Unlawful, Illegal Emergency Declarations:

Well now, it turns out there were actually three emergency declarations for Mono County at the same time!  Who would have guessed?  Apparently, the winter storms that rolled through Mono County in December (13-29) prompted Sheriff Ingrid Braun to declare a local emergency due to severe winter snowstorms.  Sheriff Braun declared the emergency under California Government Code section 8630, claiming that these winter storms created a scenario in which, "by reason of their magnitude, are or are likely to be beyond the control of the services, personnel, equipment, and facilities of the county and require the combined assistance of other political subdivisions". 

Sheriff Braun declared the emergency for winter snowstorms on January 6th, 2022, 8 days after the last storm came through Mono County.  That means Braun did not declare the emergency because the storms were "likely" to be beyond the control of the services, personnel, equipment, and facilities of the county. As the last storm happened 8 days prior.  Which indicates that Ingrid Braun had evaluated the facts on the ground and deemed that the situation absolutely required combined assistance of other political subdivisions.  That there was in fact, an emergency!  Or did Braun make a false claim of an emergency? 


[CA Gov Code 8630 (b) Whenever a local emergency is proclaimed by an official designated by ordinance, the local emergency shall not remain in effect for a period in excess of seven days unless it has been ratified by the governing body.]

As required by California Government Code section 8630, on January 11th, 2022 the board of supervisors voted 5/5 on the resolution to ratify the local emergency for severe winter snowstorms.  That is the correct course of action assuming there is ample evidence to support the claim of an emergency.

[CA Gov Code 8630 (d) The governing body shall proclaim the termination of the local emergency at the earliest possible date that conditions warrant.]

Perhaps those of you reading this article remember those emergency conditions?  If so, please feel free to use the contact us form and give a detailed description of the emergency conditions as you might recall them.  Apart from Highway 395 being shut down for a few days, some road closures, some downed trees, and what everyone in town referred to as, "sick pow", there did not seem to be any emergency.  Maybe the multi-day highway shutdowns and road closures required the combined assistance of other political subdivisions? 


Regardless, the main focus here is the question of when exactly did the earliest possible date that conditions warrant terminating the local emergency occur? 

On March 8 2022, the De Facto Mono County Board of Supervisors voted 5/5 to terminate the local emergency due to severe winter snowstorms.  According to local government officials, there were 61 days that emergency conditions existed from the severe winter snowstorms in December.  Was March 8th really the earliest possible date that conditions warranted terminating the emergency for severe winter snowstorms? 

The Mammoth Mountain snowfall history shows January 2022 at 0 inches of snowfall and February 2022 at 7 inches of snowfall.  Yet, Sheriff Braun and the de facto Mono County Board of Supervisors claimed emergency conditions for severe winter snowstorms existed from Jan 6th-March 8th.  How can emergency conditions for severe winter snowstorms exist for two months with almost no snow?  The obvious answer to that questions is they can not.

That makes three separate local emergencies in Mono County, simultaneous to boot, that are based on fraudulent claims of an emergency.  Can someone please show us where exactly in the law it says a criteria for an emergency condition is that you want money?  This is clearly a false claim of an emergency from both Sheriff Braun and the Board of Supervisors.  If not right from the start, than certainly by January 11th when they voted to ratify the emergency declaration. 


In the video clip below, Sheriff Braun admits that there was no damage from the winter storms.  Additionally, Braun mentions that the California Office of Emergency Services declined their request for Mono County to be added to the list of counties in governor Newsom's proclomation for winter storm recovery support.  Sheriff Braun states that the Office of Emergency Services declined to add them to the governors proclamation because, "we did not have anything to support it at the time".  The request to be added to the governors list of counties impacted by winter storms happened on January 11th.  If they did not have anything to support the claims of an emergency at the time, then they are required by law to terminate the emergency.  However, that is not what happened.  Instead they broke the law and kept the emergency declaration in place while attempting to get financial and material support. 

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