The city of Eureka has threatened to fine a local venue as much as $5,000 per violation if it continues with a scheduled burlesque and heavy metal show tomorrow night that would be in violation of state and county COVID-19 health orders, which still prohibit live entertainment performances.
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The Siren's Song Tavern in pre-COVID times.
Eureka Interim City Manager Miles Slattery said city code enforcement officials reached out to Siren’s Song Tavern owner JD Pegg yesterday after the county’s Joint Information Center informed city officials that it had contacted Pegg
three times to notify him live performances remain prohibited but the venue had continued to schedule and advertise live shows, including karaoke nights and local bands. The county has tried the education angle to no avail, Slattery said, so the city’s code enforcement unit contacted Pegg to warn he could face fines of up to $5,000 per violation and potentially misdemeanor citations for operation in violation of the county’s health order.
“Hopefully, this gets his attention,” Slattery said. “This guy could care less. It’s just sad to me. First of all, it’s unfair. There’s plenty of other locations that would like to be doing the same but are following the rules. … If they continue to pursue (the show), we’ll have to take further action.”
Reached by the
Journal this morning, Pegg, however, contended that if someone is being treated unfairly, it’s him. Striking a defiant tone, Pegg said the state and local orders prohibiting live performances are unfair to venues in comparatively low risk areas of the state, like Humboldt County, and that he’s fallen victim to “selective enforcement” that allows other venues flaunt the rules while he has been repeatedly contacted and threatened with fines.
“You know how much spread we’ve caused? Zero,” he said. “We’ve been doing live events for three fucking months now. Have we caused an outbreak? Has the Fortuna school district that’s been in session for months now? No. … There’s no fucking COVID here. There’s like 17 cases and they’re all at home. They’re not going out for fucking drinks. I don’t deal in hypotheticals, I deal in reality. That’s what all this COVID shit is, is hypothetical.”