BREAKING: Torrance City Council Issues Resolutions of No Cofidence in Barbara Ferrer, Rejects Future Health Orders

Things are just getting better and better in the city of Torrance.

The city residents have spoken, and they want a robust city council that will stick up for the rights and needs of the people. Unlike the previous  Torrane city council, we now have a stronger majority that is ready to push back on the abusive encroachments of Los Angeles County government.

At the August 9th, 2022 Torrance City Council meeting, the city council took two extraordinary steps to push back on government overreach from the county.

First, the city council voted to issue a Resolution of No Confidence in LA County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer:

Here’s the full text of the Resolution:

A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF

TORRANCE EXPRESSING A VOTE OF NO CONFIDENCE IN LOS ANGELES COUNTY

DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEAL TH DIRECTOR BARBARA FERRER

WHEREAS, the City of Torrance (“City”) finds that the Los Angeles County Department of

Public Health Director has overstated the health threat posed by the COVID-19 pandemic to the

City of Torrance; and

WHEREAS, the City finds that imposing the same Health Orders onto the entire Los Angeles

County is not fair to areas with significantly less COVID-19 cases; and

WHEREAS, the City maintains that the community of Torrance can determine the risks of

COVID-19 within the community without the help of county-wide mandates; and

WHEREAS, the City finds that the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health shall

consider the complexity of the cities within the county when creating standardized future

mandates.

NOW, THEREFORE, the City Council of the City of Torrance does hereby resolve that:

(1) The City of Torrance expresses a vote of no confidence in Los Angeles County Department

of Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer.

(2) The City of Torrance hereby directs staff to transmit the resolution to applicable and

interested offices and organizations.

(3) The City of Torrance welcomes an opportunity to engage in comprehensive discussion with

Department of Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer to develop a working relationship aimed at

promoting public health and supporting Torrance businesses.

(4) The City Clerk shall certify to the adoption of this Resolution.

INTRODUCED, APPROVED and ADOPTED this 9th day of August 2022.

From there, the city council also issued a proclamation that they would not enforce any other health mandates or lockdown orders from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors or the LA County Department of Public Health.

It was good to see the entire city council approve this measure.

This resolution should have been issued in 2020, but better late than never. No doubt that the LA County Board of Supervisors will attempt to impose yet another mandate, since they got away with so many shutdown and lockdown orders over the previous two years. This abuse of power cannot go unchecked a second time.

I am really proud of the city council, and I am so grateful that we have a new majority that is willing to stand up to the abuses from the county staff and county officials.

Here’s the full text of the proclamation of non-enforcement:

A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF TORRANCE OPPOSING POTENTIAL LOS ANGELES COUNTY HEALTH ORDER REQUIRING INDOOR MASKING OR BUSINESS CLOSURES

WHEREAS, the City of Torrance (“City”) finds that no government intervention or mandate

should impact the ability an individual has to make money by enforcing mandates that create

loss of jobs; and

WHEREAS, the City finds that all workers are essential workers; and

WHEREAS, the City will not enforce any potential Health Order requiring indoor masking and

the shutdown of any business; and

WHEREAS, the City respects the right of people to wear masks if they choose to, however no

member of the Torrance community should be mandated to wear a mask; and

WHEREAS, the City supports the voluntary use of face masks, COVI D-19 vaccines, and testing

to slow the transmission of the virus and protect vulnerable populations.

NOW, THEREFORE, the City Council of the City of Torrance does hereby resolve that:

(1) The City of Torrance asks that the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health Director

Barbara Ferrer refrain from enforcing mask mandates and shutdowns in the County of Los

Angeles.

(2) The City of Torrance will not use City staff, resources, or public funds to enforce a potential

new Health Order requiring indoor masking or the shutdown of any business.

(3) The City Clerk shall certify to the adoption of this Resolution.

INTRODUCED, APPROVED and ADOPTED this 9th day of August 2022.

I am glad to live in a city that will no longer comply with these onerous mandates. These resolutions will be sent to the LA County Board of Supervisors, as well.

It’s time for the Board to listen to the needs and concerns of the people, rather than ignoring us and doing as they please, to the great detriment of residents and businesses alike. No one entity in the county should have the authority to deem which businesses are essential or non-essential. No one authority should have the power to require individuals to wear masks or comply with other health mandates. How many lives were disrupted irrevocably because of these outrageous health mandates? How many people lost their businesses? Their homes? Their lives?!

This abuse of power can never happen again, and the city of Torrance took another step to make sure of that.

LA County Backs Off from Mask Mandate Because of We the People

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors was going to reinstate the indoor mask mandate throughout the county. They have the supposed authority to do this only because Gov. Hairgel (Gavin Newsom) insists on prolonging the statewide state of emergency. It is an absolute travesty, a disregar for the rule of law in its entirety.

There is no state of emergency. There is a state of political posturing and tyranny, certainly.

Of course, Californians are getting bigger, better, stronger at defying these outrageous mandates. We are not going to comply with this nonsense!

I wrote a nasty letter to the LA County Board of Supervisors, making it crystal clear that LA County residents are not going to go along with yet another mask mandate. Businesses throughout the county signalled their refusal to comply. But best of all, actual city governments took a firm stance against this abusive power trip. Long Beach and Pasadena have their own health departments, so they can do whatever they want, anyway, and they made it clear that they were not going to reinstate any mandates.

Then Beverly Hills declared in a special session earlier this week that they would not enforce any indoor mandate. Reminder: Beverly Hills is not exactly a conservative stronghold, and yet the entire city council went on record opposing enforcement of any further mandates.

Then Manhattan Beach signaled that they would not comply, and El Segundo also stated that they would not enforce any further mandates.

Even my home city of Torrance has initiated an agenda item to reject any future mandates from the County of Los Angeles AND issue a Resolution of No Confidence in LA County Health Director Barbara Ferrer.

Then, on Thursday, July 28th, the County declared that they would not reinstate the mask mandate!

HOW ABOUT THAT?

#BREAKING Los Angeles County will NOT re-impose the indoor mask mandate for now, citing improving hospitalization numbers.

No county in California currently has an indoor mask mandate.— Elex Michaelson (@Elex_Michaelson) July 28, 2022

The County is not being honest with the public, when they claim that they are backing away from a reinstated mandate because of increased COVID-19 hospitalizations. They claimed that the numbers were climbing, and the chances of another COVID-19 spread were so great, that they would have to reinstate a mandate.

But then, all of a sudden, there is no health problem? The numbers are now, all of a sudden, trending down? No, the fact is that the county knew that they could not scare or indoctrinate the county public to go along with another mandate.

Imagine what would have happened if all the cities had pushed back two years ago?

Barbara Ferrer, Health Hypocrite

Ferrer with no mask

Barbara Ferrer is a health hypocrite.

She is the Los Angeles County health director because she was appointed to the job, not because she had any worthwhile qualifications for the position.

She is an unaccountable, unelected bureaucrat, and she does not look like the picture of health, either.

Yet she holds this outrageous sway to tell everyone to mask up in Los Angeles County. This is outrageous, and it needs to stop.

And her guidance for following through on another mask mandate? A corrupted study from her daughter.

RedState reports:

A “study” finding that COVID mitigation efforts in schools, including forced masking, were highly effective in stopping disease spread — and cited by the CDC and most states as the scientific basis for school mask mandates — was authored by LA County bureaucrats, including the daughter of the county’s Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer.When does the hurting stop? When will Los Angeles County residents stop complying with this nonsense and just ignore the county health department?

Hey, even Barbara Ferrer doesn’t follow her own guidelines:

This is Dr. Barbara Ferrer

She announced that mask mandates would be returning to LA County

Right after, she is seen partying with 70,000 people, at an All-Star Game with no mask🤣😂

Folks, you can’t make this stuff uppic.twitter.com/QUgt3HHE37— lauras4Trump (@Lauras4T) July 22, 2022

And there here she is pretending to be friendly, condescending to the residents of Los Angeles county once again:

Barbara Ferrer in her own words during the public health briefing Thursday why Los Angeles is on the precipice of another countywide mask mandate at the end of the month. @FOXLA pic.twitter.com/MoBl4yCMGZ— Travis Rice (@traviscrice) July 22, 2022

Thankfully, businesses throughout the county have announced that they are rejecting this policy, and they are telling the county leaders that masking should remain optional. RedState reports:

The founding CEO of the Los Angeles County Business Federation, Tracy Hernandez, said:

“This is not a debate about choosing between lives and livelihoods … This is a discussion about educating and empowering Angelenos to make smart choices about protecting their health, our workers and the region’s collective ability to weather this latest wave of infections. We can do better than a heavy-handed mandate at this stage of pandemic recovery and endemic recalibration.

It’s time to stand up to Barbara Ferrer and her anti-healthcare bullying. She does not tell us what to do. She works for us; we do not work for her.

Open Letter to Torrance City Council: Reject Ferrer’s Mandates, No More Masks, Open the City Fully

 Dear Torrance City Council:I recently learned about a letter issued from a number of  locally elected officials throughout the South Bay:
We, the undersigned mayors and council members from the South Bay Cities demand the reversal of the latest county health order on behalf of our constituents. At a minimum, we appeal to be exempted based on our vaccination rates and much lower COVID case numbers.

We need a director and a health department that sets warranted policies based on our unique service area demands and needs. We need a credible director and a health department that we can trust.

In the most populated county with more than 10 million residents and the size of several countries in Europe, Dr. Ferrer calls 1902 new cases “alarming.” These are 1902 cases where more than 98% will recover, according to medical literature. While we recognize that every death is tragic, she reports that six died out of 10 million people. That data is being used out of context to establish a health order that punishes fully vaccinated and compliant citizens. For the same period, the lives lost under varying circumstances such as car accidents, overdose, cancer should put into perspective the percentage of Covid related deaths. Further, we think it is imperative to consider how many took their own lives out of desperation and financial ruin due to this pandemic and how the new policies will add to this growing number. Reporting this data and establishing health orders based on it without the proper context does not help us develop sound and balanced public health policy.Our constituents are questioning why they were told to vaccinate to see normalcy because our constituents did follow protocol and vaccinate themselves. The vaccination rates in our cities have reached what many scientific journals label “herd immunity” for vaccines with 95% efficacy. With this herd immunity established, why are these individuals now being told to wear masks again? We must be exempt.We have had enough of these policies! We demand that you stop this one-size-fits-all approach to health and health outcomes. If the goal is to have more people vaccinated, then the health department needs to contextualize that data by service area and establish health directives by using the power of data and persuasion instead of setting mandates that defy common sense and science. This most recent order will drive people away from the vaccine. We, as community leaders, did, and continue to do, our jobs to lead our communities to be fully vaccinated. In our cases, the evidence is clear. We need Dr. Ferrer out of our way.We are not alone in our strong disagreement with this order. The CDC and even our state policies do not align with this recent order. Even county officials are not in agreement with the order. The utter confusion and anguish caused by this order in our communities are unnecessary and painful. We see no reason to punish this county when 57 counties in this state are open to business and not requiring mask-wearing for individuals who have been vaccinated.We implore you to modify this recent order, engage with us, and set a policy that better reflects the unique context of our area. The arbitrary nature of these health policies only contributes to the instability of our individual and collective recovery from this pandemic.Most respectfully,Hon. Drew Boyles, Mayor City of El SegundoHon. Suzanne Hadley, Mayor of Manhattan BeachHon. Mike Griffiths, Mayor Pro Tem City of TorranceHon. Aurelio Mattucci, Council Member City of TorranceHon. Heidi Ashcraft, Council Member City of TorranceHon. Michael Kemps, Mayor City of Palos Verdes EstatesHon. David McGowan, Council Member City of Palos Verdes EstatesHon. Eric Alegria, Mayor City of Rancho Palos VerdesHon. John Cruikshank, Council Member City of Rancho Palos VerdesHon. Frank V. Zerunyan, Mayor Pro Tem City of Rolling Hills EstatesHon. Velveth Schmitz, Council Member City of Rolling Hills Estates
First of all, I wish to commend Councilmembers Griffiths, Ashcraft, and Mattucci for joining this letter.
Second, I urge the remaining members of the Torrance City Council–Walser, Kalani, Chen, and Mayor Furey–to join this letter.
Third, the Torrance City Council must issue a clear directive via resolution to every business and every property owner in the city of Torrance that the city will not enforce any so-called mandate from LA County Health Director Barbara Ferrer. This unconstitutional, unscientific madness must cease. It is the government’s job to protect the rights of the citizens. It is not the government’s job to protect the citizenry’s health. It is not the government’s job to protect every citizen from death, to paraphrase Manhattan Beach city councilwoman Suzanne Hadley.
Last of all, the city of Torrance should repeal the Local Emergency declarations once and for all. The city may lose government money in the short-term with this action, but businesses will be able to thrive and conduct commerce once again, more than making up for any losses from missing out on COVID-19 relief. Other cities in Southern California (Yorba Linda, Laguna Niguel) have already repealed their emergency orders. Torrance should do the same.
Cities must rise up against this overreach. As Councilwoman Ashcraft had shared with me a few weeks ago, we all simply need to learn to live with COVID-19, or any other pathogen. This whole pandemic overreach has never been about public health or public safety. This whole scam has been about control. It’s time for the city of Torrance to take back its control, and let the citizens control their lives to the fullest extent possible.
Sincerely,

Arthur Schaper

Contact the Torrance City Council, and tell them to:

1. Reject Ferrer’s Mandates

2. Tell all businesses and property owners that the city will not enforce mask mandates

3. Repeal the Local Emergency Order and Let the City of Torrance Open Fully

Torrance City Council Contacts

Pat Furey (pfurey@torranceca.gov);

George Chen (gchen@torranceca.gov);

Aurelio Mattucci (amattucci@torranceca.gov);

Sharon Kalani (skalani@torranceca.gov)

Mike Griffiths (mgriffiths@torranceca.gov);

Heidi Ashcraft (hashcraft@torranceca.gov);

Jack Walser (jwalser@torranceca.gov);

City Clerk Rebecca Poirier (rpoirier@torranceca.gov);

City Manager Aram Chaparyan (achaparyan@torranceca.gov);

City Attorney Patrick Sullivan (psullivan@torranceca.gov);

Chief of Police Jon Megeff (jmegeff@torranceca.gov)

Phone:   (310) 618-2801