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Thirty-two weeks after Gov. Gavin Newsom issued the nation’s first stay-at-home order, counties across California are forming coalitions to challenge what they say is prolonged top-down rule from Sacramento.
Officials from 12 rural counties gathered Thursday for the “Conference of North State Representatives,” an event aimed at “restor(ing) representative democracy for our citizens.” On the agenda: challenging the state’s public health guidelines, charting a path to reopen schools and businesses, and protesting Newsom’s withholding of federal coronavirus funds from local governments that don’t comply with state orders. The conference was organized by five Republican lawmakers, including Assemblymembers James Gallagher and Kevin Kiley, who are currently challenging one of Newsom’s executive orders in court.
- Gallagher told me: “There’s a lot of broad consensus among the counties that … we should be able to return to local control of the crisis and not be stuck under this (tiered reopening) metric for the long term.”
In Southern California, Riverside County is pushing for a partnership of its own. The Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to approve a report that calls on the region to band together and communicate to Sacramento “the devastating impacts” of the state’s tiered reopening system.
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