Name: Big-footed by Gov. Greg Abbott, San Antonio panel to release its own guidelines for business reopening
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Big-footed by Gov. Greg Abbott, San Antonio panel to release its own guidelines for business reopening

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This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateA team of top-level business and community leaders was supposed to figure out a plan for businesses in San Antonio and Bexar County to safely reopen whenever the COVID-19 pandemic showed signs of releasing its stranglehold on the economy.But Gov. Greg Abbott beat them to the punch.Last week, Abbott opted to let retailers, restaurants, shopping malls and other businesses reopen — before the committee could issue its own report.Abbott has promised that more reopenings will follow in the next few weeks, provided Texas doesn’t see a spike in its infection and hospitalization rates.More for youThe governor’s move effectively neutered the ability of city and county leaders to place restrictions on business activity to ensure that there’s no surge in the virus as residents resume everyday activities.With it, Abbott also rendered a key part of the city-county economic transition panel’s mission moot.The panel — headed by co-chairs Kevin Voelkel, Toyota Motor Manufacturing Texas president, and Julissa Carielo, Tejas Premier Building Construction president — was going to review recommendations from a separate appointed team of health experts and come away with its own plan on how and when to reopen businesses.The committee’s members includes business leaders across several sectors, including health care and hospitality. Among them were Pete Cortez of restaurant group La Familia Cortez, Bobby Perez of Spurs Sports and Entertainment and Jody Newman, who owns the Friendly Spot Ice House.The group also includes union officials as well as faith leaders and city and county officials.They met several times, hammering out a detailed blueprint for restarting the economy.Originally, the plan was for the committee to advise the City Council and the Commissioners Court on when businesses should reopen. That was pre-empted by Abbott’s actions.“I don’t think they have that authority any more at all,” County Judge Nelson Wolff said.But that doesn’t mean the committee is obsolete.Though Abbott has already allowed many businesses to reopen, with the promise of more to come, many business owners aren’t sure they’re ready. By some estimates, more than half of those authorized to open haven’t yet done so.“We know that it’s not enough just to open a business,” Mayor Ron Nirenberg said. “You also have to inspire consumer confidence, that people who patronize your business are going to be protected.”The proposal the team will present to council members and commissioners Tuesday expands on the governor’s Open Texas plan and seeks to tailor guidelines to industries in San Antonio and Bexar County.Abbott’s first phase of Open Texas covers retail, restaurants, movie theaters, places of worship, offices, and museums and libraries.The San Antonio transition committee’s plan adds guidelines for manufacturing plants, construction sites, salons and spas, mass gatherings such as concerts and sporting events, schools, child care facilities, gyms and hotels. The report covers recommendations such as cleaning protocol, hygiene techniques and what employees should do with face coverings used while they work.For example, it says organizers of events such as concerts and NBA games must provide supplies such as hand sanitizer, tissues and face coverings for workers and attendees.The plan also calls for city and county officials to help small businesses track down those kinds of supplies if they’re going to reopen.The possibility of Abbott working on his own to reopen businesses was always present, said District 3 Councilwoman Rebecca Viagran, the council’s liaison to the economic transition panel.The fact that Abbott’s own economic transition panel included many San Antonio business leaders — including Balous Miller of Bill Miller Bar-B-Q and Graham Weston, formerly of Rackspace — eased the minds of many on the local transition panel, she said.“It wasn’t so much a shock or an annoyance,” Viagran said, when Abbott announced his plan first. “You pivot and you make things work, and we were making things work.”But, Viagran said, the San Antonio-Bexar County committee was always going to put up a framework for business owners outside of whatever it recommended that the City Council and the Commissioners Court do next.“This was not supposed to be a constitutional convention,” Viagran said.Though the city and the county no longer have the authority to determine what businesses can open and what must remain closed, they can still help businesses out in other ways such as shoring up stores of personal protective equipment for employees, such as face masks, Wolff said.Local officials can also tailor recommendations to small businesses, which Wolff said the governor’s Open Texas report ignored.“I don’t think he really spoke to the needs of the small-business guy,” Wolff said.Joshua Fechter is a staff writer covering San Antonio government and politics. To read more from Joshua, . | Twitter:

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateA team of top-level business and community leaders was supposed to figure out a plan for businesses in San Antonio and Bexar County to safely reopen whenever the COVID-19 pandemic showed signs of releasing its stranglehold on the economy.But Gov. Greg Abbott beat them to the punch.Last week, Abbott opted to let retailers, restaurants, shopping malls and other businesses reopen — before the committee could issue its own report.Abbott has promised that more reopenings will follow in the next few weeks, provided Texas doesn’t see a...

Big-footed by Gov. Greg Abbott, San Antonio panel to release its own guidelines for business reopening

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