Members of the Orange County Board of Supervisors have admitted both in public and private that the sole reason for continuing a state of emergency declaration in Orange County is to recoup expenses paid from federal government Covid19 relief programs.
The admission was made during a board meeting on June 22, and also at a private meeting of a local Republicans’ club.
“The reason why we’re continuing the emergency declaration is so we continue to be able to get reimbursed for any expenses that are Covid related,” said Board Member Katrina Foley during the June 22nd Board meeting.
Those sentiments were endorsed by other members during that meeting. One of those members, Don Wagner, also made similar statements at a subsequent event sponsored by the Greater Cosa Mesa Republicans.
When asked by an audience member during the June 30th event why the Board had not declared an end to the local health emergency pursuant to California Health & Safety Code, Section 101080, Wagner said doing so would mean little for OC residents, and would result only in the County losing access to readily-available federal disaster relief funds.
“That wouldn’t make one difference in peoples’ lives,” Wagner said. “All it would do is potentially…deny to the County the tax dollars that you already pay that are coming back to us…”
A local health emergency has existed in Orange County since March 2020 following Governor Newsom’s state of emergency declaration and has remained in place despite local statutes requiring the Board review the declaration every 30 days, and to terminate it “at the earliest possible date conditions warrant termination.” This despite infection rates being among the lowest since the Covid pandemic started.
According to the County’s own health director, Dr. Clayton Chau, there are currently only 54 individuals hospitalized due to Covid in Orange County, 14 of which are in ICU’s.
Earlier this year the Board of Supervisors tried to implement a vaccine passport system. When protesters demonstrated against that system Katrina Foley accused them of being part of the insurrection that took place at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on January 6th.
Just weeks after posting that claim on Twitter, Alan Hostetter, a 30-year law enforcement professional and OC resident, was indicted along with five other men on charges stemming from the events of that day.
A recent ITN report revealed how while mayor of Costa Mesa in 2016, Foley pressured City Manager Tom Hatch to approve a sister-city trip to China for local high school students even though no such sister-city program existed between Costa Mesa and any Chinese city. The trip was paid for in part with taxpayer funds and Foley’s son traveled with the group.
A request for comment from Foley on that story was never returned.
“Katrina Foley’s behavior is alarming,” an OC resident who wishes to remain anonymous told ITN. “Instead of listening to her constituents, she lashed out by falsely labeling them as anti-vaxers, anti-maskers, Republicans and insurrectionists, all because they were being asked to ban vaccine passports in OC, something that over 50% of the US has already done.”
“The OC board of supervisors have failed to listen to the concerned residents and provide any scientific data points. They have kept a false state of emergency going (just to collect CARES act money to which there is no transparency on how it is being spent), broken laws and slandered residents.”
“To be honest, we are very thankful that the board of supervisors have forced a citizens movement across the OC to get involved, observe, and monitor everything they are doing. We don’t trust them at all. They aren’t here to serve we the people,” the person added.