The Sacramento County Board of Supervisors today unanimously approved the ratification of the Local State of Emergency Proclamation for Civil Unrest. The County will review the need for continuing the local emergency at least every 60 days.
With the ratification and letter to the Director of the California Office of Emergency Services, Sacramento County is asking the Governor to Proclaim an Emergency for Sacramento County, along with authorization for California Disaster Assistance Act funding. With the ratification and letter, the County is also asking for a Small Business Administration Declaration to provide loans to support businesses that sustained economic injury due to civil unrest beginning and after May 30, 2020.
The proclamation went into effect retroactively to May 30 because of civil unrest in Sacramento that resulted in damaged storefronts, looting activity and property damage. Preliminary damage estimates indicate a dollar loss of $10,030,000.
The proclamation does not call for additional National Guard troop deployment to the area beyond those that arrived in the beginning of the week to assist with local law enforcement agencies. Additionally, the County did not enact a curfew with the proclamation. Both items are made clear in the Board of Supervisors’ Resolution.
According to First District Supervisor and Chairman of the Board Phil Serna, “It was obvious to all of us that we needed to make expressly clear what our intent is and what it is not. Today’s actions, in fact, are the first steps to assure our access to state resources to help small businesses affected by recent violence, and to also protect our General Fund – a budget that is already severely stressed by the onset of the pandemic but that is nonetheless expected to continue funding important programs like the Black Child Legacy Campaign.”
The County will review the need for the continuing local emergency at least every 60 days and will terminate it at the earliest possible date conditions warrant.