Open Letter to Solano Supervisors: Call for a Civilian Oversight Board for Sheriff Department

Civilian Oversight for Sheriff’s Department

Open letter by Jean Walker, May 30, 2021
Jean Walker, Benicia

On September 22nd, 2020, the Solano County Board of Supervisors listened to our county’s employees as they described how Solano County’s hiring and promotions system was bogged down by institutional racism. After much discussion, the Board, on a 5-0 vote, created a Subcommittee on Diversity and Equity. On a 3-2 vote, the Board approved funding of $150,000 to support the work of the Subcommittee.

The members of the Subcommittee on Diversity and Equity, including chair Erin Hannigan and Board Chair John Vasquez, have most likely met a few times since last year. I imagine the Subcommittee has hired an equity consultant, as planned, to assist with the process of focusing on internal human resources operations and delivering equitable services to the County’s residents.

As a constituent I am pleased to see that when an important issue like institutional racism in the County’s hiring practices must be addressed, the Board is capable of coming together as a team.

The Board of Supervisors now has another opportunity, via Assembly Bill 1185, to create a Citizens’ Oversight Board for the Sheriff’s Office.

Civilian oversight benefits the public AND benefits police and sheriff’s departments, by …

    • Improving community relations through more open communication between the Sheriff’s Office and the public;
    • Reassuring the community that misconduct is investigated, and that appropriate discipline and training will occur;
    • Increasing the public’s understanding of law enforcement policies and procedures;
    • Improving those policies and procedures; and
    • Assessing liability management, thereby reducing the likelihood and cost of litigation.

Please, Supervisor Brown, I hope you will once again raise the motion to agendize the proposal of discussing a Civilian Oversight Board. I hope one of the two members of the Diversity and Equity Subcommittee will be a good team member and second Supervisor Brown’s motion.

Jean Walker
Benicia

Solano County secures move to orange tier, then discloses large number of previously unreported cases and 5 new deaths


By Roger Straw, Tuesday, June 1, 2021

Solano County reports 104 new infections today, and 5 new deaths.  82 of the newly reported cases are from Vacaville

Solano County COVID report on Tuesday, June 1.
[Source: see far below.  See also my ARCHIVE spreadsheet of daily Solano COVID updates.]
Solano County COVID-19 Dashboard – SUMMARY:

Solano County reported 104 new COVID cases over the 4-day weekend,  82 of them from Vacaville.  I suspect the County is playing “catch-up” with previously-unreported cases from Vacaville.  Monthly: We saw 1,288 new cases in April, an average of 43 per day.  In May, Solano reported 920 new cases, an average of 30 per day.

Solano County also reported 5 new COVID deaths today, a total of 243 deaths here since the pandemic began.  2 of the 5 reported today were age 50-64, and 3 were 65+ years of age.

SOLANO NOW IN ORANGE TIER – Solano County was finally moved into the orange tier today, the last Bay Area County to leave the red tier.  See details in the County’s press release, also in the account of the Vallejo Times-Herald.

JUNE 15 RE-OPENING Solano County Public Health highlighted on its dashboard last week that the State of California will discontinue COVID tier assignments on June 15.  The County references a thorough but outdated California Department of Public Health (CDPH) announcement of April 4, 2021.  A more current but less detailed CDPH announcement isBeyond the Blueprint for Industry and Business Sectors – Effective June 15.”  The ending of the State’s tier system is being hailed as a return to normal, but it falls short of that for Mega Events (gatherings of crowds greater than 5,000 [indoors] and 10,000 [outdoors]).  And… ALL of us are advised to get vaccinated and continue to take precautions when sharing indoors air with others who may or may not be vaccinated.

MASKS Governor’s update: “California will align its mask guidance with CDC’s on June 15, 2021.  California will keep existing mask guidance in place until June 15 when it aims to fully reopen the economy. After that, the state plans to allow fully-vaccinated Californians to go without a mask in most indoor settings. You will still have the option to wear a mask if you choose.”  Governor’s update based on a May 3 CDPH guidance.

Solano’s Active cases are now at 212 up from Friday’s 181.  Our percent positivity rate rose dramatically today from 4.9% to 10.6%.

>> The virus is still active here.  Stay safe, get vaccinated, wear a mask in crowds and social distance if you’re not sure who’s vaccinated!  We will get through this together.

Cases by City on Tuesday, June 1:  Something is clearly now (or sometime in the past) going on in Vacaville!

  • Benicia remained steady today, total of 999 cases since the outbreak began.
  • Dixon added 1 case today, total of 1,917 cases.
  • Fairfield added 12 new cases today, total of 9,074 cases.
  • Rio Vista added 1 new case today, total of 388 cases.
  • Suisun City remained steady today, total of 2,279 cases.
  • Vacaville added 82 new cases today (!) – total of 8,772 cases.
  • Vallejo added 8 new cases today, total of 9,865 cases.
  • Unincorporated areas remained steady today, total of 103 cases.

COMPARE: Screenshots from Solano County COVID Dashboard on Friday, May 28:


The data on this page is from today’s and the previous Solano County COVID-19 Dashboard.  The Dashboard is full of much more information and updated weekdays around 4 or 5pm.  On the County’s dashboard, you can hover a mouse or click on an item for more information.  Note the tabs at top for SummaryDemographics and Vaccines.  Click here to go to today’s Solano County Dashboard.


Sources

Solano County moves to orange tier, finally leaves red behind

Solano County moving into orange tier

Vallejo Times-Herald, by Thomas Gase & Nick Sestanovich, June 1, 2021

This summer is looking to be less restrictive than last, as the state of California announced Tuesday that Solano County will be moving into the orange tier of the state’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy.

The blueprint establishes tiers for businesses and other entities to reopen following last year’s shutdowns as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The state is on track to remove the tiers entirely starting June 15, effectively removing nearly all restrictions for businesses.

Solano County has been in the red tier since March, having previously been in the most restrictive purple tier for four months. The county had previous been in the red tier from September to November.

Under this reopening:

  • Restaurants are now allowed to serve meals indoors at 50 percent capacity or a maximum of 200 people, whichever is fewer. This also applies to wineries, breweries and distilleries that serve meals.
  • Breweries, wineries and distilleries that do not serve meals may open indoors with modifications, including 25 percent capacity indoors or a maximum of 100 people, whichever is fewer.
  • Retailers may operate indoors with modifications.
  • Movie theaters and places of worship may operate indoors at 50 percent capacity or a maximum of 200 people, whichever is fewer.
  • Gyms, health club and yoga studios can operate indoors at 25 percent capacity.
  • Graduation ceremonies can be held outdoors at 33 percent capacity with assigned seating and additional modifications.

The reason for the move to the orange tier was a continuing decrease in cases to below six per 100,000, low hospitalizations and more than 225,000 residents receiving at least one vaccine dose, according to a Solano County news release.

Dr. Bela Matyas, Solano’s public health officer, said the county qualified for the orange tier based on a significant decrease in cases per day, positivity rates and its health equity metric, which measures positivity rates in disproportionately impacted areas. Hospitalizations have also been low as of late.

Vaccinations were also up, with 64 percent of eligible residents ages 16 and older and 62 percent of residents ages 12 and older receiving the COVID-19 vaccine as of Friday, Matyas said.

When the state lifts its restrictions June 15, Matyas said Solano would lift all of its requirements although health officials will still recommend businesses retain precautions that are easy to retain if they choose to do so, such as physical barriers at restaurants or hand sanitizer dispensers.

“Things that have involved investments already made, I would think would be easy to maintain,” he said.

Additionally, Matyas said the California Division of Occupational and Safety Hazards (Cal/OSHA) may continue to require certain precautions of its employers.

Armando Gomez, a manager at Napoli Pizzeria & Italian Food in Vallejo, was pleased for the change.

“Personally, I’m excited,” Gomez said. “We get to fill up some more tables that were empty. We had four tables inside and now we can do about eight. We’ve managed to hang on there during this pandemic but this will also help.”

Solano County Public Health Administrator Jayleen Richards said there were some other benefits about moving up to the orange tier, even if the removal of tiers is just two weeks away.

“Yes we are pleased we are able to open up more and although the tiers will be gone soon we don’t view this as too little, too late,” Richards said. “This coming week we have a few graduations and some of them will be able to benefit with larger size restrictions. I know Vacaville was planning on doing just one ceremony instead of two if they could get the necessary requirements.”

Benicia, Vallejo and Jesse Bethel high schools had previously planned to do two ceremonies. The schools may be able to do one now depending on it of its maximum capacity requirements.

Richards said there were a few reasons for the upgrade in tiers.

“I believe it’s just more and more people getting vaccinated,” Richards said. “We were also expecting an increase in COVID-19 cases after Mother’s Day and it wasn’t that bad. It seems everyone was doing a good job and social distancing during that weekend. However, some places are still at a higher risk and will need to continue to use precautions.”

Two other Bay Area counties in the orange tier — Napa and Alameda — could be eligible to move to the yellow tier by next Tuesday. That would leave Sonoma, Solano and Contra Costa counties as the only remaining orange tier counties in the region.

Statewide, 48 percent of Californians live in yellow tier counties. And only four counties — Del Norte, Shasta, Yuba and Stanislaus — remain in the red tier indicating a “substantial” COVID-19 spread. There are no counties in the most restrictive purple tier.

For more information, go to Solanocounty.com/depts/ph/coronavirus.asp.

Bay Area News Group contributed to this story.

State moves Solano County into orange tier

Solano County moves into the less restrictive Orange Tier of the State’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy, effective June 2

Press Release by Solano County, June 1, 2021

SOLANO COUNTY – The State of California announced today that Solano County will move from the Red Tier into the less restrictive Orange Tier of the Blueprint for a Safer Economy effective Wednesday, June 2, 2021. The California tier-based metrics have helped provide a framework for reopening businesses, schools and other community venues.

In the last two weeks, Solano County has seen a continued decline in case rate to below 6 per 100,000 to qualify for the orange tier. COVID-19 related hospitalizations remain low, and 225,477 county residents have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

“We are seeing a substantial decrease in the spread of COVID-19 in our community, therefore enabling us to move down to the next tier and expanding capacity for our businesses,” said Bela T. Matyas, M.D., M.P.H., Solano County Health Officer.  “While we are nearing the end of the pandemic, we continue to encourage our community members to get vaccinated to protect themselves from severe illness and death. Solano Public Health remains dedicated to eliminating barriers to vaccinate the community against COVID-19 by focusing on providing pop-up clinics – meeting people where they are.”

MOVING FROM THE RED TIER INTO THE ORANGE TIER ALLOWS:

  • Restaurants, including wineries, breweries and distilleries that serve meals, can operate indoors with 50 percent capacity or a maximum of 200 people, whichever is fewer
  • Breweries, wineries, and distilleries that do not serve meals may open indoors with modifications, including 25 percent capacity indoors, or 100 people, whichever is fewer
  • Retail establishments can operate indoors with modifications
  • Movie theaters and places of worship can operate indoors with 50 percent capacity or a maximum of 200 people, whichever is fewer
  • Gyms and health clubs, including yoga studios, can operate indoors with 25 percent capacity
  • Graduation and commencement ceremonies can be held outdoors at 33 percent capacity with assigned seating and other modifications

COVID-19 INFORMATION
For more information on COVID-19, visit the following websites, including:

  1. Resources for industry guidance – https://Covid19.Ca.Gov/Safer-Economy/
  2. COVID-19 vaccine information in Solano County – www.SolanoCounty.com/CovidVaccine
  3. COVID-19 statistics, including cases and vaccinations – www.SolanoCounty.com/COVID19
  4. Vaccine clinics throughout the State of California – https://MyTurn.Ca.Gov
  5. Solano County Public Health Facebook – www.Facebook.com/SolanoCountyPH