Longinos Gonzales: Take Restrictions and "Stick it"

El Paso County (Tex.) Commissioner takes a stand.

Due to its importance, I have posted Commissioner Gonzales' comments in their entirety. Please consider at least clicking the link so that his traffic reports get proper credit.

“In regards to the Governor and State Public Health’s decision to place El Paso County under stricter guidance beginning tomorrow, here is my individual, official response.

The Governor’s decisions continue to harm and indeed devastate our local and state small businesses, and our families, our working families, even as he makes those decisions absent all available data.  We need to keep businesses open.

COVID-19 is a serious issue and cases are rising, and we should be vigilant, but as I have stated regularly over the past many months, the State and Governor continue to emphasize ONLY cases and case rates instead of looking at all factors, including our successful local work at stabilizing hospitalizations, which are actually down in the past week, and the significant decrease in deaths-per-case ratio (which is rarely, if ever, acknowledged by the State). The Governor’s “Dial Framework” therefore fails to adequately account for all relevant factors and compromises their decision-making matrix.

The fact remains that El Paso County continues to rank among the best at combatting COVID compared to our large county equivalents along the Front Range.  I am proud of our leadership’s efforts and that of residents and businesses of El Paso County for their work at remaining safe and healthy.

So, no disrespect to the Governor, but he can take his increased restrictions mandate and stick it.”

Again, please do the Commissioner the courtesy of linking over.

The Hat