Counties scramble to keep up with rules

In the first weeks of the Bay Area’s coronavirus shutdown, callers flooded Santa Clara County’s hotline for reporting rulebreakers, with most complaints focused on businesses flouting the health order and staying open.

But as time went by, health orders loosened and tightened. The complaints also evolved, growing to include parties, religious gatherings and more. The county set up an email address to accommodate the public’s concerns. From March to midMay, the county received 7,000 such grievances.

“We stopped counting at some point because we were like, ‘Oh, forget it,’ ” said Angela Alvarado, a community

prosecutor at the Santa Clara County’s district attorney’s office who leads a team of seven attorneys and four investigators tasked with ensuring that county residents and businesses follow health orders.

The entire Bay Area is wrestling with this difficult task, which grew even more complex last week when Gov. Gavin Newsom shut down businesses across the state in an attempt to tamp down the growing coronavirus surge. Whose job is it to enforce state and county regulations? The police? Health inspectors? That’s a work in a progress and counties are coming up with their own plans.

It comes at a critical time. The pandemic in California has worsened significantly since June, with case counts and hospitalizations reaching new highs every few days. As of Saturday, there were 375,686 cases in California, including 7,620 deaths.

On the Santa Clara County complaints line, residents reported graduation parties and July Fourth gatherings that appeared to violate restrictions around social distancing and large groups. They flagged Instagram posts promoting raves. They reported churches holding indoor services and gyms that allowed members to continue working out. Some complained that fellow shoppers at Costco were not wearing masks properly.

It all fell to Alvarado’s team, which triages the complaint hotline, either sending out their investigators to businesses that are allegedly breaking the rules or notifying law enforcement to look into the matter.

Officers have visited at least 1,000 retailers, luxury car dealerships, restaurants and other businesses flagged for alleged wrongdoing. The vast majority end up complying after officers issue warnings, Alvarado said.

When faced with business owners who refuse after repeated visits, the district attorney elevates the matter by writing a letter to the company’s attorneys, citing violations of the health order — a misdemeanor that could be criminally prosecuted.

That usually does the trick, Alvarado said. The office has sent out fewer than 50 such letters, and has not filed any charges against any businesses.

Their work underscores the challenge of controlling the pandemic from the top down. Officers cannot investigate every complaint, leaving much of the work of containing the virus up to individual responsibility.

The social gatherings that public health officials say are driving the recent surge in cases are not happening in public, but rather in people’s homes and backyards and parks.

“These social interactions are not happening at the restaurant or bar or the nail salon,” said Solano County Health Officer Bela Matyas. “I don’t have the power to change a person’s behavior in their home. It’s way outside my authority to do anything.”

Dozens of other counties and cities are crafting their own strategies to ensure that residents and businesses are following health orders. Generally, they try not to file charges or issue fines because most businesses comply before they need to.

“We don’t want to exacerbate anything going on there by giving citations to people who are already struggling or take people to jail for business owners trying to take care of their family,” said Sgt. Tya Modeste, public information officer for the Alameda County Sheriff ’s Office. “That’s why we put our emphasis on education.”

The office has received about 4,200 complaints from residents reporting people and businesses they believe are not following health orders. The most from any single city, 1,100, involve activities in Oakland — mostly large gatherings at Lake Merritt, which are up to the city to deal with, Modeste said. Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf encouraged residents not to go to the lake because overcrowding could accelerate the spread of the virus. On weekends, the city has park ambassadors, firefighters and municipal code enforcers urge people to wear masks and stay 6 feet apart.

The district attorney’s office sends deputies to businesses in question in unincorporated areas of Alameda County. They have also been called by residents complaining about neighbors holding house parties. But the office has not issued any citations or fines, Modeste said.

“We will go out to the house having a house party and educate them on no large gatherings and make sure they understand what the guidance entails,” Modeste said.

In Contra Costa County, the district attorney’s consumer protection unit — which typically prosecutes consumer fraud cases — is leading the charge. During the pandemic, the unit initially focused on coronavirusrelated fraud, such as price gouging. But as the pandemic raged on, inspectors turned their attention to enforcing health orders at businesses.

“Some days we get no calls, other days we get seven or eight,” said Scott Alonso, public information officer for the Contra Costa County district attorney’s office, which has received about 200 complaints from the community about alleged health order violations.

The office has not had to shut down any businesses. It does have the authority to bring criminal charges, seek a civil injunction to close a business or issue fines for unlawful business practices.

Only one alleged violation has been referred to the district attorney’s office — a case where a Richmond church was cited for holding an indoor service for 40 parishioners. The office is investigating the matter and has not filed charges, Alonso said.

Contra Costa County supervisors are also weighing an administrative fine for businesses that violate health orders, but they have yet to decide how much the fine would be.

It would follow a similar move by Napa County supervisors, who last week approved fines of up to $5,000 for businesses that don’t follow health orders, and fines of up to $500 for individuals who do not wear masks.

The idea has the support of Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, who said last week that people who don’t wear masks should be fined, just like people who don’t use seat belts.

Marin County is creating a strike team similar to the state’s, asking residents to report violations of the shelterinplace order by businesses via an email address.

Officials will seek to pass an ordinance at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting that would allow violators to be punished with a fine.

Counties have a lot at stake for getting enforcement right. Newsom has threatened to withhold $2.5 billion in financial relief from local governments in the upcoming state budget if they do not follow the guidelines that he says are necessary to tamp down the spike in coronavirus cases.

State agencies have issued 88 citations since early July to businesses for violating health orders.

Before Newsom’s order Monday shutting down indoor dining and a host of other businesses statewide, reopening plans were changing constantly — leaving residents and businesses with a bit of whiplash about what the rules were at any given time.

“There’s a lot of confusion because you have certain information coming from the state level, information coming from the county level, and they may not always match,” Modeste said. “But the order that has the stricter guidelines is the one that prevails.”

Bay Area restaurants, barbershops and gyms had gained permission to open or expand operations but are now facing renewed and possibly lengthy closures under health orders.

In Santa Clara County, for instance, fitness centers and personal care businesses were allowed to reopen Monday. But hours later, they learned they had to shut down again by Wednesday.

“We were looking forward to it,” said Vijay Bist, owner of Amber India Restaurant on Santana Row in San Jose, which was planning to reopen indoor dining and rehiring some employees, but now must put it on hold. “But we understand that this is bigger than us.”

Photos by Paul Kuroda / Special to The Chronicle Amber India Restaurant on Santana Row in San Jose planned to reopen to indoor dining just as the new shutdown order was issued.

Bikram Das handles skewered meat at Amber India in San Jose. Vijay Bist, owner of the acclaimed restaurant, had looked forward to rehiring staff and resuming indoor dining but says, “This is bigger than us.”