Liccardo admits he violated guidelines
San Jose mayor attended family dinner with guests from five households
San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo has acknowledged he broke public health guidelines when he attended a Thanksgiving dinner at his parents’ house last week.
Liccardo issued a statement Tuesday confirming he went to a Thanksgiving dinner celebration at his parents’ backyard patio in Saratoga with family members from five different households.
Then just hours after Liccardo’s announcement, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that San Francisco Mayor London Breed dined at the threestar Michelin French Laundry restaurant in Napa Valley with at least seven others the same night after Gov. Gavin Newsom attended a birthday party there despite pleas for Californians not to congregate.
Breed and Liccardo join a growing number of elected officials who have flouted public health guidance aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus that they are urging others to follow, though in Liccardo’s case it involved a private gathering of family members.
Amid an exponential surge in coronavirus cases and hospitalizations leading up to the holiday weekend, state and local public health officials and elected leaders asked Californians to stay home and forgo any type of travel or gatherings. And for those who
still opted to attend a gathering, state regulations issued on Nov. 13 prohibited individuals from more than three households from meeting up.
The day before Thanksgiving, Liccardo himself tweeted, “Cases are spiking, in part because we’re letting our guard (and masks) down with family & friends. Let’s cancel the big gatherings this year and focus on keeping each other safe.”
In his statement Tuesday, Liccardo apologized for his decision to attend his family’s Thanksgiving meal in Saratoga contrary to state rules — a lapse that was first reported by NBC Bay Area on Monday night.
“I understand my obligation as a public official to provide exemplary compliance with the public health orders, and certainly not to ignore them,” the mayor said. “I commit to do better.”
Santa Clara County on Monday recorded its highest number of coronavirus cases in a single day since the beginning of the pandemic. In light of the alarming rise in coronavirus cases and patients in hospitals, the county on Saturday released new public health restrictions, including a three-week ban on all professional, collegiate and high school sports, a mandatory quarantine for those traveling into the region from more than 150 miles away and new capacity limits for indoor businesses.
The mayor of San Jose is not the first political figure from California to face backlash for ‘do as I say, not as I do’ conduct that has violated public health guidelines during the coronavirus pandemic.
In September, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi came under fire after getting her hair done at an indoor San Francisco salon, even though the county at the time had forbidden salons and barbershops from opening as part of its coronavirus shutdown.
Then earlier this month, Newsom faced significant public scrutiny for attending a dinner party at the exclusive French Laundry. Breed is reported to have attended a birthday party for socialite Gorretti Lo Lui’s 60th birthday the next day at the Napa Valley restaurant in the same sort of partially enclosed patio room with at least three walls and a ceiling as Newsom dined in.
In a similar fashion, a Los Angeles County supervisor took heat for dining at a restaurant outdoors just hours after voting last week to ban outdoor dining across the county — an activity she called a “most dangerous situation,” according to a media reports.
In Liccardo’s case, the mayor said a total of eight family members representing five households sat around three distanced tables in his parents’ back patio and wore masks when not eating.
Liccardo, who is one of five children, said many family members who would have joined the family for a typical Thanksgiving dinner, including siblings and nieces and nephews, stayed home out of an abundance of caution.
The mayor’s press office originally told reporters that Liccardo was planning to spend the holiday at home with his immediate family. When Liccardo found out about the inaccurate information, he said he instructed his team to reach out to the reporters to correct the record.