It was a play to be heard around this city Central Valley of 30,000, thanks to Mayor Paul Creighton.
Atwater had not simply flattened the COVID-19 case curve. “We have smeared the curve,” he explained.
With just 12 confirmed cases, the city council in mid-May declared Atwater a ‘sanctuary’ for business, allowing all businesses to reopen in violation of California’s closure orders.
How times have changed.
Cases have gone up in Atwater past 800. Merced County is on the state’s coronavirus list. And federal officials have declared the rural, agricultural Central Valley as one of the nation’s most concerned hotspots for the spread of the virus.
What has not changed is the resistance of Atwater. City leaders are refusing to back down on the sanctuary resolution – despite the state withholding federal emergency funds for coronavirus because of the state.
“They tried to put a gun on our heads to meet us,” Creighton said at a recent town council meeting. ‘They want our citizens to feel scared and vulnerable. Do not be. They want to increase political heat as we become the next victim in a long line of victims in today’s canceling culture. ”
In addition to scrapping Atwater’s sacred city resolution, the state will withhold up to $ 387,428 for which the city is eligible because it violates state rules for public health, the governor’s office of emergency services told city leaders late last month.
The state has already withheld the initial $ 64,833 allocation from Atwater, said Brian Ferguson, a spokeswoman for the state aid institute.
“Any community that takes actions that endanger the health and well-being of its citizens will take a closer look at the state,” Ferguson told The Times.
The tussle comes when COVID-19 cases exploded in Merced County. The province had 5,012 confirmed cases as of Friday. As of June 6, it had just 343 cases. Atwater had 831 confirmed cases as of Friday. On June 6, it had confirmed 32 cases.
Atwater has more cases of coronavirus per capita than the two largest cities of Merced County, Merced (population 83,000) and Los Banos (population 40,000), according to a Times analysis. Despite being home to 10.6% of the province’s population, the city has about 16.6% of known infections in the province.
While the second impetus for coronavirus in California this summer shows signs of stabilization, the increased prevalence in the Central Valley is a source of deep concern among doctors and public health officials.
“While LA may look a little better, there’s a major movement of viruses from Bakersfield all the way up in the Central Valley in Stockton,” said Dr. Deborah Birx, White House response coordinator, in a statement. recording of a conference call obtained by the Center for Public Integrity.
Govin Gavin Newsom has identified the Central Valley as an area in dire need of resources to slow the spread of the virus. He sends “regional teams” of state, federal and local staff and asked state lawmakers to approve $ 52 million to improve testing, tracing and isolation protocols in eight counties: San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Merced, Madera, Fresno, Kings and Tulare, and Core.
Newsom’s decision to target the Central Valley coincides with its funding shutdown against Atwater and Coalinga, a town of 16,000 in Fresno County.
On July 23, Mark Ghilarducci, director of the emergency services governor’s office, sent letters to the city councilors of Atwater and Coalinga, who passed a resolution in May stating that all businesses were essential.
Coalinga’s share in the federal funds, Ghilarducci wrote, would have been up to $ 212,358. The state has already blocked the initial allocation of some $ 36,000.
“To be eligible for funding, assuming it meets the other prescribed criteria, the city would have to enroll this resolution,” Ghilarducci wrote to both cities.
The state says the cities are in violation of rules governing the $ 1.8 billion distribution allocated to California through the federal CARES Act. California’s largest communities received money directly from the federal government – a total of $ 5.8 billion to counties and cities with populations over 500,000 – while the state budget includes a detailed plan to help less populated areas.
Neither Atwater nor Coalinga will drop.
Coalinga City Manager Marissa Trejo said that, upon receiving the letter, she invited state officials to attend a special City Council meeting via Zoom to discuss the passing of the resolution. She refused. The city council voted to confirm it.
In emails she shared with The Times, Trejo told Office of Emergency Services officials that Coalinga was “held to a higher standard” than other cities to receive the funds. Other cities may not have resolutions, she wrote, but “they do not enforce” state health orders.
‘To be honest,’ she wrote, ‘I am not aware that companies in Coalinga are working against existing orders. There’s nowhere in Coalinga where I can eat. None of our restaurants even offer open dining. I have not opened a single hair salon, barber shop or nail salon. “
In Atwater, the politically potential “sanctuary” label won support from US officials and Creighton soon landed on “Fox & Friends”, where he called state protection orders “draconian.” But it also provoked anger among some residents who called it political pride.
Despite their opposition, the city last week posted on its Facebook page photos of city employees covering their faces and wearing matching T-shirts that said, “Mask Up Atwater.”
At a tumultuous city council meeting last week, members of the Freedom Angels Foundation – best known for their anti-vaccine activism – called outside City Hall in support of the Holy City resolution. In a Facebook video beforehand, the co-founders of the Creighton group said they would wait out and ask them to look up and wear red as a sign of solidarity. ‘
At the meeting, officials – including the city governor, two councilors and the police chief – who did not openly cover their audience around the time the resolution was passed, sometimes wore masks. Creighton jumped out when he was on the dais.
Resident Mary McWatters said she was shocked the financially fortified city was ready to lose emergency funds.
“Mr. “Creighton, you believe your voters and Donald Trump are on your side,” she said. “Well, Donald Trump will not sponsor this city.”
Resident Theron Sanders Sr., wearing a star-spangled bandanna around his neck, said he publicly masked to keep mom-and-pop businesses in compliance with safety rules and, therefore, open. He wanted to leave the resolution of the sanctuary in its place.
“We need our economy to continue to grow,” he said. ‘We need to be able to stay open. … I believe that this ‘plandemic’ is entirely designed to not only bring down our economy, but to destroy our president. ‘
The shutdowns hit Atwater just as it began to claw from the Great Recession. Last year, the state auditor rank Atwater is the second most financially degraded city in the state, behind Compton.
Creighton said the city has balanced since its budget and did not count on getting state or federal aid.
Newsom, he told The Times, is “just unfairly bullying” his city. Creighton said he was only trying to help small businesses destroyed by the shutdown orders, which allowed chain stores like Walmart and Target to stay open, with varying compliance with safety rules.
Among the facilities in Merced County with an active COVID-19 outbreak is the Walmart Supercenter in Atwater, according to the county.
“The only thing we did with the holy city was allow businesses to open,” Creighton said. “It simply came to our notice then. We still wear masks. We still do good hygiene. … It seems like we’re randomly admitted. ”
Times staff writer Sean Greene contributed to this report.
