Napa County Considers Citations To Enforce Health Orders

NAPA COUNTY, CA — The Napa County Board of Supervisors is considering whether to allow county staff to issue citations, similar to parking or speeding tickets, to people and businesses who are not complying with the state and county's coronavirus-related public health orders..

The Board is set to discuss a new urgency ordinance, along with amending the County Code Compliance Manual to allow this method of enforcement of state and county health orders, during its meeting scheduled for 9 a.m. Tuesday.

In the meantime, the state of California is reinforcing compliance to Napa County Public Health’s orders with a State Enforcement Strike Team.

"The strike team is currently on the ground throughout Napa County to monitor and initiate revocation of state-issued business licenses when necessary," Napa County Spokeswoman Elizabeth Scott said Friday in a news release.

Napa County was placed on the state's watch list earlier this week because of the rate at which the number of coronavirus cases was increasing. The state then ordered the closure, for a minimum of three weeks, of all bars, breweries, pubs and brewpubs, as well as indoor dining at restaurants, indoor wineries and tasting rooms, indoor family entertainment centers, indoor movie theaters, indoor zoos and museums and indoor cardrooms.

• PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Napa County Ordered To Close Bars, Other Indoor Businesses

As of Friday, there 316 active cases of coronavirus in Napa County from a total of 477 cases since March.

According to the state's monitoring data, Napa County is experiencing elevated disease transmission of coronavirus. Drivers of this include family and community gatherings, increased community transmission, increased transmission among the Latino population within crowded household settings, and disproportionate impact on agricultural workers.

Actions the state says Napa County should take to address these concerns include: 1) NPI interventions such as encouraging social distancing, use of face coverings and hand hygiene; 2) increasing bilingual case investigators and contact tracing staff; 3) education on staying within household bubbles, using traditional and social media and door-hanger campaigns; 4) public education of social distancing and face coverings through radio, Facebook Live, newspaper and social media; 5) testing of all case contacts, surveillance testing of skilled nursing facilities and farmworkers within vineyard management with exposures or outbreaks; 6) formation of an intergovernmental compliance task force to enforce social distancing and face coverings; and 7) engagement of industry groups and community based organizations for vulnerable populations.

The county's current method of enforcing coronavirus-related public health orders focuses on public education and the possibility of temporary restraining orders and court-ordered injunctions.

Napa County Public Health recommends approval of the ordinance, Scott said.

"These actions, recommended by Napa County Public Health, may be critical for preventing individuals and businesses from doing irreparable harm by encouraging the spread of COVID-19 infection throughout the community, and recklessly endangering the public’s safety," Scott said Friday in a news release.

The urgent county measures are being considered with support from the cities and town’s leadership, including American Canyon, Calistoga, Napa, St. Helena and Yountville, Scott said.

"The County has, as well, the support of California Governor Gavin Newsom, as expressed in his July 1 letter to local elected officials across the state," Scott said.

The urgency ordinance needs to be approved by at least four of five board members.

According to the proposed ordinance:

• Citations involving non-commercial activity would be a maximum of $500 per violation and a minimum of $25.
• Citations involving commercial —business — activity, the penalty would be a maximum of $5,000 and a minimum of $200.
• If a violation is not corrected, additional citations may be issued for the same violation.
• The administrative penalty— fine — would need to be paid within 30 days unless the person or business has submitted a request for a hearing to appeal the citation.
• If the citation is not paid, the county, city or town would be able to take civil action for collection of civil penalties.

The public can watch a livestream of the Napa County Board of Supervisors meeting on the county website. The meeting can also be watched on Zoom by entering meeting ID 842-343-169.

The meetings are also shown on Napa Valley TV Channel 28.

To listen to the meeting by cellphone on Zoom, call 1-669-900-6833 then enter the meeting ID 842-343-169.

To submit a public comment for the meeting, email it to publiccomment@countyofnapa.org along with the respective agenda item and the name of the person who is submitting it. Comments sent via email will not be read aloud at the meeting but will become part of the public record for review by supervisors, county staff and the general public.

Those wishing to make a comment by phone during the meeting need to call the Board of Supervisors Public Comment Line at 707-299-1776 and give their name and the respective agenda item. Callers are placed on hold and heard by the Board in the order received. Those making a comment by phone are asked to mute audio on all their devices; to prevent an echo, callers are asked to not use the speakerphone function prior to calling in.

For questions about making public comment, call 707-253-4421 or send an email to clerkoftheboard@countyofnapa.org.