‘NOT THE TIME TO RELAX’

Austin Mayor Told Residents to ‘Stay Home’—While on Vacation in Cabo

The night before he flew to Cabo, Mayor Steve Adler threw a 20-person wedding reception for his daughter at a downtown Austin hotel.

In an early November Facebook livestream, Austin Mayor Steve Adler warned his residents to stay home as COVID-19 cases spike. “We need to stay home if you can. This is not the time to relax... we may have to close things down if we are not careful,” he said. What Adler didn’t tell residents —as the Austin American-Statesman reported on Wednesday—was that he was livestreaming from the Mexican resort city of Cabo San Lucas. “We aren’t asking people to never venture out. We ask everyone to be as safe as possible when they do,” Adler told the Statesman. However, the night before he flew to Cabo, Adler also threw a 20-person wedding reception for his daughter at a downtown hotel, per the Statesman, defying his city’s orders to limit gatherings to groups of 10. Adler said wedding attendees were tested beforehand.

Adler isn’t the only high-profile mayor to get busted violating COVID-19 guidelines in recent weeks. Denver Mayor Michael Hancock broke protocol to fly to Mississippi for Thanksgiving, while San Francisco Mayor London Breed was spotted dining indoors earlier this month.