Area lawmakers pleased that Washington, Greene moving into the green phase
Lawmakers from Washington and Greene counties said they were pleased with the Friday announcement that most of the Pittsburgh region would be moving into the green phase of reopening next week.
“I’m very happy with it,” said state Rep. Tim O’Neal, a Republican who represents the 48th Legislative District. “The data and the numbers for the last couple of weeks certainly support it.”
O’Neal added, “I wish it would have happened sooner. It’s the first step in returning to life as before.”
Under the green phase of reopening, businesses like shopping malls, gyms, casinos, salons and theaters can reopen, but with limited capacity. Restaurants can serve customers in dining rooms, but at 50% capacity, and businesses that had been operating at 50% capacity in the yellow phase can move to 75%.
O’Neal’s Republican colleague, Bud Cook, who represents the 49th Legislative District, agreed that the area should have moved into the green phase sooner.
“This should have happened two weeks ago at least,” Cook said. “I don’t know a single business that wants to kill their customers.”
He also lambasted Gov. Tom Wolf. Cook said the governor has not used common sense in approaching COVID-19, and that Wolf was “picking and choosing winners” when he gave waivers to certain businesses across the state that allowed them to remain open.
State Rep. Pam Snyder, a Democrat from the 50th Legislative District, said the region “has done its part to flatten the curve and practice safe behaviors, and this good news is certainly long overdue.”
She added, “No doubt, I am extremely pleased with today’s news, because it will allow many of our businesses to resume or expand their operations and get our residents back to work and continue the recovery process.”
The only county in Southwestern Pennsylvania to not move into the green phase was Beaver County, which has experienced a large number of cases and deaths due to COVID-19 striking the Brighton Rehabilitation and Wellness Center in Brighton Township. State Rep. Josh Kail, a Republican whose district includes parts of Beaver and Washington counties, expressed frustration that Beaver County remains locked in the yellow phase, but said moving Washington County into green was overdue.
“People are going to be responsible and follow guidelines,” Kail said.
State Sen. Pam Iovino, a Democrat whose district includes Peters Township, said, “It is critical that we safely get back to work as quickly as possible. That is why today’s announcement that Allegheny and Washington counties are moving to green … is really welcome news for the region.”
She also said, “It is also a reflection that the people of Southwestern Pennsylvania have done a great job at following public health protocols to make this possible. At significant personal sacrifice, they have done everything that our public health professionals have told us we must do. We need to keep working together and moving forward, because as we’ve already seen, together, we will get through this.”
County officials in Washington and Greene also expressed happiness and relief.
“We are very pleased Washington County is moving to the green zone. Unfortunately, this is not a green light to go completely back to our normal way of life,” said Washington County Commission Chairman Diana Irey Vaughan.
“There are still some restrictions. We continue to ask for the metrics to return to normal and an anticipated date.”
Commission Vice Chairman Larry Maggi, in a statement, said “the region, and Washington County, in particular, has moved to green due to our following the rules and using plain common sense. Moving to green means that we can start enjoying the great community and assets of our county again.”
He asked that common sense continues to prevail as the public rebuilds consumer confidence and businesses reopen with people returning to work.
Commissioner Nick Sherman was faced with the crisis just months after being sworn into public office. Reached by phone Friday afternoon, he said he was pleased that small businesses in Washington County are “allowed to reopen so they can give their employees a chance to go back to work and earn a paycheck.
“I feel this is long overdue. Other states have been running their economies for over a month and we continue to lag behind here in Pennsylvania.”
Like Sherman, Greene County Commission Chairman Mike Belding had barely been installed as a newly elected official when the pandemic struck.
Faced with what he called “ever-changing and sometimes contradictory information provided by the governor’s office and flurry of guidance and publications being produced, the county has reacted to the significant changes in acceptable activities and reduced restrictions presented last Friday by planning to open county swimming pools and modified schedules for summer day camps.
“We are anxious to get our nonlife-sustaining businesses open and salvage what is left of our small business community.”
Greene Countians, he noted, have done what was requested, “and we were rewarded with low positive COVID-19 numbers.”
He looks forward to the transition to what he called “a more normal summer,” but encouraged residents to continue with personal responsibility and safe behavior in accordance with the federal Centers for Disease Control and the state Department of Health.
Meanwhile, there was a development this week in the suit that Washington, Greene, Fayette and Butler counties, plus business owners and Republican officeholders, filed earlier this month against Wolf and Secretary of Health Rachel Levine in U.S. District Court, Pittsburgh.
U.S. District Judge William S. Stickman IV convened oral arguments Wednesday on whether to expedite the plaintiffs’ claims for relief through declaratory judgment proceedings.
On three of their five points, the judge allowed the counties, businesses and politicians to proceed. They assert that the red-yellow-green phases imposed by the Wolf administration infringe on protected liberties; that the red-yellow-green phases continue to limit on First Amendment rights of association, free association and free exercise of religion; and that the phasing violates their right to equal protection under the Constitution.
Stickman decided that declaratory relief is not an appropriate pursuit for the plaintiffs’ assertion that the governor’s business shutdown orders were the equivalent of an unconstitutional taking of property without just compensation. He cited U.S. Supreme Chief Justice John Roberts upholding the government’s right to resist injunctive relief to prevent a taking.
“Plaintiffs may have a remedy for the takings that they allege, but declaratory relief is not the appropriate avenue to pursue it,” Stickman wrote.
He also decided against reviewing governmental waivers for businesses deemed nonessential because both parties agree the waiver process is closed and no new waivers are being granted.
The judge ordered the parties to meet and confer on several procedural topics, including whether there should be an evidentiary hearing.
The boards of commissioners of the four counties split along party lines, with Republican majorities voting to file suit in federal court and Democratic minority commissioners voting against litigation.