ARIZONA NEWS
Phoenix Mayor Gallego: Ducey’s essential services list is ‘laughable’
Mar 30, 2020, 6:00 PM | Updated: Mar 31, 2020, 8:26 am
(AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
(AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
PHOENIX — Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego called Gov. Doug Ducey’s essential services list “laughable” after the governor’s statewide stay-at-home order announced Monday prohibited their closure during the coronavirus outbreak.
Ducey’s list, named in a March 23 executive order, includes services Gallego believes are not appropriate to stay in operation during the pandemic.
Among those services Gallego disagrees with are golf courses, barber shops, nail salons, photography stores and pawn shops.
“I don’t know what message it sends when manicures are essential. I think this first tier is laughable,” Gallego told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Gaydos and Chad on Monday. “There are so many holes in this you can drive a freight train through it.”
Gallego wants Ducey to shorten the list to focus on services that she believes are more essential to Arizonans.
The mayor believes the list is too broad.
“I think the governor’s executive order should focus on things that are actually essential like being able to go get food, going to the pharmacy and going to medical appointments,” Gallego said.
Gallego and other Arizona mayors have been critical of Ducey’s handling of stricter regulations during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Earlier Monday, Gallego was one of nine Arizona mayors to send a letter to Ducey urging a statewide stay-at-home order.
The number of coronavirus cases in Arizona eclipsed 1,000 on Monday and the death toll reached 20.
The stay-at-home order goes into effect Tuesday at 5 p.m. and will last until at least April 30.
“The governor’s executive order is so broad that it misses key opportunities to protect the lives of Arizonans,” Gallego said. “He’s more focused on people’s livelihoods but first we have to focus on saving people’s lives here.”
