FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 3, 2020

CONTACT: Brooke Armour
(916) 553-4093

SACRAMENTO—Rob Lapsley, president of the California Business Roundtable, issued the following statement today in response to Governor Newsom’s regionalized stay-at-home order:

“California employers have worked hard since March to protect the health and safety of their employees through innovation and hundreds of millions of dollars in investment in health and safety measures to stop the spread of the virus. We have a better understanding of how and where the virus is being transmitted and how to best treat it. Many would agree that today we are safer at work than we are at home.

“We are concerned that today’s announcement does not incorporate the progress that businesses have made across all sectors at this critical time. While we recognize the governor’s decisions to keep retail businesses open, his decisions to fully close broad sectors such as personal services and outdoor dining without providing transparency on the data, including from the state’s $18.7 million contact tracing program, leaves the public and businesses with more questions than answers. Accordingly, these sectors should be provided the same flexibility, even at lower occupancy levels, in order to keep employers and their employees working to provide a lifeline for their families during this holiday season and beyond.

“As we look ahead, we need to jump start our economic recovery in January by providing transparent data, mandating all schools in the state reopen so students can get back to learning and people can go back to work, expediting the economic assistance the governor outlined today, and have the Legislature address key policies changes that will provide confidence to keep employers in California and grow jobs.”

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