Dear Editor, Tuesday May 19th, hundreds of people showed up in front of City Hall to protest the Governor’s stay-at-home order as well as the Porterville City Council’s lack of support for suffering small businesses within the City limits.
The City was notified in advance about the protest and the Porterville Recorder ran a front-page story about the protest several days in advance. Protestors were in front of City Hall for nearly 2 hours.
How many current City Council members came out to speak with the protestors about their concerns? That number was exactly ZERO. This speak volumes about what this current Council thinks about its suffering small businesses.
The Tulare County Supervisors care about small businesses within the County. They voted to allow businesses within the County to OPEN UP regardless of the Governor’s unfair and politically motivated stay-at-home orders.
Other cities all over the State and in Tulare County (such as Visalia) are passing resolutions exclaiming all small businesses are essential. Other California cities are refusing to enforce the Governor’s orders.
What has Porterville done? They send code enforcement officers around with the threat of up to a $500 per day fine for trying to feed your family. Can we even fathom that at all?
The Porterville City Council voted 5-0 during their May 19th meeting to ignore Tulare Counties vote and to continue enforcing a Governor’s order that is not only causing many businesses to fail, but also causing some families to starve.
They voted 5-0 to have their code enforcement officers continue to harass & threaten huge fines for local businesses. Yet, we can drive to another city or state and have the absolute exact opposite rules. We could have our businesses open and our lives returning back to normal. But NOT in Porterville California.
Hundreds of people came to City Hall to talk and the City Council was Missing In Action. Martha Flores, Monte Reyes, Milt Stowe, David Penaloza & Virginia Gurrola, you made your lack of support for Porterville’s struggling families and small businesses crystal clear.
So if anyone wants to attend church, go to a restaurant, get a haircut, work out at a gym, etc they will need to drive to PRO-Business Visalia and leave ANTI-Business Porterville.
Respectfully, on May 20th 2020, from John Hardin From Porterville, CA.
