SAN DIEGO — San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond and Orange County Supervisor Donald Wagner along with a group of local business owners held a briefing on Tuesday. During the briefing, the group, OpenCalNow, presented a petition that will call for the reopening of California. OpenCalNow consists of elected officials, leaders, and businesses working on behalf of the public to safely reopen California.
Desmond said, “I am going to fight to continue to keep businesses open safely in San Diego County. We can fight the virus and be open for business!"
The goal of OpenCalNow group is to get the attention of the governor as well as Sacramento to get kids back in school and before businesses are forced to shut down for a second or even third time during this pandemic.
Along with Supervisors Desmond and Wagner, CEO of Cohn Restaurant Group, Lesley Cohn, CEO of Brigantine Family Restaurants, Mike Morton Jr., San Marcos Mayor Rebecca Jones and Oceanside Deputy Mayor Jack Feller were all in attendance.
Not everyone is in favor of opening up the state, however. In fact, Supervisor Nathan Fletcher held a media briefing on Monday at which he openly called out his fellow supervisors. Fletcher said, “Supervisors Jim Desmond and Kristin Gaspar are inciting a fight between government and small businesses.” Fletcher went on to openly call it, “reckless and irresponsible leadership.”
Supervisor Gaspar responded to Fletcher’s attack by releasing a statement which read:
“This morning Supervisor Fletcher held a hellfire and brimstone press conference in which he ironically and incorrectly blamed me for playing politics with COVID. Let me set the record straight: I have never supported any approach to re-opening that was not specifically supported by our Public Health Officer and clinical leadership team. Supervisor Fletcher knows this but prefers to continue spreading this false narrative because he is actively running a campaign against me. I measured the distance between our office doors, and it is 7 feet, so he and I can actually have a socially distanced conversation anytime he isn’t holding a press conference. I will continue to do my job protecting public health and working with small businesses and leave the politics to Supervisor Fletcher.”
The full video from Tuesday's press conference can be watched below.