On Tuesday, Dc. 8, 2020, Michelle Steel, Chairwoman of the Orange County Board of Supervisors voted alongside her colleagues to adopt the Healthy Communities Resolution, which recognizes that California is geographically diverse and ill-suited to region-wide restrictions and that Orange County is best suited to respond locally to the COVID-19 virus.

The resolution would also commit to the principle that school districts be able to safely open and that in person instruction be allowed to the greatest extent possible without further delay.

“Governor Newsom keeps moving the goalpost. The lumping of more than 22 million people out of the state’s population of 40 million in one region, from San Luis Obispo and Mono Counties in Central California down to the border makes no sense,” said Chairwoman Steel. “The Governor’s top down actions have been an inconsistent mess. He started with deaths and hospitalizations, then positivity rates, then moved the bar to the to the colored tier system, then added health equity and now another lockdown. These moves haven’t stopped the spread of the virus but have severely harmed families ability to make a living.”

“Young, healthy people need to go back to work while we take care of our vulnerable population,” added Chairwoman Steel. “Instead of these top-down orders, I support local control. We know our county better than the Governor. We must be able to protect the most vulnerable and keep residents safe, while also protecting residents’ ability to work and feed their families.”

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.