California town says no to tough virus rules, then yes

The little California town of Solvang would normally be jammed with tourists now, strolling a main street bedecked with 100 brightly decorated Christmas trees or pouring into Danish-themed shops and restaurants, some with rooftop windmills, in search of tasty pastries and bric-a-brac like wooden shoes and puppets.

Instead, “People are calling from all over, saying, ‘What the hell is going on?’ " City Councilman Mark Infanti said earlier this week after the community of about 5,000 announced it would not enforce the latest stay-at-home order Gov. Gavin Newsom put into effect Dec. 6.

Newsom's order closed many businesses, forbids restaurants from offering anything other than takeout and delivery, and limits retail stores to 20% capacity, a level devastating for Solvang's small storefronts that at peak times before the pandemic overflowed with shoppers.

The unanimous 5-0 vote by Solvang's council on Dec. 7 encouraged businesses to stay open. “As of tonight, they can go about their business as they had done,” Councilman Daniel Johnson said following the vote.

That vote was a last hurrah for Johnson and two other councilors — one of them the mayor — whose terms ended one week later. Their replacements took office this week and quickly denounced the resolution and implored the business community to follow the rules.

“I think for a few dollars to make for a couple or three weeks is not worth anyone’s life,” new Mayor Charlie Uhrig said. Infanti and the other new council member, Claudia Orona, agreed with him.

The two holdovers have since said it was never the old council's intent to have people breaking the law. Instead it was to pressure Santa Barbara County officials to push the state to put less densely populated areas into separate categories without as many restrictions as urban centers like Los...