North County leaders call for businesses to reopen soon | Phil Diehl

North County leaders want the region to push harder against the state’s mandatory stay-at-home order that forced many nonessential businesses to close.During a Tuesday teleconference, county Supervisor Jim Desmond and five mayors stressed the toll the coronavirus pandemic has taken on their economies.People are suffering without jobs, they said, and shuttered businesses are more than willing to use the same precautions currently being employed by essential businesses like grocery stores to reopen safely.“If you go to Walmart right now, you’re not having your temperature taken, but you’re maintaining social distancing, you’re wearing a mask, you’re following the rules,” said Oceanside Councilman Chris Rodriguez, adding: “Business are creative, and they’re going to follow the rules because we all need to work together to get through this. ... We have to demand from the state to allow these businesses that are essential to our economy to open.”Currently, the state’s health order dictates which businesses can be open. Although no county decision could lawfully supersede those regulations, officials could more aggressively lobby that Gov. Gavin Newsom allow the region to decide for itself how and when it reopens.“The state has granted local authority in certain areas,” Desmond said. “We’ve seen that with real estate agents, we’ve seen that with gun stores … so this is to put North County on the record saying, ‘We’re ready to do what it takes to start opening businesses.’ ”Rodriguez went further, suggesting the region should be prepared to get creative should the state choose not to lift existing regulations.