal:

So we are.  You know, we- our biggest compliance capabilities are employees and customers that are actually visiting these places. And so if they don’t see that compliance certification out in front of the business, then they are calling us.  And that causes us to have a conversation with them. It might be a phone call from our Joint Information Center, it could be our business compliance personnel, it could be Environmental Health, it could be Code Enforcement, it could be law enforcement.  A lot of different mechanisms of government to try and gain compliance. 

Our ultimate goal is to gain compliance here, whatever means necessary, right? And so we haven’t had to issue citations yet, because businesses have been compliant.  And so we are continuously seeing that down the road and I think through education and through the eye of public lens and public confidence, I think people are adhering to the compliance certification process.    

3 mins 15 sec in: 

Media Question:  The county has said some reopening is allowed with plans that need to first be submitted and approved. The health officer has said that the county can always pull back on reopening, if circumstances change/worsen. What would pulling back mean for Humboldt businesses? (i.e. Would restrictions be put in place for all businesses, or just a hold on approvals for new ones to reopen? For example, would the businesses that are already reopen be asked to scale back, or will there just be a hold on new ones being approved? Hope that makes sense.)

Answer by Sheriff Honsal: 

We’ve gotten this question quite a bit, you know ‘what happens if’, you know?  And that is- we are preparing for the worst, hoping for the best.  That’s what we’re doing here, that’s why this Shelter-in-Place order was started in the first place, so we could prepare for potential hospitalizations and our response.  So that’s what we’re doing, that’s what we have done.  Now we’re slowly opening things up so we can sort of gauge how COVID is going to be affecting our community. 

So we still see some kind of steady numbers, you know.  We have a ‘zero day’ we have a ‘four day’, a ‘five day’, a ‘two day’… so we’re all over the board as far as our levels of activity in COVID.

But you know, the fact is that we don’t want to shut down businesses, and we don’t want to shut down that are currently open.

So if things were to escalate, all things are on the table at any given time depending on how many hospitalizations we have and those kind of things.  But, the goal is we would restrict the compliance process, so we would prevent further businesses from opening in the future if we saw the numbers going sky high.  And so that’s our gauge to kind of hold things back. 

But also, if numbers are going high, then there’s other sectors that we won’t be able to open up.  So I know people are excited to have barber shops open up, and then soon gyms, soon nail salons, and some of these other things that have been kind of weighing into that Phase 3.  And so people want to get to that, I get it.  I want to be able to support that decision there, but if our numbers you know, go through the roof, then we’re not going to be able to do that. 

So, we’re trying to find that area where we can safely open and safely open those businesses and then be able to again dial it back.  One thing that we are seeing is that there are businesses that choosing not to open right now, just because they can, some businesses are choosing not to right now.  Restaurants- there’s over 600 restaurants herein the county, and, only 100 or so put forth certification.  So people are slowly doing this, people are slowly opening up. 

We do have over 1000 businesses of the 6500 that are registered in the county that have submitted business certifications- so one sixth of businesses have opened within the county.

So this is something that is slowly occurring in the county. So we can always again if things start spiking, we can slow it even further by not approving businesses from opening.

And also, gatherings- gatherings is something that we want to open, eventually do- the state’s going to do that as well, can you have, meet with anyone outside of your household, go to dinner with people… you know, so those  things are going to be changing but again it’s going to be a sliding scale, whether or not we are going to have you know, ten or less, a hundred or less, five hundred or less, all based on our numbers and how we’re seeing it occur out in our community.  

6 mins 40 sec in:   

Media Question:  On Tuesday you said the free market allows people to choose whether to patronize businesses that don’t require face coverings, but many county residents live in remote areas where shopping options are limited. Not everyone has transportation or the means to simply drive to another store. What is the Sheriff’s Office doing to protect the health of people in these communities where businesses aren’t enforcing face-covering guidelines?

Answer by Sheriff Honsal: 

Well, that’s it, I mean as far as business goes, it’s within our facial covering guidance that our public health officer provided there- that they need to have their employees wear face coverings, but they are not required to enforce that face covering on their customers.  It is something that is suggested, but it’s not something that they have to enforce. 

And so again, living in a free market, whether you are, you know, living out in a rural area or urban, you have the choice to patronize a business that does adhere to your safety standards.  And so yeah, it’s one of those things we’re invited to have a conversation with people, but they’re not required to end up calling us anyway that they are not enforcing that.  

Media Followup questions we’re unable to ask because of the format: With all respect, Sheriff Honsal, this doesn’t address the problem that some people are unable to shop in other places. They don’t have transportation elsewhere. We understand that forcing businesses to enforce a health order is difficult. The idea as we see it is to get the community to value wearing masks, just as we value wearing pants. In the meantime, can the county facilitate some options (ie urge merchants to enforce maskwearing during at least one hour a day and publicize that, can they provide connections to the especially vulnerable to non-profits that will do grocery shopping for others, etc.)

7 mins 40 sec in: 

Media Question:  When it comes to the re-opening process, where does the correctional facility fit into that?  Is there any idea of when you will begin accepting inmates again rather than issuing citations then releasing them? 

Answer by Sheriff Honsal: 

So we are still taking inmates.  We still, you know, house inmates, people that are DUI, people that are- have committed, you know, drunk in public- those kind of things.  We are only booking and keeping those that are serious and violent.  So those are the people that need to be behind jail or the multiple offenders that are likely to reoccur their offense if they are released.  So, we are doing that.  And so we are keeping certain people and so that is occurring. 

When will we go to a new normal when we don’t have to quarantine people anymore? That’s a question I can’t answer yet. We don’t have some of the therapeutics end of things, you know, decided through the hospitalsObviously we don’t have a vaccine. Those are a lot of those things that are going to prevent us to going back to normal. We don’t have to quarantine people that come into the facility. 

But this is something that we are looking at, we’re looking at how to better utilize our space, how can we quarantine people, you know, more efficiently.  We are looking at all of those things. 

But again the last thing we want is COVID in our correctional facility spreading throughout, and the couple hundred people we have there, getting them infected.

9 mins 5 sec in:   

Media Question:   We’ve gotten reports of out-of-state tourists staying in local hotels. You’ve said your office is “encouraging” hotels to offer lodging only to local residents or those coming in to provide essential services.  Is that an enforceable component of the county’s shelter order?  If so, what’s being done to enforce it? 

Answer by Sheriff Honsal: 

So we’ve asked the Visitor’s Bureau and those kind of people just to spread the message, and I think they are. There are hotels that are allowing people that are driving through to stay the night, because it is a state highway, so they are allowed to, you know, find a place to rest on their way north or south through Humboldt County.  And so that has to be an opportunity for lodging to do so.  And so some areas are allowing people to stay a day, and I think that’s within their right to do so.  We don’t want people on the road, traveling tired and those kind of things, and so that is one of those things that is occurring within our county. 

You gotta remember, our state does have travel restrictions, but Oregon doesn’t, and Nevada doesn’t, Arizona doesn’t- so we have out of state people driving through California to Oregon.  And so we have to advise that the borders aren’t shut down, we do live in a free society- we don’t want them to vacation here- that’s a little bit different than stopping and resting for the night.  So we understand that.  It is occurring, it’s hard to control in a free society, we are not setting up checkpoints asking for people to give us their location and where they are traveling to.  We have responded to some complaints, and you know, so we are just doing our best to manage that as we see fit.  

10 mins 45 sec in: 

Media Question:  The state of California reopened 46 DMV offices around the state this morning. It’s widely known that the DMV gets crowded quickly and easily. It’s likely that more people will need services now, especially since things have been on hold for so long. How will the county ensure that state DMV offices are safe for the public to visit?

Answer by Sheriff Honsal: 

So the state DMV, I mean they are going to adhere to the state guidelines. The state guidelines are set up to support, to make sure they have a safety plan in place, make sure their employees are checked, make sure their customers are checked, make sure they have all the disinfectant protocols in place, make sure they have all the physical distancing guidelines adhered to.  So they are the example, they’re the ones that are creating the rules in the first place, in the state, so I’m sure your’re going to go on the DMV and find that all of their practices are going to be in line with what we have here in our businesses. 

So I don’t think people are going to worry. We’re going to see more and more government businesses open up.  The courthouse is open, as soon as they can figure out how court services are going to be run.  They’re going to be starting run court services.  Schools are going to come online, you know, for the Fall.  And so there’s going to be businesses that open up and with government, with medical businesses, schools- they’re going to have some specific protocol that they’re going to need to adhere to and making sure that they keep their employees, their customers, their students safe throughout.  

Sheriff Honasal added, 

I appreciate everyone’s patience.  I know with barber shops opening up this next week, there’s going to be a lot of people wondering when that’s going to occur.  So right now we are prioritizing dine-in service, and so applications for barber shops and salons were opened up today, so we will be processing those.  When we get a date, we will be publishing that to people that when this is going to open up.  Some people have asked where I got my hair cut- because you know, I’m not secretly going to a solan somewhere- this is my wife has cut my hair for years, and so my wife has cut my hair… So I get to be privileged with that aspect of things- so I don’t have to do a ‘COVID cut’ myself, but anyway, so it’s just- we hear, we understand the small businesses. Especially small businesses like nail salons and barber shops, a lot of then are small businesses that have one business owner, its difficult.  Thank you for your patience, we are going to get to nail salons soon, that’s going to be up to the governor, but as far as barber shops, that’ll be on line hopefully next week.  Thank you.  

 

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11 Comments
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Guest
guest
3 years ago

P*** W***lies
Guest
P*** W***lies
3 years ago

It’s all about the numbers, and we don’t really know anything except they are changing behavior.

Some for better, some for worse.

Bushytails
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Bushytails
3 years ago
Reply to  P*** W***lies

You posted the same image before. I explained it to you then. Don’t spam.

The Real Brian
Guest
The Real Brian
3 years ago
Reply to  Bushytails

That’s his job. Literally.

tax payer
Guest
tax payer
3 years ago

the rest of the state has been open for sometime now. i have been all over northern california and i have been dining in

Scooter
Guest
Scooter
3 years ago

1) Masks help about 75%
2) The other 25%
3) To keep you safe, and the hospitals open.
4) To give you the same options voting that you have shopping.

Because it’s not about a conspiracy it never was.

Alf
Guest
Alf
3 years ago

Does anyone know of a pattern for a facemask that you can wear while dining in? If so, please share! Or ar least let me know where I can find one. Hard to eat that burger and fries in the ones I have!

On another note, I do have multiple masks I could wear while getting my hair cut! I need a haircut much worse than I need to sit in any restaurant! I had to change my hair style on my bitmoji!

With liberty and justice for all
Guest
With liberty and justice for all
3 years ago

Wweeeeewwww eeeeeeeeeee. The people are revolting against the power p!&s across the nation!!!! We are tired of our lying theiving, extortionists stealing our freedom, land,livlihoods,water , all the while giving themselves raises on our WAY OVERTAXED dime.things are heating up the boiling pot is gonna blow.
Sheriff honsel it would be really nice if you were true to your claim of being a constitutional sheriff!!! After all the constitution is all we have in the USA that separates us from less desirable countries. But with the aggregious fines and mass theft going on in Humboldt it’s hard to take your claim seriously

Ullr Rover
Guest
Ullr Rover
3 years ago

“The people are revolting against the power p!&s across the nation!”… or pawns being used in the controlled demolition of the country we once knew.

The Real Brian
Guest
The Real Brian
3 years ago
Reply to  Ullr Rover

Pinky and the Brain colluding with The Simpsons again?

Do you have an animation that explains it in Donald Duck vision?

With liberty and justice for all
Guest
With liberty and justice for all
3 years ago

Good point ullr over could all be staged (the officer killing him while being filmed) to cause the rioting, so the powers that slither in the shadows prepare for martial law and eventually slavery for the 99%.I mean after all we are tax cattle