Chico proposal for curfew during PG&E outages called ‘a hard sell’

Twenty residents showed up at Chico’s City Council to speak against a curfew during PG&E shutoffs — a proposal that the vice mayor termed “a hard sell.”

The plan presented to the council at Tuesday’s meeting by Police Chief Michael O’Brien would set a procedure for declaring a curfew if Pacific Gas & Electric were to shut down electrical equipment in the city during times of fire danger.

Such a curfew, O’Brien said, would “prohibit loitering and remaining on public property within a specific area during the curfew hours, and limit the travel of persons within that area.”

“Our civil liberties are sacred and any attempt to limit them should be scrutinized,” O’Brien acknowledged.

But he cited concerns over 112,000 people losing power for up to a week. Streets would not have functioning lights and cell phone networks would not be available, he said: “In other words, much of the technology that we take for granted for public safety would be rendered useless.”

In response to questions from the council, O’Brien said no other California city has created a curfew ordinance in response to PG&E’s recently enacted policy of cutting power during extreme weather.

All speakers present, 20 in total, were against the curfew.

“What we need to do is ban PG&E and get multiple entities in here. We need other options because this is preposterous, being forced to go to this one company who is now raising our rates,” said a Camp Fire victim who would not give his name.

Councilor Scott Huber added that he felt the conversation will need to be a bigger one than “being about curfews,” and Mayor Randall Stone said the socioeconomics of the issues are “heavy.” He called for a motion to establish an ad hoc committee on the matter.

The procedure proposed by O’Brien does consider the issue of homeless residents, calling for designated “convenience areas” to allow “persons … to reside outside during the curfew, should they require it.”