I'm listening in on the @LACountyBOS meeting right now. @hildasolis: "Last week, when this board considered the recommendations to put in outdoor dining restrictions, we had no idea how quickly those numbers would be upon us. We thought we were weeks away."

. @hildasolis: "With the recent proposal to shut down outdoor dining, I have never experienced the kind of pushback. I have heard from chambers of commerce, I have heard from restaurant owners, I've heard from restaurant associations, I've heard from friends."

. @HildaSolis: "And the fact of the matter is, the public doesn't think that that recommendation is right. And they don't think it's going to work. And they are really losing faith and trust in the business decisions that we're making."

The gist of it seems to be that anywhere people are around each other, especially without masks, are potential points of coronavirus transmission but we don't have specific contact tracing data showing that restaurants are directly driving this huge increase in cases.

Solis just asked Dr. Barbara Ferrer, if it would work to close down just the 20% of restaurants that are not in compliance with health & safety orders.

Ferrer says: "I think that would be the case if there wasn't the sort of enhanced risk inherent in the activity that's happening at the restaurant, even if they're in compliance."

Now Solis asks: What would you say to people who say it's the backyard parties, gatherings and Dodger celebrations, that have caused this surge happen and we're just taking the easy way out by shutting down outdoor dining because we can't shut down people's patios.

Ferrer replies: We have to look at every single place where there's an opportunity to get back some control [like restaurants], and part of this is because we're seeing such a steep acceleration of cases.

Solis asks: Would it make more sense if we based our decisions on what to close/open on hospitalizations rather than case counts?

Ferrer replies: Cases are the early predictor of what's going to happen in our hospital care system. You don't want to wait until your hospitalization numbers are really high because those people were infected a couple of weeks earlier.

. @HildaSolis says: "I'm proposing that we should use sort of that same rationale to continue outdoor dining at 50% capacity and really focus our efforts on shutting down those that are not in compliance or are the site of traceable outbreaks."

. @HildaSolis: "To close restaurants down at this point without money to pay these workers, to pay these restaurants, I think we are careening down another economically tragic road."

. @HildaSolis: "Closing, reopening, modifying reopening and our cases are still going up, something's not working. Without clear data proving what works and what doesn't, I wanted today to land on the side of letting people keep their jobs, until this vaccine comes our way."

. @HildaSolis: "If there is not support on the board today to allow outdoor dining [to remain open], then I'm going to work to expand the eligibility of the revitalization business grant, which has been for breweries, to expand that to include restaurants."

So it looks like @HildaSolis supports @kathrynbarger in keeping outdoor dining at LA County restaurants open. Solis noted the overwhelming number of people who blew up her phone to keep outdoor dining open.

CORRECTION: Many of my earlier tweets attributed to @HildaSolis were actually said by @JaniceHahn. I'm sorry. I'm typing fast. It's Janice Hahn who supports @kathrynbarger in keeping outdoor dining open.