City seeks relief on rule against outdoor dining
In a first among municipalities in Marin, the Mill Valley City Council approved two letters asking Gov. Gavin Newsom and county health officials to exempt outdoor dining from coronavirus restrictions.
“We share the concern for the health of our community, and therefore cannot ignore that the stay home order has caused the Mill Valley restaurant community to suffer devastating economic impacts by being limited to take- out service only,” the letter reads. “Our local restaurant employees are facing tremendous financial strain, experiencing layoffs, reduced hours and struggling to provide for their families.”
The council approved the letter in a 5- 0 vote in anticipation of Newsom indefinitely extending restrictions statewide, said Alan Piombo, city manager. Newsom did so on Saturday.
“I kind of cringed at the indefinite part and asked our health official, Matt Willis, what does indefinitely mean?” Piombo said at the meeting on Tuesday. “He simply said that previously they were doing evaluations in three-week increments. The indefinite piece will allow them to make more intermediate adjustments.”
At the recommendation of Mayor Sashi McEntee, the council added to a letter a paragraph saying
the coronavirus order disproportionately affects non-White and low-income workers. She said she would write a separate letter to Newsom that specifically delves into how the restrictions are inequitable.
“There’s no scientific evidence indicating that there is greater risk from outdoor dining,” McEntee said. “There are already protocols in place. There were some suggestions that if the governor doesn’t want to reinstate outdoor dining as is, that there could be some further constrictions
in how that is performed. But they should be all science-based, based on current data, current research. But, yes, all of this is not protecting the most vulnerable and is widening the inequality gap in a number of different ways.”
A few people called into the meeting to object to the letter, arguing that there are better actions to help restaurant workers and business owners.
Elias Karkabi, a Fairfax resident, said he is horrified that the council would consider pushing for restaurant workers to get back to work amid dangerous conditions instead of pushing for financial relief from the state. He added that many
restaurant workers are from Latino communities and are undocumented.
“Rather, you are deciding to promote the idea of sending them back to work in a time when everyone’s life is in jeopardy,” Karkabi said. “If you are an American citizen, then you can get unemployment insurance; if you’re not an American citizen, you can’t get unemployment insurance. So you’re giving people the choice of either starving or risking their life every day.”
Council members moved to approve the letter at the behest of the “business vitality panel,” which discussed the negative impact the order has had on local
restaurant owners. The panel consists of Councilman John McCauley, Councilman Urban Carmel and three representatives of the Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce.
Carmel said the purpose of the letter is not to put people at risk, but to ask the state to show evidence that there is a risk associated with outdoor dining.
“We did research … there wasn’t any good evidence,” he said. “In fact, there was evidence to the contrary — that it was safer than, for example, retail, which is open.”
“And so that contradiction spurred this on,” he said. “Obviously, it’s not to get people infected or to put their lives at risk.”