Some businesses operate by their own rules in plain sight
Driving by Teaser Pleaser in late September, Amber Weber noticed the front door of the Buck Owens Boulevard strip club was open and cars were in the parking lot. It made her blood boil.
With schools closed and churches unable to hold indoor services, how could a strip club be open for business, she wondered.
“You shut everything else down, and all our little momand-pop restaurants are going out of business but you’re going to let a strip club operate?” she said. “I think we need to say, ‘Newsom, you need to do a better job.’”
Her frustration is shared by many who think the way Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration has decided which businesses can and can’t operate during the pandemic makes little sense. However, California Department of Public Health officials confirmed that as a live entertainment venue, Teaser Pleaser is not currently allowed to operate.
The club’s owner, however, has decided to reopen anyway.
Reached by phone, Hovik Vahanian, who described himself as an investor in the club and is listed as the property owner, acknowledged it was open when it should be closed.
“It’s difficult,” Vahanian said. “We have employees here ... everybody has bills ... lots of bills to pay. I know their situation, especially dancers, bartenders, DJs. They live day by day. It’s very hard for them if we stop.”
“I’m sure nobody wants to see these people on the streets,” he said of his employees.
And so far, Vahanian said, no one has told him to shut down.
He’s not the only business owner willing to take a gamble and operate in plain sight against state orders. For Vahanian and others, the risk of a citation or fine might be worth it if it means their businesses have a chance to survive the pandemic and employees can continue working.
In business-friendly Kern County, public health officials have taken a hands-off approach to enforcing the state’s orders and guidelines for businesses, even despite Kern experiencing one of the largest outbreaks of COVID-19 in the state this summer. Instead, enforcement has largely been left up to the state and it’s unclear so far how willing or able state agencies are to police on that front.
Vahanian said he applied for but didn’t receive any government loans and his club is about $20,000 behind in bills. He complied with two previous state shutdown orders but made the decision about three weeks ago to reopen, he said. His employees wanted to work and two other gentlemen’s clubs in town were open and drawing
away customers. He is trying to be responsible. Masks are encouraged and the club is giving them free to patrons, he said.
While Kern County Public Health Services Director Matt Constantine said early on his agency would take an educational approach to businesses that are noncompliant with COVID-19 orders, the agency has referred about 100 businesses to the state agency that is coordinating and dispatching enforcement strike teams. The county’s list alleges a range of violations from restaurants and churches that continue to offer indoor service to businesses that are not enforcing mask-wearing or social distancing or continue to hold large gatherings, and businesses operating when they are supposed to be closed.
One business on the list that did receive a visit from state inspectors is Woolworth’s Diner in downtown Bakersfield, well known for being the last operating Woolworth’s lunch counter in America. It had been referred to the state for continuing to provide indoor dining and not requiring masks.
When an inspector with OSHA showed up three weeks ago, owner Joseph Trammell said, the diner was packed with a lunch crowd and some of his employees weren’t wearing masks because he has left it up to them to decide whether to wear one.
Trammell said he and his brother Jeremy Trammell, who co-own the diner, had decided against outdoor seating, not wanting “to haggle with the
homeless and panhandlers more than we already do.” They also opted not to “micromanage” employees by requiring them to wear masks.
“We’re kind of trying to run it like a speakeasy,” Joseph Trammell said.
He was told by the OSHA inspector a citation would be issued for not requiring all employees to wear masks but nothing was said about the restaurant operating indoors nor the packed dining room.
“We were full when they were in here. He didn’t say we needed to shut down,” Trammell said.
A spokesperson with the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, which is coordinating the enforcement strike teams, said he could not give specifics on any ongoing investigations or active enforcement actions.
However, in cases where there are businesses “that are serial offenders or where a local jurisdiction does not have sufficient capacity to do enforcement on their own, the State Enforcement Taskforce has been closely collaborating with local officials to take action to protect public health and safety,” wrote Brian Ferguson, deputy director for crisis communication and public affairs for the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services.
Ferguson said the strike team so far had taken more than 3,000 enforcement actions across the state, but he did not provide figures specifically for Kern County.
The state strike teams are comprised of employees from the
Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, Department of Consumer Affairs, Board of Barbering and Cosmetology, Department of Industrial Relations, Division of Occupational Safety and Health, Labor Commissioner’s Office, California Department of Food & Agriculture, and California Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development.
Officials from ABC visited the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 9375 in California City several weeks ago but ultimately found nothing wrong with its operations, said Ellen Rosado, who volunteers as the post’s bar manager. The VFW had been reported to the state for continuing to operate its bar and allow indoor dining but Rosado said adjustments had been made to comply with the state’s orders. The post now offers dinner for purchase every night instead of just twice a week and all seating had been moved outdoors. Ultimately, the ABC inspector found nothing wrong, she said.
The post’s commander, Jerry McCleary, said California City hadn’t experienced a large number of cases like other parts of Kern, primarily in Bakersfield and its outlying communities. He said veterans relied on the organization for support and socialization, a critical need for many.
“We all served this county to be free and the governor’s shutting us off. We wrote him letters, we sent letters to D.C. and it just goes to a deaf ear,” McCleary said.
California City has had about 122 cases of COVID-19 out of more than 32,000 countywide,
according to Kern County Public Health Services data.
American Kids, a youth sports and child care center in Bakersfield, owned by Mike Williams, a former Kern High School District trustee, also landed on the county’s list of alleged scofflaws.
Kern County Public Health Services spokeswoman Michelle Corson said the child care portion of the center is allowed to operate with modifications but youth sports programs are only allowed to take place outside.
Williams could not be reached Friday and no one answered the phone at the center’s northwest location but the American Kids Facebook page advertises the center as open and features recently posted photos of kids swimming in the center’s indoor pool, and doing gymnastics and other youth sports classes in the center’s gym.
In the comments of a video showing a girl and a swim instructor in the pool, neither wearing a mask, a parent wrote that she wished the center would require masks or face shields for employees so her kids could return.
In a reply, Williams wrote: “Just let us know that you would like your instructor to wear a shield or mask and they will be happy to do so.”
Williams wrote in his reply that chemicals in the pool’s water killed the virus instantly. He also said there had been no cases of transmission occurring at the facility.
“We believe our safety protocols are working,” he wrote.