Council: No fine for Sportsman gathering
The Sonora City Council opted to issue an educational warning to a downtown bar and gun shop over a celebration of life event held Dec. 12 in violation of a regional COVID-19 stay-at-home order, as opposed to fining them $250 as recommended by city staff.
“What’s happened through the course of these three hours is tantamount to a fine. Everyone knows the circumstances now. Everybody is aware of the dangers of COVID,” said Councilwoman Anne Segerstrom, who described the gathering as ill-advised and felt it should have been postponed. “There’s hundreds of thousands of people who haven’t been able to grieve.”
How the council ultimately reached their decision was preceded by a contentious public debate about the efficacy and credibility of safety measures imposed on businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We haven’t been this divided since the Civil War,” said Mayor Matt Hawkins. “In fining them, if the council decided to do that, we’d be bypassing our own precedent” to offer education before a fine.
“I don’t want people to think that it’s OK,” added Councilman Jim Garaventa. “That’s not going to be true in the future.”
The Sportsman at 90 S. Washington St. hosted a memorial for one of the owners’ sister-in-law, Sarah Henson, who recently died at 44 due to a blood disorder and left behind four children.
However, the event generated controversy because photos circulated on social media and provided to the city showed a packed bar and drinking without masks. A social media advertisement for the memorial noted beer for $2.
City Administrator Mary Rose Rutikanga read off allegations against The Sportsman that they allowed patrons to participate in a private gathering indoors with no masks or social distancing and allowed alcohol to be purchased and sold without food in violation of a county public health order.
A primary distinction, however, was that they considered the event to be a private gathering held at a public business as opposed to a business event in defiance of the order, Rutikanga said.
The owners said the event lasted three hours, but no business transactions were conducted during the gathering because they provided the drinks with their own money. The contributions were set as a fundraiser for Henson’s children, who were also at the event, with about $2,000 ultimately gathered from those in attendance.
Colleen and Preston Leslie, the owners of the business, said in their first statement of the meeting that
they felt they were the victims of a “crazy witch hunt” because the establishment associated them with the “good ol' boys club” and the “Trump, Nazi headquarters of Tuolumne County.”
Colleen Leslie said she received death threats and was called a murderer for hosting the party, but denied the party was in any way a political statement. Still, she challenged the city council that if she was fined, she may take legal action against the city.
“I didn't open to be like the middle finger of the governor or of the city,” she said. “I didn't want to be the face of opposition to the executive order, but backed into a corner we're going to fight.”
Other speakers said what many assumed was an act of civil disobedience was in fact a well-intentioned effort to support the Henson family.
“If you're really just scared then stay home you don't need to go out in public,” said Nikole Henson, Sarah Henson's daughter.
But at the root, the owners defended what they believed was their right to host a well-intentioned event, even if it defied the stay-at-home order.
“We all got together. This had nothing to do with making a stand. We were family and friends and needed to be together,” Colleen Leslie said.
“Did you not know you were breaking the rules?” asked Councilwoman Colette Such.
“It wasn't even a thought,” responded Colleen Leslie, who said she ultimately thought about the welfare of her family before the regulations.
At its peak, there were more than 130 people present during the meeting on Monday. There were approximately 35 speakers who were followed by questions asked to the owners by members of the council.
All in all, the wave of support for The Sportsman and the conditions they described for the gathering appeared to be convincing, with more than two thirds of the speakers either calling for clemency or an educational and non-financial punishment.
The arguments of the supporters for The Sportsman were wide-ranging and not necessarily substantive to whether they deliberately broke the rules of the stay-at-home order.
Among the comments were statements about the validity of COVID-19 tests, the efficacy of masks, Constitutional rights, the Declaration of Independence, the Leslie family's standing in the community, other business violators such as Walmart and Lowe's, public disunity and secession.
“I guess we could have been sneaky and put paper up in the windows and around the doors,” said Mary Henson, who identified herself as a family member in attendance with her husband, Boyd. “I think the city council should have the best interest of Sonora's small businesses, and I don't think that's happening right now.”
Mary Henson said they attended despite her husband having cancer and that he wore a mask and a faceshield during the event.
Thomas Silva, owner of Sonora Brewing Co., framed it as business owners trying to feed and support their families.
“This is just wrong,” he said. “We're doing this because we love our community. There's no hidden agenda.”
The Leslies reiterated however that the memorial was not a money making venture. Much of the commentary during the meeting became a generalized venue to challenge the city's ability to levy fines or hold a business accountable for a violation.
Other people described The Sportsman gathering as a systemic defiance of the stay-at-home order and other safety measures, including gyms, nail salons, bars and restaurants which continue to operate.
“They all know they're doing this illegally,” said Laurie Lehmann, of Sonora. “You are not different than anyone else in this county.”
In the discussion about the fines, Carly Fox criticized an online media campaign to silence and threaten anyone who brought to light the defiance of downtown businesses to participate in the stay-at-home order.
“The Sportsman's recent behavior may well lead to the loss of another life in our community,” Fox said. “To not hold The Sportsman accountable, I fear will empower other businesses.”
Following the discussion, City Attorney Douglas White clarified that public health directives were enforceable under the law and lent to municipal governments through state authority. He reinforced that the city's failure to follow state laws would likely result in an influx of state regulators to enforce them.
“That is the legal parameters within which we are constrained and have our responsibilities,” he said. “We don't have the legal authority to decide how we follow a law.”
In other municipalities, White said OSHA was shutting down businesses.
“We're trying to keep our ship in order to not attract that kind of oversight,” he said.
If the city levied the fine, it would have been the first time it did so under an ordinance passed by the council in April that allowed it to fine businesses or individuals with noncriminal penalties for violating COVID-19 restrictions.
All bars that don't serve food are supposed to be closed and restaurants are supposed to only offer take out and delivery under a stay-athome order that was enacted on Dec. 6 for the San Joaquin Valley region, which includes Tuolumne and Calaveras counties.
The order was enacted because the availability of intensive care unit beds in the region dropped below 15%. The region has fallen to 0% available ICU beds multiple times since the order was passed. The order supersedes the regulations set by the state's reopening metric, which still puts Tuolumne County in the most severe risk group.
The county has faced an unprecedented increase in case numbers over the past months, the highest since the pandemic began and case numbers were catalogued.
Twelve people in the county have died in the last three weeks from COVID-19, four more than the previous nine months put together.
Such acknowledged they were being “too soft” on big box stores through the pandemic, but she described the gathering at The Sportsman as a “superspreader event” that deserved a response.
“We had to have some recourse if someone was denying and ignoring these mandates,” she said. “Regardless of what you think about them, they are laws and were supposed to enforce them.”
Rutikanga said the city has not received an official complaint about masks or other public health guidelines at Walmart from the county since August and described the review and fining process as a “complaint driven mechanism.”
“One of the biggest reasons I voted for the fines was, instead of anything else, it was because it took something from a criminal thing to an administrative thing,” said Hawkins, who described it as “crazy” for someone to be charged with a misdemeanor or potentially go to jail as a result of breaking the order.
The city regularly receives calls from Sen. Kamala Harris' and Newsom's offices to check on the local compliance, Hawkins said.
Without local efforts at regulation or compliance, Sonora could face a wave of state regulators into the area.
It is unknown whether the event will have any bearing on the business' alcohol license. It was referred to the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, or ABC, though a spokesman told The Union Democrat last week that he could not comment on any pending complaints or investigation until a notice of violation is publicly issued.
Agents from ABC reportedly visited 13 businesses in the county with licenses to sell alcohol over the last week and found all were in compliance with COVID-19 regulations
The Sportsman is the only business in the state that's licensed to sell both beer and guns because of a grandfathered permit that dates back to 1947.