On March 4, 2020, Gov. Gavin Newsom proclaimed a state of emergency in California.

“If COVID-19 spreads in California at a rate comparable to the rate of spread in other countries, the number of persons requiring medical care may exceed locally available resources,” the declaration stated. “Experts anticipate that while a high percentage of individuals affected by COVID-19 will experience mild flu-like symptoms, some will have more serious symptoms and require hospitalization, particularly individuals who are elderly or already have underlying chronic health conditions.”

To address the emergency, Newsom suspended “applicable provisions of the Government Code and the Public Contract Code, including but not limited to travel, advertising and competitive bidding requirements.”

This enabled Newsom to award no-bid contracts, hidden from any public process that might allow the terms to be questioned. A CapRadio investigation in 2021 found that more than a few of those contracts went to Newsom’s biggest donors.

Today, a growing list of governments are dropping COVID restrictions and returning to normal life. In the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark and Norway, not to mention Florida, the pandemic is over. In California, however, the “emergency” has achieved immortality.

“This pandemic won’t have a defined end,” Newsom told the Associated Press on Thursday, “There’s no finish line.”

His new plan for what he called the “endemic” phase has a cheesy communism-for-beginners sound, promising that the state’s “path forward” will be “predicated on our individual smarter actions” to “collectively yield better outcomes” for the state.

But the red-diaper kids in the communications shop can’t conceal the true soul of the plan, which is the creation of a permanent justification for awarding no-bid contracts. Observe the many categories of contracts needed to implement the governor’s “endemic” plan, cutely named with the acronym SMARTER: “Shots, Masks, Awareness, Readiness, Testing, Education, Rx.”

It’s a no-bid shopping spree. Every school district, government agency, business and organization in the state will be pestered with mandates to fuel an endless loop of spending. And don’t miss this: the governor’s plan notes that “properly worn masks with good filtration help slow the spread of COVID-19 or other respiratory viruses.”

Other respiratory viruses? Is that a hint that children in California will be forced to wear masks in school forever?

Here’s what the plan says under “E” for Education: “California will continue to work to keep schools open and children safely in classrooms for in-person instruction.”

That really gives the game away. “Will continue to work to keep schools open” is an obvious threat to close them; “safely” is defined in contract negotiations with teachers’ unions; the reference to “in-person instruction” implies that Zoom school is permanently part of the mix.

It’s a pandemic response without a pandemic.

California law requires the governor to “proclaim the termination of a state of emergency at the earliest possible date that conditions warrant.” When the state of emergency is terminated, all executive orders issued under the emergency are terminated, and emergency powers, state and local, are gone.

But that would mean no more no-bid contracts for masks, testing kits, pharmaceutical products, health care management, voter education, consulting and public relations work. It would mean no more “emergency” negotiations with labor unions to grant new demands mid-contract, just ahead of an election.

So the governor has invented the world’s first “endemic” emergency plan: California will have a “COVID-19 Assessment and Action Unit” that will analyze data from “waste-water surveillance.” It could be awkward when the Action Unit’s analysis finds traces of all the small businesses that have gone into the toilet under Gov. Newsom’s policies.

On April 1, 2020, one month into the emergency, Newsom was asked at a press conference whether he saw the potential for “a new progressive era” because of the COVID crisis.

“Yeah, we’ve had some very deep policy conversations in this space now for weeks,” Newsom began, then launched into a monologue about inequality, globalization, the “equity lens,” his wine business, and consumer confidence. “Forgive me for being long winded,” he said, “but absolutely we see this as an opportunity to reshape the way we do business and how we govern.”

They’ve certainly done that. They’ve reshaped a fading respiratory virus into a mechanism to throw tax money to teammates and fans.

And speaking of fans, 70,000 of America’s wealthiest and best-connected enjoyed attending the Super Bowl in Los Angeles, where the county’s outdoor mask mandate went totally unenforced. If the pandemic emergency rules were genuinely about health and safety, that wouldn’t have happened.

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The pandemic is over, but Californians will have to take action to end it. Demand that your Assembly representatives, senators, county supervisors and city council members hold town hall meetings. Call their offices. Ask questions. Make the Spanish Inquisition look like a softball interview.

In a sign that this may already be happening, the California Senate has finally scheduled a committee hearing on a resolution repeatedly introduced by Sen. Melissa Melendez to end the state of emergency. However, the Senate leadership may not be feeling the urgency of the situation. The hearing isn’t scheduled until March 15.

Have you called yet? Go online to findyourrep.legislature.ca.gov to look up the names and contact information of your representatives in the legislature. Make the phones ring. The state of emergency must be ended. It’s time for transparent, accountable government to make a full recovery.

Write Susan Shelley at [email protected]