Michelle Steel, Chairwoman of the Orange County Board of Supervisors, has provided the following statement in response to Governor Newsom’s implementation of a new COVID-19 regional stay at home order:

“Governor Newsom’s lockdown order is not based on science, or any clear standards. Lumping together California’s diverse Counties into five regions fails to account for differences in population, hospital capacity, and the rate of COVID-19 spread in each County. The Governor has been clamping down on our residents’ ability to provide for themselves and their families for weeks, with no evidence it has slowed the spread. The evidence we have seen is more depression, more closed businesses, and less work for those who need it most. The Governor, and State health officials should focus on protecting the most vulnerable in our communities and stop these sweeping orders that harm all of us.”

First elected to the Orange County Board of Supervisors in 2014, Michelle Steel represents the residents of the Second District, which includes, Costa Mesa, Cypress, Huntington Beach, La Palma, Los Alamitos, Newport Beach, Seal Beach, Stanton, the unincorporated area of Rossmoor, and portions of Buena Park and Fountain Valley. Steel, a successful businesswoman and renowned taxpayer advocate, previously served as Vice Chair of the State Board of Equalization where she represented more than eight million people in Southern California, including all of Orange County, as one of the state’s 12 constitutional officers.