Fact check: Did Gavin Newsom exempt wineries he founded from California COVID-19 rules?

Before he entered politics in the 1990s, Gov. Gavin Newsom founded a San Francisco wine shop that has grown into a hospitality company called PlumpJack Group.

Newsom is no longer involved in the day-to-day management of PlumpJack Group, which operates a dozen shops, wineries, restaurants and one hotel. He placed all of his businesses in a blind trust as he took office to reduce potential conflicts of interest. The trust legally bars him from being involved in business operations or participating in buy-and-sell decisions.

Newsom family friend Shyla Hendrickson manages the blind trust and files yearly statements with the state’s political ethics commission swearing under penalty of perjury that she has not disclosed prohibited financial information to Newsom.

As the pandemic has dragged on and Newsom has issued executive orders and crafted policies affecting how businesses can operate in the state, some critics have alleged Newsom gave his businesses special perks. People have spread the rumors on social media and a recall proponent raised them at a Sacramento Press Club panel discussion on Wednesday.

At the same time, PlumpJack businesses have been receiving threats against employees and the Newsom family. A representative of PlumpJack says the threats really started to roll in several months into the pandemic and seem to be motivated by anger over the governor’s shutdown orders.

The representative, who asked to remain anonymous because of security concerns, said he believes some of the threats are motivated by misinformation about the governor circulating online.

Here’s a look at the claims that have been made about Newsom’s treatment of his businesses:

Did Newsom craft shutdown orders to exempt PlumpJack businesses?

Rumors have spread online that Newsom crafted the state’s shutdown orders to exempt PlumpJack businesses, and that PlumpJack businesses were open when they were not supposed to be.

At a Sacramento Press Club panel on the effort to recall Newsom, recall fundraiser Anne Dunsmore accused Newsom of not following his own pandemic rules when it comes to his wineries.

“He should have followed his own rules with his wineries,” she said.

Claim: Newsom exempted the businesses he founded from his pandemic restrictions.

Rating: False

Newsom’s shutdown orders apply to entire counties, regions and industry sectors. They have not singled out any individual businesses for special treatment.

PlumpJack businesses have complied with all state and local public health orders, the representative for the company said. The businesses have operated to the extent they are allowed under local rules, he said. For example, the group’s Napa wineries opened for outdoor tastings when outdoor winery operations were allowed, but those same wineries shut down once Newsom imposed stay-at-home orders in most of the state’s regions.

The PlumpJack businesses have suffered economically under Newsom’s shutdown orders, just as other hospitality businesses have, the representative said.

“Every single one of our businesses have had to close under the governor’s orders at one time or another. Every business has been impacted,” he said.

Napa County spokeswoman Janet Upton said that the county has not taken any action against any PlumpJack wineries for not complying with state or county restrictions. Since the start of the pandemic, she said the county’s COVID-19 compliance hotline has received 43 complaints about wineries in the county, all of which were either found to be unsubstantiated or were handled with education alone because they didn’t rise to a level where additional enforcement was required.

Five of those complaints were made about PlumpJack Winery, but none of them resulted in enforcement action, she said. No other PlumpJack Group wineries were subject to complaints, according to a list provided by Napa County.

Placer County spokesman Chris Gray-Garcia said his county could not find any records of complaints against the PlumpJack Squaw Valley Inn, which is located in the county.

Plumpjack’s other businesses are bars and restaurants in San Francisco, which did not respond to a question about compliance with COVID-19 rules on Friday.

Did he give money to his own businesses?

Rumors have also spread online that Newsom has given coronavirus aid money to his own businesses.

The claim: Newsom steered pandemic aid money to his wineries.

Rating: False.

PlumpJack Group has received federal aid money from a program for struggling businesses during the pandemic, but that money did not come from the state. The company received about $2.8 million in federal business loans in 2020 and $2.2 million in 2021 through the Paycheck Protection Program, which is administered by the federal government, not California.

PlumpJack operates restaurants, wineries and hotels, all businesses that have been hit hard by the pandemic and are therefore eligible for federal relief money.

Under the terms of the blind trust, Newsom is legally prohibited from talking with the people running PlumpJack about the business’s finances and operations. In compliance with the terms of the trust, he has also not been involved in company decisions about which loans to apply for, the PlumpJack representative said.

Newsom and the state Legislature have established a state grant program for struggling California businesses, but the PlumpJack representative said the company has not applied for any of the state aid.

This story was originally published April 12, 2021 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Fact check: Did Gavin Newsom exempt wineries he founded from California COVID-19 rules?."