A group of ambulances at the visitor center at Travis Air Force Base | Hector Amezcua/AP Photo Costa Mesa: Trump trying to 'reward political allies' with coronavirus patient move to OC

Costa Mesa officials filed new court documents Monday morning asking a judge to prevent the federal government from moving coronavirus patients to a local facility, the latest turn in a polarizing case that has pitted local governments against state and federal health authorities.

The filing came ahead of a Monday afternoon hearing scheduled in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana. Costa Mesa officials, supported by Orange County and state and federal lawmakers, obtained a temporary injunction Friday to prevent dozens of patients quarantined at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield from being moved to the Fairview Developmental Center, a state-owned facility in Costa Mesa that’s virtually empty.


In documents filed on Monday, attorneys representing Costa Mesa railed against President Donald Trump for promising Alabama leaders that he won’t move the patients to a former military base there, which the plaintiffs described as “one of the most suitable in the country to handle the unique challenges of isolating and treating Coronavirus patients.”

“There is no question that Congress did not intend for the executive branch to treat this decision-making process as a way to reward political allies, at the expense of public health,” they wrote in the documents.

Lawyers representing Costa Mesa will argue today for evidentiary hearings before anything moves forward.

The drama started late Thursday when Costa Mesa officials said they were informed of the plan to move patients to the 60-year-old facility, which they said brought up far more questions than answers. The state was seeking to house 30 to 50 people who tested positive for the Covid-19 strain of coronavirus at the center.

Federal officials say that all patients who test positive must be moved — even if they show no signs of illness — so they can receive proper medical care and evaluations. They say Northern California does not have enough hospital beds equipped to care for those patients.

It is unclear how many of them are passengers from the Diamond Princess cruise ship flown to Travis Air Force Base last week. The base is also housing American patients previously evacuated from China.

The plaintiffs name the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Defense, Air Force and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention among the defendants. But they also name the state of California and its Office of Emergency Services and Department of General Services as defendants.

In court filings over the weekend, the state shot back at city officials, calling the legal action “frivolous” and a “nuisance claim” and arguing that legal precedent prohibits local governments from bringing constitutional claims against the state.

"From our experience so far managing COVID-19 cases, there is no clinical indication that the health of the community of Costa Mesa would be jeopardized by housing COVID-19 patients at Fairview," Mark Ghaly, secretary of the state Health and Human Services Agency, said in his court declaration.

“Because we were not given the opportunity to play a role in that decision, we decided that the only way we could stop the process was to seek a federal court judge’s help and get the injunction,” Costa Mesa Mayor Katrina Foley said in a hastily organized press conference Saturday that drew the participation of a wide range of local, state and federal leaders.

While describing Costa Mesa as a “compassionate community,” Foley said, “we are not going to continue to be the place where everybody drops off their crises and expects us to correct it.”

"I would be confounded — confounded — if our state and federal government decided to locate this facility here at the Fairview Developmental Center," said Assemblywoman Cottie Petrie-Norris (D-Laguna Beach), who represents Costa Mesa and alerted the city of the transfer plans. "This is a site that is 450 miles away from the Travis Air Force Base, where the patients are currently being housed. And this is a site that is in the middle of a densely populated residential community."

Only 34 cases have been confirmed in the United States, including those brought back from the cruise ship off Japan. But the outbreak, which originated in China and is now in its third month, has spread to more than two dozen countries and has resulted in more than 78,000 cases. More than 2,400 people have died.