Quarantine keepers?
‘Cocktails to go’ and other creative ideas may expire with Lamont orders
A lot of things have changed since the onset of the COVID-19 global health pandemic, and in Connecticut most of those changes were the result of 52 executive orders and dozens of memos issued by Gov. Ned Lamont and his commissioners.
In September when Lamont’s emergency declaration expires, so will the policies he implemented by those orders. Most are restrictions and bans that we hope we never see again.
But a few have made life easier in ways we might want to see continue. Here are seven, which could lead to debate at the end of the summer.
Cocktails to go
Originally implemented
as a small change to help struggling restaurants, the policy that allows diners to carry out a margarita with their tacos or a couple beers with their burgers has proven to be a popular one in some communities.
The change hasn’t made much of a difference in the bottom line for most restaurants, but every penny counts for one of the hardest hit industries in the pandemic. And even when restaurants are back at full capacity, many will have amassed massive debts to stay afloat so those extra dollars will still be welcomed.
“It’s really about everything that can be done to help them,” said Scott Dolch, executive director of the Connecticut Restaurant Association. “I’m excited that we’re able to get things passed and we can talk about with the legislators things that might be working like the alcohol to go and expanded dining.”
Dave Rutigliano, a state representative from Trumbull who owns a group of seven restaurants in Fairfield and New Haven counties, said he’s found little benefit in the alcohol rule but noted it certainly doesn’t hurt.
“I’m just really focused on getting back to capacity for our indoor dining, that’s what’s killing us,” said Rutigliano, a Republican who pushed for earlier reopening.
The rule allows customers to take unfinished drinks, not just sealed containers. Connecticut does not prohibit open alcohol containers in cars, but groups such as Mothers Against Drunk Drivving could oppose carry-out as a permanent change.
Deliveries right from the brewers
It took a pandemic for many people to learn that package stores in Connecticut were already delivering, but it took an executive order to permit Connecticut’s product makers — breweries, distillers and wineries — to also bring their goods to customers.
With on-premise consumption closed and purchasing reduced to contact-less curbside pickup, adding delivery has been a way to help them adapt. Those that have, found success.
Carroll Hughes, the veteran lobbyist who serves as executive director of the Connecticut Package Stores Association, said he only knows of a handful of businesses that opted to begin delivering, but the package stores haven’t found it to be in competition with their business and wouldn’t mind if manufacturers were allowed to continue delivering directly to consumers.
“In the end it’s much more effective and much more economical to have your products sold through a distribution system that includes distributors and retailers,” Hughes said. “The three-tiered distribution system has made the three biggest breweries the most successful.”
Hughes said package stores actually saw such an increase in requests from breweries to sell their products because taprooms have been closed, that they had to turn some away for lack of space.
“That relationship between the breweries and the package stores works out and I think they learned that and I think more of them will look to the distribution system after this is all over because that could weather any crisis,” Hughes said.
Expanded outdoor dining
When Lamont announced restaurants would only be permitted to open for outdoor dining in the first phase of reopening, the initial wave of complaints was strong.
Many restaurants don’t have outdoor space or they have room for just a table or two. And the process for introducing outdoor dining is usually lengthy, involving many permits and zoning approvals.
So Lamont signed several orders to make the process easier — allowing municipalities to loosen the rules and fast-track approvals to expand outdoor dining; allowing restaurants that already have liquor permits to serve alcohol without applying for a separate patio or extension of their permits.
We’ve seen some creative problem solving between the restaurants and municipalities. Towns such as Stamford and West Hartford, for example, closed or partly closed some downtown streets to cars on the weekends, allowing restaurants to spill out onto the pavement, creating open-air eateries.
Of course, beautiful weather the past few weekends has aided the success of outdoor dining, but Dolch said it’s something he expects many restaurants to continue at least through the summer, especially while indoor dining is still limited. And he said there are rumblings of some towns considering the street closures as an annual summer affair.
“The towns want to figure out ways to make this work and make sure that these restaurants survive,” Dolch said. “I do think we are going to continue to talk through things that have passed and other ways to help these restaurants. Initially I was talking with the head of Texas about recovery after Hurricane
Harvey. She said recovery was 12 to 18 months for restaurants. This could be as bad if not worse.”
Widespread mail-in voting
The origin of this debate dates back long before COVID-19 was a common term in our vocabulary. Under regular law, Connecticut citizens may vote absentee only for cause, such as illness or absence from the town or state, but this year, Secretary of the State Denise Merrill will mail absentee ballot applications to all voters on the active voter list ahead of the August primary — with authorization from an executive order in May by Lamont.
Merrill has for years proposed voting expansions like early voting, greater automatic voter registration and loosening the state’s absentee ballot restrictions, to no avail. A constitutional ballot question failed in 2014.
Now legislators and Lamont’s office are talking about a special session vote to expand absentee voting at least for the November election, if not beyond.
“Secretary of the State Denise Merrill needs to undertake a number of measures in short order to ensure expanded absentee balloting can be done in a secure and orderly manner in November,” Lamont wrote in a letter to legislators this week. “She cannot do so responsibly without legislation that closely mirrors the recent Executive Order I issued for the August primary. Because my emergency powers are currently set to expire on September 9, I am unable to resolve the absentee balloting issue for the November general election through an Executive Order at this time.”
Many Republicans oppose the expansion, saying the state does not have enough control over its voting lists to prevent fraudulent balloting.
Food trucks at rest areas
In an April 10 executive order,
Lamont allowed food trucks to begin operating at rest areas. The change offered solutions both for weary truck drivers delivering a massive increase in supplies and goods to the state, and food truck operators who had seen their business decimated.
Many food trucks operate outside of office buildings during lunch hours, near bars in the evenings, at private events and at breweries and beaches. With all of those things curtailed, the food trucks have suffered.
A handful accepted the offer, and have set up shop at rest areas along major highways like Interstate-91 where many of the rest areas don’t have restaurants.
“What I do enjoy seeing is supporting these local businesses,” Dolch said. “We’re going to need to support each other and support Connecticut to help each other.”
Lamont spokesman Max Reiss said that if there’s a safe way to continue the practice without disrupting traffic, it could become a permanent change.
Expanded telehealth visits
Telehealth — or health care visits by phone or video call — have existed for several years in Connecticut for private insurance. The pandemic emphasized the need to expand virtual visits, especially for Medicaid patients and especially in mental health.
Lamont has signed six executive orders that add flexibility for health care providers and medicaid recipients to utilize telehealth services. The first was signed on March 18 — the same order that closed shopping malls and amusement parks — and the most recent modification was April 24.
Even before that, as the crisis hit in March, the state Department of Social Services moved to allow some telehealth for the first time for the more than 800,000 Connecticut residents covered by Medicaid, who often are medically vulnerable and can’t easily visit a doctor in person. Connecticut had been one of two states with no Medicaid telehealth program.
Lamont’s orders sped up and further expanded the process including some audio-only visits. It’s unclear whether those orders will remain in effect as policies implemented by DSS or if it will require legislative action to maintain the policy.
Virtual government
Many private companies have already publicly announced plans to continue working remote well into the future, not just for the rest of this year, but perhaps forever. Employees have discovered the joy of not commuting and the work-life balance that comes with eliminating those hours on the road.
Government has gone virtual with many events that had to be in-person by law — from local boards of education and town councils to some legislative committees. That also includes administrative hearings and even some court proceedings.
Now it’s unclear whether and how all that might continue after government can resume as usual. Some legal aid lawyers, for example, have said virtual hearings hurt their clients appealing orders, for example in nursing home evictions.
“We made sure to allow that but also allow for recordkeeping and access to records,” said Reiss, Lamont’s spokesman. “We want to explore keeping those as an option with an understanding that inperson meetings are part of the democratic process and we don’t want to do anything to impede that.”