Everyone knows this is political, Stanislaus supervisors. Why pretend it’s not?

The Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors — an elected, local governing body that is supposed to be nonpartisan — is playing politics.

Somebody wants to look good to their conservative constituents, to be able to say they took a stand against liberal, woke power brokers in Sacramento. Somebody wants to proudly proclaim to Valley voters that they aren’t afraid to fight medical tyranny.

That sort of thing can play well in an election year like this one.

So it’s not unexpected to see item B.8 on Tuesday’s board agenda. It asks Stanislaus supervisors to formally oppose Senate Bill 871, which essentially would require that students get COVID-19 vaccinations.

What’s surprising is that the item shows up on the board’s consent agenda. That part of the meeting is reserved for things that are routine, noncontroversial and don’t warrant public discussion. Like buying a pickup, or proclaiming volunteer week, or putting public hearings on the calendar for future agendas. You know — things that are nonpolitical.

The consent agenda is the wrong place for an item that clearly is political in nature.

This has nothing to do with the merits of SB 871, which seems extreme even for those who acknowledge that vaccines have prevented much suffering and death. As introduced, the bill would require every educational setting — public or private school, nursery or daycare — to turn away the unvaccinated. Punishing children for the ignorance of their parents would be cruel, even in bluest-of-the-blue California.

Of course everyone should be vaccinated. Eight of 10 Stanislaus COVID deaths have been among those who refused. It’s clearly a preventable disease whose cure has been politicized.

But the reality is that most children follow the lead of their parents, and in Stanislaus County, four of 10 adults are not vaccinated. Withholding education from that many children isn’t right or reasonable, even if their irrational parents have no problem complying with a litany of required vaccines for other diseases.

Many pieces of proposed legislation in any law-making body start with one extreme and end up closer to the middle. That’s the legislative process.

Creating campaign sound bites

One might wonder why Stanislaus supervisors feel the need to weigh in at all on something over which they have zero control, like bills in the California Legislature. If local leaders felt they should opine about everything going on in Sacramento, they would have no time to attend to local matters.

So they pick and choose, and this one — an extreme proposal with no chance of success in its current form, but one affording an opportunity to pound one’s chest and look tough to the anti-vaxx crowd — seems safe enough.

Although county leadership is nonpartisan, Supervisors Mani Grewal and Channce Condit have not done much to distinguish themselves as Democratic Party members, preferring not to rock the boat against Republicans Terry Withrow (chairman of the board), Buck Condit and Vito Chiesa in previous deliberations regarding COVID policy.

Grewal and Withrow are running for re-election on the June 6 ballot, respectively against challengers Joel DeGraef and Tony Madigral.

Whining about the state’s progressive leadership is part and parcel of partisan politics. Playing the aggrieved party gives someone an opening to rant about unfairness and freedom, creating convenient sound bites for the campaign trail.

But every discussion about vaccines and schools is political, it’s not even close to routine and Stanislaus supervisors should quit pretending that it belongs on their consent agenda.

This story was originally published April 4, 2022 at 11:50 AM.