Restaurant owners try to navigate patchwork of rules.

Morgan Hill restaurant owners and city officials said they were left scrambling and confused after officers from the state’s Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control told businesses along the city’s main commercial strip Friday that they could no longer offer outdoor dining.

The officers’ orders contradicted what they understood to be the county and state health rules, which have generally allowed for outdoor food service, so long as certain procedures, including social distancing, are followed to help curtail the coronavirus. Morgan Hill Mayor Rich Constantine learned of the crackdown from the city manager around 9 p.m. Friday. “As a local government, we’re as much in the dark as our restaurant owners, which is not the situation we want to be in,” he said.

Alcoholic Beverage Control spokesman John Carr said the department had begun statewide Fourth of July enforcement of alcohol laws but provided few details. “Agents across the state met with owners of licensed premises to ensure they were complying with alcoholic beverage laws and public health orders,” he wrote in an email. “ABC stresses education over enforcement in most instances, and the vast majority of owners voluntarily complied after meeting with ABC agents.”

This stands in contrast to reports from Morgan Hill officials and the restaurant owners themselves. The city estimates somewhere around 15 businesses were told to shut down or that both they and their customers could face fines beginning Saturday.

Chris Provini was managing Ladera Grill on Friday night

when, he said, two armed and uniformed agents walked in wearing armored vests.

“It was not a discussion,” he said. “They did say, ‘We hate to be the bearer of bad news,’ ” before telling him the restaurant could no longer keep its patio open for dining.

Like most of the restaurants in downtown Morgan Hill, Ladera Grill has been offering outdoor dining since early June. Though outdoor tables normally account for just 20% of seating, the grill has managed to make about 60% of its usual revenue. It’s been a game changer for a restaurant that has lost nearly $500,000 since the pandemic began, according to owner Dan McCranie. “All of that was wonderful. Now I get these two state ABC guys informing us that we’re in violating of the rules and regulations,” he said. “In fact, we do not violate any rules and regulations. I don’t know what it is, but it’s at least untrue.”

Calls to two other restaurants along Monterey Road confirmed they had been served the same notice.

The biggest issue, McCranie and Constantine say, is the lack of clear communication from the state. Constantine says neither the city nor county were

alerted ahead of time. He also says enforcement was uneven, as agents only visited restaurants in Morgan Hill and Gilroy. (Officials in Gilroy and Santa Clara County were not immediately available for comment.)

Brian Ferguson, a spokesman for the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, declined to go into detail about any specific enforcement action, but rebutted the idea that it’s unusual for the state to act unilaterally. Instead, he reiterated Gov. Gavin Newsom’s comment earlier last week about increasing enforcement across the state.

“Certainly more education outreach will continue as we go forward,” Ferguson said. “The goal is not to shut folks down.”

That doesn’t seem to be the message from the ABC, said McCranie, who has decided to keep his patio open despite the Friday night visit. As far as he understands, the restaurant isn’t violating any health orders. On Saturday, his staff informed diners about the possibility of fines, but they seemed undeterred, he said.

These restaurants are “holding on by the skin of their teeth,” Constantine said. “To try and do this now, it really is a shame, and it gives license to

people who protest against mask wearing, who protest against social distancing. It gives them license to say, ‘See they don’t even know what they’re doing.’ ”

Beyond the ABC enforcement action, the state in recent days has denied Santa Clara County’s bid to further reopen. County officials confirmed they were in discussion with the state about how to move forward. Santa Clara is also one of more than a dozen counties the state is closely monitoring as coronavirus cases rise.

The broader coronavirus picture in California remains grim. State health officials reported Saturday that 5,595 COVID19 patients were hospitalized as of Friday, the state’s 15th consecutive day with a new record high. The Bay Area recorded its 600th death from COVID19, and one more San Quentin Death Row inmate has died: Dewayne Michael Carey, 59, who died in a hospital Saturday from what authorities say appeared to be COVIDrelated complications. Two other Death Row inmates died Friday.