by Don Shift
5323-2.4 - To requisition necessary personnel or material of any County department or agency.
5323-2.5 - To execute all of his or her ordinary power as Sheriff; all of the special powers conferred upon him or her by this Chapter or by resolution or emergency plan adopted by the Board; all powers conferred upon him or her by any statute or agreement approved by the Board, and any other lawful authority.
5324 - Emergency organization.
All officers and employees of this County, volunteer forces enrolled to aid them during an emergency, persons commandeered into service under the provisions of Section 5323-2.3, and all groups, organizations, and persons who may by agreement or operation of law, be charged with duties incident to the protection of life and property in this County during such emergency shall constitute the emergency organization of the County of Ventura.
5411 - Regulation of prices.
This section applies to the regulation of prices of emergency items and services during an emergency or disaster for which a proclamation of a local emergency has been issued for the County of Ventura, by the Board of Supervisors or the Sheriff, as the Director of Disaster Services, pursuant to Government Code section 8630 or Ventura County Ordinance Code section 5323-1.1.
(a) Findings. As a result of local emergencies, consumers have sought to purchase emergency items and services necessary for their health, safety and welfare. In such local emergencies, there have been reports of excessive price increases for emergency items or services, in relation to their price that existed before the local emergency, even accounting for price increases incurred by the provider of the emergency items or services.
(b) Legislative Intent. It is the intention of the Board of Supervisors, in adopting this section, to protect consumers from excessive and unjustified increases in the prices of emergency items and services necessary for their health, safety and welfare during an emergency or disaster for which a proclamation of a local emergency has been issued.
(c) Excessive Price Increases Prohibited. Upon the proclamation of a local emergency, it shall be unlawful for any person, including a natural person, a contractor, a business or other entity, to sell or offer to sell any emergency items or services for a price which exceeds by ten percent the price charged by such person for said emergency items or services immediately prior to the proclamation of the local emergency, unless said person can prove that the excess was directly attributable to additional costs imposed by the supplier of the emergency items or resulting from the labor and/or materials used to provide the emergency service.
d) Definitions. For purposes of this section, the following definitions shall apply:
1. Emergency items include, but are not limited to: food, drink, confection or condiment for man or animal; water, flashlights, radios, batteries, candles, blankets, soaps, and diapers; and prescription and non-prescription drugs, bandages, gauzes, and isopropyl alcohol.
2. Emergency services include but are not limited to: contractor services for repairs to residential and commercial property of any type which are damaged. Incorporated herein are the definitions contained in sections 7025, 7026, 7026.1 and 7026.3 of the California Business and Professions Code.
Handwritten below this section was “Board of Sups. expanded to include all items necessary for daily sustenance, hygiene, health, clothing, shelter, and transportation. INCLUDES GAS.”
Penalty.
1. Any person who shall be convicted of violating the provisions of this section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine of not less than $1,000 or by imprisonment in the County Jail for not more than six months, or by both such fine and imprisonment. Any person believing that a violation of said ordinance has been committed may file a complaint with the District Attorney.
2. The District Attorney or anyone affected may prosecute a civil action under applicable state law to enforce this section and in any action a civil penalty may be imposed as provided by law and, where appropriate, restitution to aggrieved consumers may be ordered.
Church broke into a smile reading that and pulled out his iPhone, carried only because it was now a compact camera, and took a picture of the orders. Notes indicated that Thousand Oaks had its own ordinance and Simi Valley adopted the county ordinances via emergency order last night. With that, he went outside and found a 2011 Crown Victoria that was on its last legs. The whine of the starter and the grumble of the engine catching was a forgotten sound from long ago. Nostalgia was an alright substitute for the convenience of the newer and nicer Tahoes.
At “Las Vegas” gas, Sanjay, who was standing out watching over the operations, caught sight of Sam’s unit pulling into the parking lot. He immediately turned around and tried to nonchalantly walk inside. Sam pulled up in front of the entrance and dove out of his car.
“Hold up, I want to talk to you.”
Sanjay turned around, saw who it was, and his face blanched with shock. “How can I help you?” he stuttered.
“I want to have a little conversation about your gas prices.”
Sanjay held up his hands. “Hey, I can charge whatever I want. There is no law against it. Fair is fair.”
“Fair? Is it fair taking advantage of people? I don’t think so. Read.” Sam held out his phone. Sanjay shook his head and tried to turn away. “Stop. Read it,” Sam said in his command voice. The gas station owner hesitated, then turned around, took the phone, and read.
“How do I know if that is real? Who is to say you didn’t make that up? And I know my rights.”
“Well how about you start charging everyone $4.00 a gallon like the signs say? We’ll round up those fractions of a penny. You can ration all you want, but you can’t steal from people.”
“It’s not stealing. They are willing to pay the price, just as you were willing to pay the price, if I may say.” He grinned smugly.
“Well, that’s because I didn’t know you were breaking the law then. And you’re right, I was desperate, but it wasn’t right then, and it isn’t right now. Had you been asking for five bucks I wouldn’t have come back here, but you got greedy and here I am.”
“Greedy? How about you, getting a full tank of gas and an extra five gallons. How is that not a bribe?”
“It’s perfectly legal to expect a full tank of gas at a gas station, deputy or not. I paid your price. Now how are you going to fix this?”
Sanjay laughed. “How am I going to fix this? Fix what? Okay, I know how this works. You want your money back? Fine. I’ll give you your money back. Just leave me alone after.”
“Oh no, you can keep my money.” Sam did not like the appearance of getting a refund on his previous gas purchase. Whether or not Sanjay complied, it looked too much like a bribe for Sam’s taste. It wasn’t like money would matter much longer anyhow. “Turn around and place your hands behind your back. Interlace your fingers.”
“What?” Sanjay said with a laugh. “This is discrimination. You hate Indian people and that’s why you’re harassing me.”
“I’m here because I can’t leave a negative one-star review on Yelp.” Sam grabbed Sanjay’s left arm and tried to turn him around. Sanjay pulled back and poked Sam. “That’s it.” Sam grabbed Sanjay forcefully and shoved him into the wall, quickly cuffing and patting him down. “Did you really think you could piss in my Cheerios and get away with it?”
Sam frog marched the unwilling proprietor to the back seat of his unit. Sam keyed the microphone of his PA. “Attention gas station customers. This gas station has been illegally gouging customers in violation of emergency price control ordinances. The price should be no higher than $4.00 a gallon. The owner is under arrest and I will begin interviewing the employees to see if they have been accessories to the crime.”
Several employees who had been curiously watching from around the corner of their pumps ducked out of sight and started running. Sam smiled to himself. The customers would shortly resolve the situation on their own. If it got out of hand, it
was Simi PD’s problem. Street justice was now the way to police.
Chief Villareal was thankful for the decision to empty the jails last night. As panic started to grow, property crimes were skyrocketing. Smash and grab burglaries from closed businesses, shoplifting, and riot/looting were the most common. At the Ralphs, there wasn’t much that the deputies could do once it started. The responding units backing up Palmer and Finnegan had trouble simply getting into the parking lot. In Camarillo, Target suffered from the same problem. On top of that, frustrated employees at the large retailers walked away after realizing that not only did most customers have no money, the employees weren’t getting paid either. Even managers felt that it was pointless to argue about cash only and run-down shoplifters.
The result was that the empty or severely undermanned stores began to be looted. All the deputies could do was show up, usually after the fact, and make sure that no one got hurt. In a few cases they stood as security until the manger could lock up. Inevitably someone would break the glass or force the back door and continue the process. Smaller shops stayed open, but in Ventura County, few small businesses were of the type that sold groceries and other survival type products. As the afternoon wore on, convenience stores were emptied of whatever foodstuffs they had. Villareal tried to imagine surviving on a few hundred dollars of snacks. As a pre-diabetic, he kept to a strict low-carb diet and about the only thing in a gas station that wouldn’t give him indigestion would be beef jerky. The thought of eating that for two weeks was disgusting.
Hospitals were begging him for extra security. At least ten deputies were at the county medical center supporting the small number of Ventura PD officers who at Community Memorial, which meant that his deputies were backfilling patrol in the city. Camarillo was dealing with a huge increase in elderly patients from Leisure Village who had been stricken by the 90-degree heat. Those who depended on oxygen and other machines to live had already died by morning. Heat stroke and heart attacks were taking more. Frantic relatives and patients were flooding the emergency room demanding that staff do something. Others complained about that their loved ones had died after staff could not supply adequate manual ventilation.
It was only going to get uglier at the hospitals as conditions deteriorated. Deputies were having to pull angry relatives off nurses and doctors who were unable to save their relatives. How could they explain that they couldn’t sit by their elderly relative manually pumping an Ambu-bag while numerous critical car accident patients and burn victims were coming in? If the deputies felt they had it bad, the medical staff were the worst off. So many patients had come in that there was no way of setting up a relief shift. Patrol deputies were out spreading the word for any doctors or nurses in private practice to come in and lend a hand with the medical chaos.
The pile-up at the bottom of the Grade broke the emergency response in the county. Procedure was to take serious car accident victims to the trauma centers; VCMC in Ventura and Las Robles in Thousand Oaks. St. John’s in Oxnard could handle trauma cases as well, but Camarillo’s hospital didn’t have those resources. With the fuel shortage, limited vehicles, and even fewer drivers, it was unthinkable to start triaging patients further afield to Simi Valley or even LA County hospitals.
Traffic coming up the 101 had increased throughout the day. Upon finding the freeway blocked in Newbury Park, many motorists coming up from the LA area peeled off in search of vacant hotel rooms. Celebrities and wealthy Angelinos were spotted in the nicer hotels. Others took rooms wherever they could. Those who were unable to find a vacancy or not able to afford the cost of what was available, set up camps in the local parks. They would have to wait until the freeway opened before continuing north.
The one bright spot was that the emergency declaration put Villareal in charge. Sheriff Tennant had, true to form, abdicated responsibility and removed himself from the outdoor emergency operations center. As a result, the de facto leader was emergency services manager Wayne Garza who officially deferred to Villareal in all things, as the chief representative of the sheriff. Each of the city councils and the board of supervisors placed all local government resources under their control to the Emergency Planning Council. Villareal, Garza, and Brad Vaughn were now the troika running the entire county.
The fly in the ointment was that the leadership and employees of the special local districts, namely the water districts, had disappeared into the wind. Many of them had gone home when the power went out and no one knew where they lived. The few employees that could be rounded up either refused to take orders without approval from inside their organization or simply weren’t able to assist. Southern California Edison was worse than them all, not for a lack of cooperation, but because there was nothing they could do. Replacement transformers, fuses, and junctions were at almost zero.
Tens of thousands of overvoltage devices had fired, rendering transmission lines impotent, even if the hundreds of damaged residential transformers in each city could be replaced. Theoretically, given a month or two the damage could be repaired, but the larger transformers at the substations had a lead time for replacement of a year to a year and a half, each. There were simply no components anywhere in the state to replace damaged ones.
After earthquakes and storms, neighboring areas usually sent supplies and linemen to repair the damage, but with all areas equally affected, this was impossible. Even if all the above were taken care of, no power could be supplied because of generation issues. Even PG&E’s nuclear reactors at Diablo Canyon a hundred miles up the coast had shut down and emergency efforts were underway to maintain cooling for the reactors and the used fuel cooling ponds.
The Gas Company was working feverishly to maintain natural gas pressure, but several large leaks across the region threatened the gas supply. The EMP had damaged computer control units initiating a surge of pressure through various segments of gas pipelines causing them to rupture one after another. Crews, severely hindered by communication problems and vehicle and equipment malfunctions, were doing all they could to simply patch the leaks to prevent explosions. Manual control of the system could be assumed, but there were far too many line intersections and pumping stations that had to be dealt with. While the natural gas system would be the quickest utility to bring back online, the line pack, or gas supply contained in the lines, was being rapidly depleted.
AM radio was reporting that the aqueduct had virtually gone dry, delivering a gut shot and putting most of Southern California on life support. The city of Los Angeles, which had drained the Owens Valley to irrigate the city, depended virtually entirely on the aqueduct’s imported water. What local sources couldn’t supply, water shipments via pipelines conveyed the Sierra snowmelt to local water districts and companies. The man-made rivers that served the southland had turned to concrete gullies with the cities festering wounds, people faced a lingering and painful death.
Ventura County would escape the worst of the artificial drought only by the skin of its teeth. Brad was working on plans—well he would when he woke up and came back in—to distribute well water to central points in each city using tanker trucks and trailers. The aquifers underneath the southern part of the county had more than enough water to supply the current population. With the deaths expected to come, there would be far less demand. Farmers could even rig up solar or wind powered pumps to draw from their own wells to irrigate their crops.
Water was the challenge. Without the well and mobile water tank system working, most of the county would be an asphalt and concrete desert. Making people walk to get water would kill a lot of them, literally and figuratively. The suggestion was water tanks spaced no more than a mile apart, so no one had to walk more than a half mile, one way, to get water. All of this depended on the element “hopium” because no one knew how many water tanks could be found, exactly how they would be filled, or transported to and from the wells. Even if everything went according to plan and citizens found enough durable containers to haul water home, they would still complain about
the alkaline taste of the local groundwater.
There was something ironic about being a cop yet having to deal with issues like water. Villareal learned in his days as a patrol trainee that the job of a peace officer was far more than making arrests and writing tickets. He was a marriage counselor, a therapist, a role model, a mental health professional, a student of human nature, a smoother of wrinkles in civilization, a father figure to society (and a stern disciplinarian), a symbol, a deliverer of bad news, a useful county functionary, a hero and a villain. Whatever the government and the people needed police to be, so they were. At the moment, he felt that the regular government had abrogated its responsibilities and duties to the sheriff’s office because a quirk of law that made the sheriff the head of emergency operations and an easy scapegoat if there was a failure.
Long standing Western traditions and government practice was to place the county sheriff at the head of the local food chain. This was a subconscious harkening back to Medieval England where the shire reeve was of considerable importance. Or maybe it had something to do with the cool, powerful hero of film that showed no fear, tolerated no corruption, and always had the bad guy dead or in jail by the end of the film. Deep down inside, Villareal felt, a great many people wanted someone in control. Not to tell them what to do, but to ultimately be responsible for problems that they themselves could not control or solve. When all looked hopeless, they could always look to the sheriff to ride in on his white horse and save the day.
It was quite an expectation to live up to on an ordinary day and now it was just a fantasy. American civilization had forgotten how to take care of itself. Long gone were the days when men provided for themselves and sorted things out on their own. Now arbitrators in the form of police, regulators, courts, and lawyers were just as necessary to social intercourse as running water, flush toilets, and 120-volt electricity. Police were the glue that held society together and the lubricant that kept friction down. It sounded like a joke, but whenever someone had a bad disagreement, they always threatened to call the police, those knights of justice and honor who would smite the evildoer and right the wrongs.