Los Angeles’ outdated emergency COVID order

Mayor Eric Garcetti seems to be AWOL as the city of Los Angeles continues to live under an emergency COVID order that has not been updated since April.

During the Labor Day weekend heat wave, an angry parent in Los Angeles posted a photo on Twitter of little kids playing basketball, all wearing masks, at the city’s Mar Vista recreation center.

The staff at the Department of Recreation and Parks is apparently getting more than a few complaints from angry parents. On the home page of the Recreation and Parks city website, directly under a red banner warning about excessive heat, the department posted a notice that read, “Although the L.A. County Department of Public Health now allows businesses to remove indoor mask mandates and modify their proof of vaccination status requirements based on their business needs, the City’s health order does not yet conform to that guidance and the current requirements remain unchanged.”

So the city of Los Angeles still requires “proof of vaccination as a condition of entry” to the Griffith Observatory and the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium, and “requires all individuals be masked while indoors at city facilities.” No one is allowed to enter a city building without proof of vaccination or proof of a negative PCR test, and masks are required regardless of vaccination status.

That’s why the pint-sized basketball teams had to play in the hot weather with masks over their noses and mouths.

This is not required of the Lakers or the Clippers, who breathe in close proximity to other players as well as to fans who have paid a lot of money for floor seats. Nobody’s required to wear masks at the indoor games.

What is going on here?

“Current L.A. City guidelines and the most recent City Health Mandate requires masking at all indoor facilities and requires the City to check proof of vaccination as a condition of entry,” the department of Recreation and Parks explains over and over.

But “current L.A. City guidelines” are not current at all. The city is still under the mayor’s “Safer L.A. Order” of April 24. California dropped its indoor mask mandate for vaccinated people in February. Los Angeles County followed in March, considered reinstating the mandate in July, and ultimately decided against it. Happily, without a mask mandate, L.A. County has moved into the CDC’s “low” community transmission level.

Mayor Eric Garcetti, perhaps preoccupied with lobbying for a Senate vote on his gasping nomination to become the nation’s next U.S. Ambassador to India, is leaving Los Angeles in the lurch. Because he has not updated the “Safer L.A. Order” to align with the current county, state, or CDC recommendations, children playing basketball, or anything else, at indoor city recreational facilities are forced to wear masks, even during a dangerous heat wave.

Mask mandates for children are not harmless. A lawsuit that was filed by a parents’ group in July to stop L.A. County from reimposing an indoor mask mandate cited severe effects from two years of requiring children to wear masks in school, including speech delays, developmental delays, social isolation, depression, anxiety, learning loss, facial rashes, and heat-related illnesses. How hot was it in your neighborhood last weekend?

The mayor’s outdated, arbitrary order is only possible because Gov. Gavin Newsom has refused to lift the emergency declaration that he signed in March 2020. State law actually limits the length of local states of emergency to no more than 90 days, unless renewed by a vote of the governing body. This is supposed to force officials to justify the need for an emergency declaration at regular intervals, preventing endless emergencies.

But Gov. Newsom’s emergency declaration in March 2020 waived the legal time limits on local emergencies. So perhaps local officials are making plans for their “orders” to control life in Los Angeles forever.

They can’t do that. The California Emergency Services Act does not permit permanent states of emergency. “The governor shall proclaim the termination of a state of emergency at the earliest possible date that conditions warrant,” the law says, and once the state of emergency is terminated, all the powers granted under it “shall terminate.”

It’s too bad Pfizer didn’t invent a vaccine to prevent abuse of power. There’s a big market for it in California.

Write Susan@SusanShelley.com and follow her on Twitter @Susan_Shelley