California big city mayors meet with Gov. Newsom to discuss homelessness, coronavirus
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Thirteen mayors from California's biggest cities met with Governor Gavin Newsom in Sacramento, to discuss state funding to combat homelessness and to address the ongoing mitigation of the coronavirus.
“We are very glad to play a role," said Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, reacting as the Grand Princess cruise ship docked at her city's port. "It’s the right thing to do, to welcome these passengers to safety.”
Mayors from Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose were part of the "Big City Mayors" meeting.
The latest version of Newsom’s homelessness proposal, updated on Friday, would let a local government or a group of local governments act as a regional administrator. But in places like the Bay Area, that could mean one city or group of cities would decide how to spend the money for multiple local governments throughout the region.
Following the private meeting with Newsom, the mayors said they still oppose the plan.
San Jose Mayor Sam Licarrdo said the group had a “robust conversation” about the issue with Newsom, who told the group his comments during the State of the State address “was not a criticism of how cities are engaging with this problem.”
Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf said the mayors “delivered a clear message, an unequivocal message, that cities deserve this investment and must lead the solutions to this vexing problem.”
After the discussion about homelessness, Schaaf worked to reassure her community about precautions taken to protect them from the spread of COVID19.
"It was absolutely my right, to demand that this operation be conducted in a way where my residents and my workers could feel absolutely safe, that their health was being taken into account, I have those assurances.”
Adding that she received written confirmation from state and federal officials about safety protocols.
Mayor Liccardo reacted to news of the first Bay Area coronavirus death, a woman in Santa Clara county.
“This is obviously horrible news, my heart goes out to their family and to all those in the community we know struggling to help people hang on during this crisis," the mayor said. "But we can survive this if we pull together.”
Liccardo said the death should compel everyone to redouble their efforts to mitigate the spread. He's asking the state and federal governments for help to increase testing.
"I’ve talked to half a dozen epidemiologists, who are convinced the number of infections is north of 500 or 1000," said Liccardo, speaking about Santa Clara county. "The reality is we can’t know until we do a lot more testing.”
The mayors said they also discussed ways to prevent the spread of COVID-19 within homeless encampments and shelters.
Mayor Schaaf said her city's working with Alameda County to protect the most vulnerable.
“The county is and has been for the last couple of weeks distributing hand sanitizer as well as distancing instructions within our homeless encampments to ensure we do not have a health crisis that starts with our unsheltered population," said Schaaf.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.