Posted on 12/12/2020 7:02:31 PM PST by nickcarraway
Paine's Restaurant and Bar in Hollister is staying open despite San Benito County being in the San Joaquin Valley Region which is under a regional stay-at-home order from the state.
Advertisement Restaurant owner, John Kouretas, says he’s staying open to make sure his employees remain employed and can pay their bills.
"If you lock it down, they have no place to go," Kouretas said. "How are they going to survive?"
Kouretas said he has spent at least $10,000 outfitting an outdoor patio and if he's forced to close, his 40 year business may go under. But he's most concerned with his employees who he says are like children to him.
"It's like throwing your children out on the street. Would you throw your children out on the street? I don't think so. It's the same thing," Kouretas said.
San Benito County has been under the state's regional stay-at-home order, which limits restaurants to takeout and delivery only.
The county's only hospital is at capacity and San Joaquin Valley Region had 0% ICU bed capacity, according to the state as of Saturday.
Kouretas says he believes restaurants have been unfairly targeted during the state's lockdowns.
"(The state is) Picking on the restaurants. I think that's wrong," Kouretas said. "These people they don't have computer jobs, or some kind of job to sit at home and work. They need to come to work and depend on this job."
On Friday, a group of bars and restaurants in Contra Costa County filed a lawsuit Friday against the county’s health department to overturn its ban on outdoor dining.
As part of its argument, the lawsuit quotes a June order of Contra Costa Health Services order that says outdoor dining poses a “relatively low risk of transmission.”
Kouretas says he's been warned by the San Benito County Public Health Department, but so far hasn't been fined.
The City of Hollister says there is not much they can do at this point.
Hollister City Manager Brett Miller said the city can't enforce the state's order because the city first has to draw up its own ordinance.
Miller said of the health order, "there really is no teeth behind it. Basically the counties are an extension of the state where the city's are autonomous to them," Miller said.
Miller said the city became more aware of their limited enforcement capacity when they attempted to shutdown Smokey Pete's Smoke Shop, but the business was able to "obtain their license back" because the city's municipal code states "we cannot use our business as a regulatory device."
Miller said San Benito County Health Department is able to pull the restaurant's health permit. Which is something Mayor Ignacio Velazquez said he'd like to see for non-complying businesses.
"We're very limited," Velazquez said of the city's authority. "The state has given the county the power to do things, and the county we need them to back us up."
Action News 8 has not heard back from the San Benito County Sheriff's Office regarding how the office plans to enforce the state's health order for non-complying businesses.
San Benito County Public Information Officer David Westrick would not specifically comment on Paine's Restaurant, but said in a statement:
"Public health would use county code enforcement or environmental health if that is what is needed. Public health realized that local law enforcement is very busy with their own mission and would not have the resources to dedicated to COVID-19 issues."
Miller said the city will consider a special council meeting next week to potentially draw up an ordinance that would give them more authority to enforce the state's order.
There are quite a few places staying open in Southern California. I went out to dinner Wednesday night, and I’m going out tomorrow night. I think it is obscene that newsom locked the state down and all of these people in the service industries will go into Christmas without a paycheck.
Great STAY OPEN!
GOT a Suggestion Have customers sign a petition to RECALL Governor Newsom. !.5 Million signatures are needed. Over 900,000 have already signed
It’s ABOUT TIME we quit letting the deep state and CCP treat us like CAGED primates. It’s unconstitutional and against our rights as human beings!
These minidictators can go to a different country and start up banana republics but NOT HERE.
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