OREGON – A Republican Oregon mayor penned a letter to Gov. Kate Brown blasting the state’s coronavirus orders because “small communities across” the state are “tired of the double standard.”
“Neighbors are able to pack into malls and support corporate America, but, for some reason, we can’t sit down and support local business owners along our main street. The double standards have to stop,” Stan Pulliam, the mayor of Sandy, told “America’s Newsroom.”
Pulliam’s comments came after Brown extended a state of emergency declaration in Oregon until March 3, 2021. The previous executive order was set to expire on Jan. 2, 2021.
Pulliam called for the governor to release evidence to justify the lockdown orders. The mayor said he “demands answers” because he has not yet seen anything to make sense of businesses being closed amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“I talked to her the other day and she told me that she has the evidence. She actually acted extremely excited that she had the evidence that fitness centers and restaurants and bars contribute to the spread,” Pulliam said. “So what I’m asking this morning is after 24 hours after she promised that her staff would send me the evidence, where is the evidence?”
Pulliam is pushing for businesses to ignore the state’s lockdown orders because of the lack of evidence to justify closing “mom and pop shops” while other venues are allowed to have gatherings. Pulliam said Brown “classifies places in the metro Portland area as an extreme risk.”
“What we’re talking about doing is opening just one level under that at high-risk. So, all the sanitation practices in place, wearing facemasks, doing the proper social distancing. We want to do what’s right. We want to follow the governor’s guidelines in a safe way that prevents [the] additional threat of Covid,” Pulliam said.
Pulliam went on to say, “We’re at the table ready to talk and negotiate but allow us to open the doors and get these employees back to work.”