Move over Gavin Newsom and Nancy Pelosi. Make room for Los Angeles Board of Supervisors Sheila Kuehl (D-Fraud) on that California Hypocrisy Bullet train.

EXCLUSIVE: Just hours after L.A. County Supervisor @SheilaKuehl voted to ban all outdoor dining last Tuesday, which she described as “a most dangerous situation”, we’ve learned that she dined outdoors at Il Forno Trattoria in Santa Monica. https://t.co/8IOtAcpV50 @FOXLA

— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) December 1, 2020

Do they even consider that 1) they are being watched; and 2) the optics are bad?

Apparently not.

Who else but star reporter Bill Melugin to break this story:

“FOX 11 received multiple tips that shortly after her vote on Tuesday, Kuehl was seen dining outside at Il Forno Trattoria in Santa Monica, an Italian restaurant near her house that she has previously described as one of her ‘favorite’ restaurants.

“When FOX 11 investigative reporter Bill Melugin stopped by the restaurant to ask about Kuehl’s visit, managers told him they “didn’t want to get involved”, and they have no comment.”

“They have no comment” is code for, I fear fines and retaliation.

Don’t doubt me.

What is WRONG with these people? Has “do as I say, not as I do” replaced “E pluribus unum” as the national motto?

— howardrgold (@howardrgold1) December 1, 2020

How does this keep happening? How many more times until people realize these policies are safety theater from politicians and bureaucrats doctors desperate to look like they’re “doing something”?

— Eric (@IAmTheActualET) December 1, 2020

Safety theater is an apt term. Supervisor Kuehl posted a Los Angeles Times article to her Facebook page with this long post.

“Trump flag-waving rallies outside the homes of public health experts or childishly defying the public health orders designed to keep everyone as safe as possible, or wishing the Supervisors had voted for looser orders.

“These new public health orders, including the pause on in-person dining, were not decisions lightly made. Last Friday, health experts laid out the scientific bases for these orders. Everyone feels for and understands the tremendous hardships these measures are causing. But they must be balanced against the sharply rising surge of cases, and the doubling of hospitalizations in the last two weeks.”

The supposed increased hospitalizations was torn down by the California Globe as they report plenty of empty hospital and ICU beds across the state. The French Laundry Health Officials are deliberately conflating COVID cases and actual COVID infections in order to create this phony surge.

The decision to close outdoor dining was not backed by any discernible science:

“[Barger] argued that the new health order will further devastate local businesses.

“Barger also pointed out that county health officials, including health officer Dr. Muntu Davis, did not present evidence that showed a link between outdoor dining at restaurants and the recent sharp spike of coronavirus cases.

“At the meeting, Barbara Ferrer, the director of the L.A. County Department of Public Health, admitted that their recommendation was based off a national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report. Data from the department’s website shows that 3.1% of COVID-19 outbreaks in the county are occurring at restaurants.”

Despite any solid evidence that outdoor dining had anything to do with spikes in COVID infection, Kuehl, Supervisors Hilda Solis and Mark Ridley-Thomas voted Supervisors Barger and Janice Hahn down.

To add more insult to injury, after her meal of hypocrisy and Veal Piccata at Il Forno, Kuehl went on KCRW to talk about the new lockdown restrictions and how people just needed to do what they say for your safety:

“Well, I tell you the things we can’t control though, I really want us to control very strongly. There are a number of restaurants that said, ‘I’m not shutting down.’ So I’m saying, ‘Okay, I’m sending a health officer out there, and we’re pulling your permit, just try to open up when COVID is over.’ I mean, you cannot put people in danger. And it’s the same with any other kind of business that we do have some control over, where we’re saying to people in your own home, ‘You don’t want to celebrate Christmas or Hanukkah in an emergency room. And frankly, you’re at risk. Don’t put your kids at risk. For God’s sake, don’t put your grandparents at risk.’ This is serious. You don’t escape it just by magical thinking that, ‘Oh, we’re far enough apart … and I had a test last week.’ Well, that doesn’t help. You could still have it now.” [emphasis mine]

She then took a dig at the City of Pasadena which is part of Los Angeles County, but has its own independent Health Department. Pasadena made the decision to bypass the Board of Supervisors’ shutdown of outdoor dining and keep their restaurants open.

Kuehl was downright nasty and dictatorial, sneering at their health officials’ choice which probably had more basis in science than Crypt Keeper Barbara Ferrer’s:

“I don’t know what’s wrong with Pasadena. I think that many of the health organizations did speak out on Friday, including Kaiser that has a new medical school in Pasadena. They’re concerned when people don’t take it seriously enough. You should not be going out and sitting at a dining table with your mask off, infecting all the workers. Actually many of them don’t live in Pasadena. They live in the neighborhoods with the highest rate of infection, you know, in East LA and the east part of the valley. They’re the hospitality and restaurant workers. And they’re also put at risk.

“… We’re asking Pasadena to change their mind, but we don’t have authority over them. And again, it’s kind of like do the right thing. You’re coming into our hospitals. Not all the hospitals are in Pasadena.” [emphasis mine]

Newsflash, Sheila: Those Pasadena workers are happy to be getting a paycheck and earning tips. Sadly, the workers at Il Forno are now at greater risk of dying from starvation or homelessness because they can’t afford food or shelter. Good job, you.

Kuehl is yet another example of the useless re-treads that are a cancer to actual governance in the County and the State. Kuehl has been bouncing around California politics for decades, first as an Assemblywoman, then as a State Senator, and now as part of the Board of Supervisors. She was elected as the first openly gay California legislator, and she’s dined out on that since 1994.

As she watches over the demise of small business in the County, let’s not forget that she and her Supervisor buddies were instrumental in approving the use of Federal CARES Act funds to pay for a 2.9 million campaign by a PR firm. Those CARES funds were budgeted to help sustain restaurants and small businesses during the pandemic.

Apparently no one is protesting in front of her house… yet.