Morgan Hill officials and business owners expressed their frustration and confusion after agents with California’s Alcoholic Beverage Control on Friday night ordered several restaurants to close their outdoor dining service, which has been allowed in the county for weeks.
Government officials, including the mayor, city attorney and chief of police in Morgan Hill, said they were unaware of any orders barring outdoor dining, which has been allowed in Santa Clara County since June 5 with restrictions intended to enforce social distancing and prevent the spread of coronavirus. They also weren’t aware of any planned enforcement action from ABC agents in the city.
“We’re all very much concerned about what’s going on,” Mayor Rich Constantine said. “They were told that they were in violation of the state order, which none of us have seen, that there was no outside dining allowed.”
Constantine said he’s read every ordinance and relistened to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Wednesday news conference since he first got a call around 8:30 p.m. last night about the ABC agents enforcement actions, but he can’t find any orders the businesses in his city have violated. The city has reached out to its counterparts in Gilroy, where several businesses were also approached about outdoor dinning on Friday, and to county officials. All were unaware of any rule barring service outside.
“It’s our job as city government to disperse that law,” Constantine said. “If we have no idea what’s going on, how are our businesses going to know?”
In a statement, ABC said agents began enforcement actions on Friday for the Fourth of July weekend to ensure compliance with alcohol laws as well as public health orders.
“Agents met with owners and explained that Santa Clara County had not received variance to open, and that they were technically in violation of California’s stay at home orders,” the statement said. “Agents did not issue any citations or notice of violations.”
Business owners were told they could stay open until their regular closing time, but should not reopen Saturday except for take-out service. Agents spent about 20 to 30 minutes with each business explaining the enforcement.
“ABC stresses education over enforcement in most instances, and the vast majority of owners voluntarily complied after meeting with ABC Agents,” the agency said in its statement.
Jeff Smith, Santa Clara County’s CEO, said that guidance from the state “makes no sense” since outdoor dining is not specifically barred by the state order, and indoor dining is allowed in neighboring San Mateo County. He said outside service is a natural extension of to-go food and alcohol, which is explicitly allowed by the state’s order.
“I think the issue is that if (the state) felt that way, they certainly could’ve made a phone call. I don’t think they needed to show up with armed agents,” Smith said.
He said the county has always directed businesses to follow the strictest applicable health orders, whether from the county or the state.
“They should approach the state and get some clarity,” Smith said. “The state order doesn’t mention outdoor dining, so I don’t understand how the state can say outdoor dining is prohibited.”
Among the businesses contacted on Friday was the Ladera Grill, a fine dining establishment in downtown Morgan Hill, on the site of a hotel that was once visited by the Swedish crown prince and princess. At about 8:20 p.m., two agents in bulletproof police vests and wearing sidearms entered the establishment, seeking the manager.
The agents informed the manager that the restaurant had to shut down outside dining on Saturday by Newsom’s order, or the manager, owner and customers could be cited, according to Ladera Grill’s owner Dan McCranie. The agents, McCranie said, didn’t point to any specific written rule or ordinance barring outdoor service.
“There is no regulation I have seen written or otherwise … that does anything other than allow outdoor dining in Santa Clara County for restaurants,” McCranie said, calling the enforcement action outrageous, confusing and aggressive.
McCraine said he was counting on outdoor dining to help slow down operating losses during the pandemic that he now estimates at about half a million dollars. At 11 a.m. on Saturday, he opened the restaurant for outdoor customers.
“I intended to be open today, and if I’m going to be cited, I’m going to have my managers inform customers there is that risk they might be cited,” he said.
The confusion has been widespread. Christina Turner, Morgan Hill’s city manager, said not all restaurants in Morgan Hill received the same message — some were ordered to shut down, others were simply given a warning.
“The ABC is hand-delivering a flyer about the directive,” she said. “That flyer is very inconsistent with the verbal message being given.”
Even Chief of Police Shane Palsgrove was confused after business owners started calling his department thinking his agency was part of the enforcement. McCranie said the ABC agents showed his manager their badges but the manager was confused and thought they were local police because of their vests.
“We did receive a lot of calls regarding this, and we were learning bits and pieces of what was happening and had to connect the dots and chase down what was happening in the city,” Palsgrove said. “We learned some of it from Facebook, some from community members.”
Constantine said the confusion couldn’t have come at a worse time for businesses in his town struggling to stay afloat during the pandemic. The late-night enforcement was particularly surprising because the city and county, he said, aren’t scofflaws that have defied state orders but rather have followed the county’s proactive lockdown as a way to slow the spread of coronavirus.
“We’re not trying to break the law, we’re trying to follow the law,” he said. “We just need to know what the law is.”
