Pasadena may break from county and keep outdoor dining open – Pasadena Star News

Pasadena Public Health officials can’t say whether they’ll follow the county’s lead in issuing a health order that forces the city’s restaurants to suspend outdoor dining for three weeks, a move many have said could be devastating to the struggling industry and its economically battered employees.

“The city of Pasadena will continue to assess our COVID numbers, work closely with Huntington Hospital and give as much advance notice as possible if the city’s health orders will change in any respect,” city spokeswoman Lisa Derderian said in a statement to news outlets following the City Council discussion on Monday, Nov. 23.

During that meeting, health officials said they were still analyzing the data, trying to determine if they should force restaurants to serve only takeout, delivery and drive-thru. Meanwhile, several members of the City Council expressed a strong interest in breaking from the county and keeping the city’s restaurants open; some treated it as a forgone conclusion.

Though it has broken from the county on minor decisions, the Pasadena Public Health Department has typically followed the county’s lead on major coronavirus-related restrictions. Local officials have said they didn’t want to create a confusing patchwork of policies between different cities and they’ve been wary about drawing increased numbers of visitors to the city who want to take advantage of loosened restrictions.

If Pasadena doesn’t follow the county’s lead, it could mark one of the largest departures between the two health departments since the pandemic began.

“I am glad that we’re untethering from the county and recognizing our own healthcare jurisdiction,” said Victor Gordo, a current councilman and the mayor-elect, who will take office next month. “This is a much better way. We’re being responsive to businesses.”

City Manager Steve Mermell quickly jumped in to clarify.

“We haven’t reached a decision. We’re assessing it,” he said. “We haven’t taken an action one way or another.”

Ultimately, this is not a City Council decision, but one that will be made by the city manager and the Public Health Department.

Gordo urged city staff to ask the county to assess the data and potentially reverse their decision.

Mermell seemed confident that a conversation would happen, given that at least two county supervisors, including Kathryn Barger, have publicly expressed opposition to the move. Earlier in the day, Barger issued a news release, arguing that most new cases stemmed from private gatherings, not restaurant eating.

The news release came on the heels of a health order issued on Sunday, mandating a suspension of outdoor dining beginning Wednesday, Nov. 25. The Board of Supervisors will be meeting on Tuesday to discuss the order. Some members will likely push for its recension.

Mermell said Pasadena was “blindsided by that quick announcement, and apparently so were the county supervisors.”

Councilman Steve Madison and Vice Mayor Tyron Hampton, alongside Gordo, were the most emphatic that Pasadena keep outdoor dining open.

“We’re going to get through COVID as vaccines proliferate and the virus hopefully runs its course,” Madison said, “but the economic detriment is going to be with us for a very long time. … We don’t have the same resources that we had six months ago to be able to help these businesses. I feel very strong that we ought not to follow the county.”

Hampton stressed that if the state says it’s OK to have outdoor dining, then Pasadena should keep it.

“We can’t pick and choose which businesses fail,” Hampton said. While city employees will continue getting paid whether the city shuts down or not, he warned there’s a large class of individuals who could lose their jobs right before the holidays if the city closed its eateries.

“This is an equity issue,” Hampton said, arguing that the country’s wealthiest individuals were profiting during the pandemic while its poorest residents were suffering.

Councilmen John Kennedy and Andy Wilson urged a bit more caution, stressing that staff should do what the data indicates is best, and stay away from solutions that may not have a real impact. That’s what Mermell says they intend to do, though he acknowledged the county’s decisions could impact Pasadena.

“We’re concerned that if the county does go forward and close restaurants, does it mean everyone’s going to flock to Pasadena?” he said, suggesting they may enact some restrictions on outdoor dining to curb the expected crowds. “We’re wanting to be mindful. We’re being deliberate. We’re being careful. We’re not being rash.”

But it’s a very difficult decision for health officials, such as Public Health Director Dr. Ying-Ying Goh, who stressed that Pasadena’s new case rates have grown exponentially in recent days, citing a nearly 200% increase recently, particularly among young people and children.

For their part, Long Beach public health officials have already said they would follow the county’s lead in barring outdoor dining.

“While people think their social circle is tight, the risk they think they’re taking is greater than they know,” said Dr. Matthew Feaster, the city’s epidemiologist. “To stay safe in these holidays is to stay home. … The risk is getting higher every day.”

Dr. Lori Morgan, an infectious disease expert with Huntington Hospital, shared similar grim news. She’s seen the average number of daily positive tests double in recent days, from 51 to 106, while coronavirus-related hospitalizations have jumped 55%.

Some restauranteurs, meanwhile, were hopeful after the city meeting that they may be able to keep their doors open in some capacity.

“I am so happy about the way things went, I can barely speak,” Gail Kohl, owner of Gail’s Italian Restaurant, said in a text message to this newsgroup.

Without outdoor dining, Kohl said her business would struggle to survive. Many other restaurant owners made similar pleas.

“I can’t survive without outside seating,” Kohl said in an interview. “Nobody can. There’s not enough money. We’re not McDonalds. We’re not a chain restaurant with deep pockets.”

Kohl and fellow restauranteur Frank Gale were more concerned for their employees than anyone else. They both stressed they followed the health orders to a tee because they wanted to keep their customers and employees healthy while expressing frustration with other operators who weren’t as responsible.

If shutting down was the only way to keep everyone safe, then they both favored the move, but they both felt like there wasn’t enough attention getting paid to alternate solutions, and there certainly wasn’t enough attention paid to their employees’ well-being.

“It’s easy to sit there and say we need to shut down, but we also need a solution for the people who don’t have jobs because of the decision,” Gale said. “Government officials making these decisions don’t understand the reality of what life is like for a huge majority of Californians. Even though they say they understand, they don’t. It’s not possible.”

The timing couldn’t be worse, they said. Employees were just getting caught up on missed rent payments and preparing for holiday gift-giving. Instead, their livelihoods are getting threatened.

Meanwhile, restaurants often make up lost ground over the holidays when folks tend to eat out a bit more; that may not happen this year, Kohl warned, and the impacts could be devastating for owners.

“Please give us the opportunity to do the right thing,” she said. “Let us come to a compromise with our seating, our time limits, just being in compliance. I have a very healthy business, but this next closure, I don’t know. I can’t keep doing this.”