San Diego County Health issues cease-and-desist letter to The Village SD
NORTH PARK (KUSI) – The longer Governor Newsom’s regional stay-at-home order lasts, the more desperate restaurants and other small businesses become.
Dozens of restaurants around San Diego County are already defying state orders to shutdown all dining services, and more are joining in by the day.
San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond has been visiting with some of these business owners, and posting video of their conversations to his Twitter page. Desmond has been leading the fight to gain local control of our reopening process throughout the pandemic, and continues to work to protect our struggling business owners as they continually are being hurt by government orders.
Tuesday, Supervisor Desmond spoke with KUSI News along with Alondra Ruiz, the owner of The Village SD in North Park. Desmond explained that he is visiting with these various business owners simply to “listen to their frustrations.”
Ruiz explained she was just allowing customers to order their food in to-go containers, and then eat it outside on the patio.
Ruiz then added that she doesn’t think she is doing anything wrong, and is staying open for her employees, because she doesn’t “want to let them go before Christmas.”
But sadly, a short time after Ruiz spoke live on KUSI News, the San Diego Police paid her a visit. When the police detectives got there, Ruiz says they told her they received a complaint about her restaurant, but they didn’t give her a warning or anything, it was just verbal. Adding, they were “very nice about it, it’s something, they seemed like they don’t want to be doing. They were like, this is not what we signed up for, we don’t want to give you a hard time when you are trying to run your business.”
But that’s not all.
After San Diego Police spoke with Ruiz, the San Diego County Health Department compliance team issued her a cease-and-desist order.
The order is signed by unelected San Diego County Public Health Officer, Dr. Wilma Wooten, and says The Village SD restaurant is in violation of order of the state health officer and the county health officer.
The letter goes on to say, “I appreciate the impact these restrictions have on your business. However, as the responsible party for your facility, it is your duty to ensure that the Orders’ are complied with. If you do not comply, we will take actions necessary to enforce the orders. Failure to comply may result in criminal misdemeanor citations with a $1,000 fine for each violation.”
The action by Dr. Wooten drew outrage by the KUSI News audience, and the Chairman of the San Diego County Republican Party, Tony Krvaric.
Krvaric responded on Twitter writing, “You proud of yourself Wilma? Politicians and bureaucrats aren’t sharing in the pain but many of them enjoy bossing ‘the little people’ around. How about let’s put it to a vote instead of having bureaucrats on power trips. I hope the Sheriff and DA use common sense and discretion.”
RELATED STORY: Owner of The Village SD says they will remain open ‘to fight for the American dream’
