A Los Angeles County supervisor has found herself in the same hot water as Governor Gavin Newsom after she was caught dining outdoors at a restaurant - just hours after voting to suspend all outdoor dining services in LA County to prevent the spread of COVID, calling it a "serious health emergency."
According to reports, Sheila Kuehl, one of the county’s supervisor’s, was seen dining outdoors at an eatery in Santa Monica just after the board of supervisors voted 3 to 2 – with Kuehl’s support – to force all restaurants in the local area to shut down their indoor and outdoor dining services, restricting them to take-out and delivery service only due to a local spike in COVID cases.
“This is a serious health emergency and we must take it seriously,” Kuehl said during the meeting, where she called outdoor dining “a most dangerous situation.”
“The servers are not protected from us, and they’re not protected from their other tables that they’re serving at that particular time, plus all the hours in which they’re working,” Kuehl said at the meeting, just before casting her vote to shut down outdoor dining.
But just hours later, Kuehl was seen chowing down on the patio at Il Forno Trattoria, an Italian restaurant near her home.
While Kuehl technically didn’t break her own rules, seeing as she visited the restaurant before her own ban took effect, it’s notable that she was willing to participate in something she had just deemed “dangerous” to public health and the safety of restaurant workers.
Restaurants across Los Angeles have pushed back on the new restrictions, which are further handicapping an industry already crippled by COVID shutdown mandates and the loss of business. One restaurant in Redondo Beach that has so far refused to close trolled Gov. Newsom by rolling out a giant banner across the storefront that reads “The French Laundry,” a jab at the governor after he was seen dining with a small crowd at a swanky restaurant in Napa Valley in direct opposition of his own COVID guidance.