Sacramento-area gym owner says he’ll open doors on Friday, despite stay-at-home order

Update: The owner of the gyms says his facilities will remain closed. See the most recent story here.

A gym that operates in Sacramento, West Sacramento and Lodi is planning to open for business on Friday, despite Gov. Gavin Newsom’s admonition that fitness clubs would be among the last allowed to reopen to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Sean Covell, who owns three Fitness System franchises, issued a message to members of his gyms Tuesday afternoon, saying “no city, county, or state official has the power to cancel the Constitution and the Bill of Rights of the United States.”

Covell, a professional bodybuilder, then threatened to sue in federal court if the state and local governments attempt to “restrict the ability of our members and employees to work and exercise unencumbered by draconian restrictions imposed by the State or county agencies.”

“The Constitution does not have on (sic) ‘on and off’ switch,” he wrote. “We simply ask that you respect the law of the land.”

Messages left at Fitness System’s Lodi gym and with Covell were not immediately returned Tuesday. In addition to the Lodi and West Sacramento facilities, Fitness System operates in Sacramento’s Land Park neighborhood on Sutterville Road.

Sacramento County spokeswoman Kimberly Nava said if Covell does open up on Friday, he’ll be expressly violating the county’s order. Breaking the order is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $50 to $1,000 and up to 90 days in jail.

“Law enforcement is going to come out there and ask him to close,” Nava said.

Jenny Tan, a spokeswoman for Yolo County, said in an email: “Businesses SHOULD NOT be reopening. The Shelter in place will be extended and sent out sometime tomorrow, so even though our existing order ends on May 1, people should not be planning to reopen unless stated otherwise by the County.” She said the county would direct law enforcement officials “to appropriately educate businesses first and, if necessary or it happens repeatedly, cite businesses in violation of the order.”

Covell’s lawyer, Brian Chavez-Ochoa, said the gyms would be operated with “masks, social distancing, cleaning equipment after each use.” Preventing Covell from opening the clubs violates constitutional freedoms. “The government cannot take your property without due compensation,” he said.

Chavez-Ochoa said he expects law enforcement to prevent the three gyms from opening. If so, he plans to sue Newsom and other officials in U.S. District Court in an effort to overturn the stay-at-home orders.

Separately, two other Fitness System franchisees in the area plan to sue Newsom as well. The lawsuits will likely be filed next week by Stephen Tresner and his daughter Holly, who own franchises in Lincoln, Rio Linda and Woodland, said their lawyer Kenneth Rosenfeld.

Rosenfeld noted that a federal judge in Illinois has sided with a Republican lawmaker’s quest to be exempted from that state’s stay-at-home order. “That’s what we’re looking at,” Rosenfeld said.

“Gyms are places where people go to build immunities,” Rosenfeld said. “Gyms can be operated safely.”

Newsom outlines reopening plan

Fitness System’s announcement came less than two hours after Newsom outlined a plan to reopen the state’s economy in the coming weeks, starting with retail establishments, manufacturers, offices that can’t operate remotely and public spaces.

But because the state’s testing ability remains limited, higher-risk businesses, including salons, gyms, theaters, sports without live audiences, weddings and other in-person religious services, will be in the next phase of reopening, but that likely won’t happen for “months,” Newsom said.

The gym’s protest opening comes as a number of rural counties and local governments urge Newsom to lift the lockdowns, saying they haven’t had nearly the COVID-19 cases other areas have, and it’s stifling the economy.

On Tuesday, El Dorado County became the first in the state to announce it will let its countywide stay-at-home order expire before Newsom’s statewide “shelter-in-place” order is lifted.

Orders in Amador, Madera, Riverside and San Diego are set to expire Thursday, but public health officials have not yet announced whether those orders will end, be extended or be amended.

Meanwhile, leaders from Butte, Colusa, Glenn, Sutter, Tehama and Yuba counties on Monday sent a letter to Newsom asking permission to begin to loosen their stay-at-home orders.

Some people have taken to the streets. Conservative protesters have held rallies around the country demanding an end to quarantine orders. An estimated 500 demonstrators, led by an anti-vaccination group, protested outside the Capitol in Sacramento last week.

But Newsom stressed Tuesday that nothing will reopen unless the science and data indicate it is safe to do so.

“Politics will not drive our decision-making,” he said. “Protests will not drive our decision-making.”

Legal experts say health officials have broad authority to restrict businesses, free assembly and movement during a pandemic, and lawsuits challenging the legality of the lockdown order are unlikely to succeed.

But Covell has been eager to challenge Newsom’s authority from the start. In an interview in late March, the gym owner told The Sacramento Bee that he was hiring a lawyer to research the legality of the governor’s actions.

“The state is essentially violating the First Amendment to the Constitution, the right to peaceably assemble,” he said at the time. He was offering curbside pickup of CBD oils and nutrition supplements, which had been exempted from the order, but that business appeared to be closed at the Land Park location on Tuesday.

Covell’s Lodi gym is about two miles from Cross Culture Christian Center, which is suing Newsom over the shutdown order. The church was forced to cancel Palm Sunday and other services because of the order.

This story was originally published April 28, 2020 at 3:19 PM.