This Bay Area county wanted to stop COVID. So it fined businesses 50 times more than any other
When Sara Dubon opened her first floral shop in the midst of the pandemic, she knew it might be financially risky. But she didn’t anticipate the risk from Santa Clara County’s COVID-19 prevention squad, who hit her with a $500 fine without any written warning after just one month.
The reason?
No posted notice about the six-person capacity limit at her tiny storefront in San Jose’s Westfield Oakridge mall.
“I should have no excuse, but I’ve never had a store before and I honestly just didn’t know I could get fined for that,” Dubon said, noting she followed county instructions for all other safety signage and protocols but missed that one. “When a business is doing well, maybe $500 doesn’t seem like much. But for me, that’s a lot of money.”
She has plenty of company among businesses that learned the hard way how Santa Clara County’s public health enforcers — unlike their counterparts in other counties — are almost as relentless as the coronavirus itself in searching out prey.
Read more: https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/03/28/santa-clara-county-businesses-are-at-least-14-times-more-likely-be-fined-for-public-health-order-violations/
(San Jose Mercury News)
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