Fresno city councilman Garry Bredefeld will introduce a resolution to the City Council next week to repeal the city’s shelter-in-place order and all other emergency orders.
Bredefeld held a press conference at City Hall on Wednesday to announce the resolution.
“We have to get rid of the confusion in our city,” Bredefeld said. “There’s a lot of confusion. We need to follow the recommendation of [the] Fresno County Board of Supervisors, follow the lead of other cities like Clovis.”
Bredefeld called it “the complete eradication of all the emergency orders.”
If the Council sides with Bredefeld and approves the resolution, the City of Fresno would then revert to Fresno County’s guidance, which is currently under the state of California’s stay-at-home order.
Fresno County is expected to submit a plan to the California Department of Public Health on Friday in order to move through the state’s reopening process at a quicker pace.
Bredefeld said that county needs to show a united front in order to ensure a smooth process in receiving full clearance from the Newsom administration.
For the northeast Fresno councilman, that means Fresno needs to follow the county’s path.
“We need to have a strong, clear message from the county with one voice that says that we’re ready to open up,” Bredefeld said.
The next step would be to push back against Newsom’s order to allow more businesses to reopen, Bredefeld said.
Throughout the time since the shelter-in-place order was enacted, Bredefeld has clashed with Mayor Lee Brand and the other councilmembers about the restrictions. However, he has not been discouraged by their disagreements and hopes the city can come together on his resolution.
“If logic and common sense and caring about citizens getting back to work rules the day, they’ll do the right thing and rescind all of these executive orders,” Bredefeld said.
Bredefeld also spoke about the incident on Tuesday involving fellow councilman Miguel Arias, conservative activist Ben Bergquam and protesters.
Protesters showed up at Arias’ apartment, and Arias shoved some of them, leading to a citation from the police.
“It completely crosses the line of safety, decency, respect of personal and family boundaries when somebody shows up at the door of an elected official,” Bredefeld said. “It should never happen, and what happened yesterday, I hope won’t ever happen again. I’ve been the recipient of it. It’s concerning when somebody shows up at your door unannounced and starts banging on it.”
Bredefeld encouraged anyone who has a disagreement with the city should express their feelings in a public place, such as at the appropriate times at city council meetings.
“I’ve denounced it every time, and it should be denounced this time,” Bredefeld said. “I don’t care whether you like the person or don’t like the person, agree politically or don’t agree, this kind of behavior, frankly, is reprehensible. There’s no defense for it, and it should never be allowed.”
