Governor’s emergency order allows: commandeering of property, suspension of laws, banning gatherings

Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order on the coronavirus response at a lightly attended news conference conducted largely via conference call Thursday. The order allows the state to commandeer property for purposes of quarantine and gives powers to some cabinet officials they could use if the crisis grows worse.

Perhaps most controversial is Section 8 of the order, which allows the state to “commandeer property — hotels and other places of temporary residence, medical facilities, and other facilities that are suitable for use as places of temporary residence or medical facilities as necessary for quarantining, isolating, or treating individuals who test positive for COVID-19.”

The order also suspends provisions of the Bagley Keene Act, the Brown Act and other laws, to allow public meetings to be held by teleconference rather than in locations where members of the media and other citizens can attend them.

“Both the Brown Act and Bagley-Keene Act contain safeguards for the public when a state or local agency meets by teleconference. The governor expressly suspended these safeguards in the executive order,” the California Newspaper Publishers Association noted in a newsletter Thursday.

The governor further ordered that “all requirements in both the Bagley-Keene Act and the Brown Act expressly or impliedly requiring the physical presence of members, the clerk or other personnel of the body, or of the public as a condition of participation in or quorum for a public meeting are hereby waived,” the newspapers’ association noted.

In his announcement, Newsom said, “We have directed cities, counties, private and public sector, large and small, all throughout the state of California to no longer permit large, nonessential events. We believe that was appropriate based on a number of factors, not the least of which is our collaboration and coordination with the CDC.”

This was a reference to guidelines put out by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week, urging people to avoid travel and calling for the cancellation of large events.

On Wednesday, Newsom issued a statement demanding “non-essential gatherings must be limited to no more than 250 people” and requiring “social distancing” at any event that does go forward. Many local governments have issued similar guidelines this week. Thursday’s order takes a number of steps designed to improve the state’s health response. It gives broad discretion to the Emergency Medical Services Authority to issue orders without consulting with local authorities. It also waives limits on the hours of managers, retired annuitants, intermittent employees and others in order to ensure the state continues to have an adequate workforce.

There are also several measures designed to lessen the economic impacts of the virus. These include waiving waiting periods for unemployment benefits and late fees for tax filings.

State agencies activated emergency operations centers on Jan. 24 to coordinate the public health response. Newsom then declared a state of emergency on March 4.