Coronavirus No-No: State Treasurer Posts Photo Posing Inside Sacramento Restaurant Booth
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — It's a Facebook flub, showcasing a failure at social distancing from one of the highest elected officeholders in the state.
California's State Treasurer Fiona Ma posted a photo to her own Facebook page, showing her gathered in a booth inside a Sacramento restaurant.
The post is a glaring example of what we are all being told not to do.
The Facebook photo shows facemask-wearing Ma shoulder-to-shoulder with two staff members, the three posing for the picture with a dessert dish celebrating a staffer's promotion.
One comment read "6 feet ladies."
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Treasurer Ma posted the photo on her personal Facebook page and also made it the cover photo behind her profile picture, which reads "Stay Home, Save Lives."
Doug Elmets is a Sacramento public relations expert and calls the post an example of a state-wide elected leader making a big misstep.
"Unfortunately, she clearly didn't think through this," Elmets said. "I mean it is an arrogance of power, it's a certain level of ignorance to what is going on."
Ma took down the post after receiving a call for an explanation from CBS13. Her spokesperson described the photo as capturing a 'moment in time,' saying the group was only together to pose for the picture. He said the treasurer admits the mistake.
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"It's a lesson learned, for sure," Elmets said.
Ma's social distance breakdown wasn't the only one by an elected leader in Sacramento.
A separate Facebook post shows a longtime Natomas Unified School District Board member had a bounce house for one of her children's birthdays this week. The photo shows at least four children inside.
The poster writing, "this is why we can't have nice things."
Governor Gavin Newsom has stressed social distancing in daily news conferences, and Sacramento County's newest public health order declared "all public and private gatherings of any number of people prohibited." It also ordered, "all in-dining at restaurants to cease."
Elected leaders expected to set the standard during this coronavirus crisis, instead, social media is showing their social distancing, is failing.
"I grade it as an F," Elmets said.
