Good Evening Council. I’m here to remind you that Palmdale is a charter city, and all of the municipal rights that correspond with that charter. When it comes to issues of municipalities or cities, the community is always in control. Section 2 of your Staff Report states that the prohibition of required passports or documentation is in conflict with the county’s order. We agree, it is, however, the county has no authority over municipal affairs. Counties derive their power from the cities that formed them, but they have no say in the everyday affairs of each city. It would take a legal challenge by the county to prove why they have the authority to tell individual cities how to run their municipalities. Therefore, our city’s ordinances and laws are up to the citizens as long as they are not in conflict with the State Constitution, or Federal Constitution. In fact, mandating the use of passports or documentation to live freely is in direct violation of these enshrined documents.
Businesses are being crushed under the weight of these new regulations. Two masks per person per day, stickers on the floor, inspections, fines and now staff to verify passports. A hostess in New York was violently attacked because she asked for someone’s personal medical information. Pushing businesses to hire additional security because of intrusive questions is not how you create jobs. You create them by offering an environment where entrepreneurs can succeed. We DARE to conflict with the County because we want to save our community. The City governance should be more concerned with protecting the municipality than submitting to a County that gets its authority from you. Section 2 of the City Staff report sounds fearful of the County, but California Constitution Article 11 states that cities have a higher level of autonomy than counties, because they are voluntarily formed and perform essential service functions which are of most immediate concern to the citizens. Charter cities have even greater autonomy because our localized laws expand beyond even the general requirements.
The City Council Staff report Section 3, states that businesses would have to choose to violate federal mandates and city laws, but as I may remind you that mandates are not laws. A mandate only has virility if the majority agree and the majority do NOT AGREE. Last session you stalled on voting for our Ordinance awaiting a Supreme Court decision, this is not the behavior of a leader, this is the behavior of a follower and NOT someone I want leading my city.
The City Council Staff report Section 4, references code 101460 which authorizes the Los Angeles County Health Department as the governing body for our city’s health issues. However, in December of 2020, you voted “No confidence” in our assigned health department. It has been proven that the Health Department targets businesses in our community who pay for permits, inspections, and licenses but ignores illegal vendors that often dot District 4; Carrillo being the only vote supportive of the Health Department. These unlicensed businesses compete with legitimate ones who pay a lease, staff, and in some cases healthcare. Our charter gives us municipal power beyond the reach of our County. A city’s population controls the city’s direction and policy, not the county. The Health Department has not altered any policy regarding mandates after you voted “no confidence”, so why does the city continue to follow their bad policies for over a year? Any person given an incorrect instruction will rightly question it, or refuse it, only the truly desperate see the mistake, question it, but go on as planned. Thank you
