County vs. Tesla:
Officials say the Fremont auto plant must stop work.
Alameda County officials told Tesla on Tuesday to stop manufacturing at its Fremont plant, the strongest step local government has taken to check the electric car maker’s defiance of health orders.
The Chronicle previously reported that some Tesla production lines had begun running over the weekend. Workers began returning to the plant as early as last week. Alameda County’s shelterinplace orders, in place since midMarch, do not allow for manufacturing, though Tesla initially defied them before shutting down its lines and furloughing employees in late March.
The letter from Alameda County Health Care Services Agency Director Colleen Chawla reiterates that the company can perform only basic functions at the plant until the county and Tesla agree on a plan to reopen the factory in line with state and local rules.
“Until then, however, you must maintain no more than Minimum Basic Operations,” Chawla wrote to Laurie Shelby, vice president of environmental, health and safety at Tesla.
A statement tweeted Monday by the Alame
da County Sheriff’s Office said the publicsafety agency also had informed Tesla it could perform only basic functions. It stopped short of ordering the plant to close. Under Alameda County’s shelterinplace orders, nonessential businesses can perform some limited functions, such as processing payroll and maintaining inventory.
“We are addressing this matter using the same phased approach we use for other businesses which have violated the order in the past, and we hope that Tesla will likewise comply without further enforcement measures,” the agency said.
It was not clear if Tesla had responded to the letter from Chawla. The company did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
In the letter, Chawla acknowledges the county has been working with Tesla on a reopening plan over the past two weeks.
“Per our communication of earlier today, you will be submitting Tesla’s sitespecific plan to me later today,” Chawla wrote in the letter. “We will review that plan once we receive it and will schedule time to review our feedback with you within 24 hours.”
The county received Tesla’s plan for reopening Tuesday, Alameda County Public Health Department spokeswoman Neetu Balram said in an email. The county is reviewing the proposed plan, Balram said, even though the plant is operating in violation of health orders.
CEO Elon Musk’s announcement of the reopening of the plant on Twitter underscored his disinterest in following a bureaucratic process for reopening. Musk has decried restrictions on business operations to combat the spread of the coronavirus and said he would move the company’s headquarters from Palo Alto to another state in response to Alameda County’s requests that Tesla comply with the order.
Musk sent employees an email early Tuesday congratulating them on the reopening.
“An honest day’s work spent building products or providing services of use to others is extremely honorable,” Musk wrote in the email, which was obtained by The Chronicle. “I have vastly more respect for someone who takes pride in doing a good job, whatever the profession, than some rich or famous person who does nothing useful.”
Tesla released a “Return to Work Playbook” over the weekend that outlines increased safety measures, like handing out masks and tem perature scanning, at the plant.
Tesla sued the county in federal court over the weekend, demanding the company be allowed to operate the Fremont plant under state guidance that, its lawyers argued, supersedes Alameda County’s restrictions.
State rules around some manufacturing have been loosened, but local authorities are free to enforce stricter measures to curb the virus, something Gov. Gavin Newsom repeated during a news conference Monday. Newsom also said the developing agreement between the county and Tesla had been for the plant to reopen next week. It was not clear why Musk was unsatisfied with the prospect of even a short delay in the plant’s reopening.
County officials also were envisioning allowing the plant to reopen soon before Musk made his abrupt move.
Alameda County Supervisor Scott Haggerty, whose district includes Tesla’s Fremont plant, said he was “confident” that health officials and Tesla would have reached a plan to have the plant reopen with a May 18 target date, according to Shawn Wilson, his chief of staff.
Tesla sent most of its more than 10,000 employees at the Fremont plant home in late March after initially remaining open for nearly a week after the shelterinplace orders took effect.
Company executives have said in emails previously obtained by The Chronicle that workers who are concerned about contracting the disease may remain at home without being penalized.