This morning, there was a “crisis” meeting with high level law enforcement and private citizens to discuss the out of control situation of lawlessness regarding homelessness encampments in and around the City of Santa Rosa and Sonoma County.
On the call presenting were the Sonoma County District Attorney Jill Ravitch, Sonoma County Sheriff Mark Essick, Santa Rosa Police Chief Ray Navarro, Property owner and developer Hugh Futrell, and Corporate Business Park Association President Keith Woods.
Executive Directors of the Association of General Contractors, the Sonoma County Alliance, the North Coast Builders Exchange, North Bay Association of Realtors, the North Bay Leadership Council, the Farm Bureau, the Northern California Engineering Contractors Association, and the Santa Rosa Metro Chamber.
Santa Rosa Mayor Tom Schwedhelm, Santa Rosa City Attorney Sue Gallagher, and Santa Rosa Assistant City Manager David Guhin were also active in the Zoom meeting.
The message from the private side was clear-WHY CANNOT LAWS BE ENFORCED?
The message from the various participants was also clear-DO NOT RELY ON THE SYSTEM TO BE THE SOLUTION”.
Holy Crap.
What we learned is that Dr. Mase has interjected herself into the City of Santa Rosa’s plan to disburse the encampment under Highway 101 (at least temporarily). Apparently, Dr. Mase has requested the City of SR delay the disbursement of the illegal encampment under Highway 101 due to health concerns.
What we also learned, is that approximately half the normal population of inmates at the Sonoma County Jail have been released because of Covid-19 concerns.
We also learned the combined (with the vast majority of the calls from the City of Santa Rosa), annual “Homeless Related Incidents” average calls to the Police and Sheriff are around 21,000 per year.
We also learned that the District Attorney office will prosecute crimes “but that it takes a tremendous amount of time, cost, effort, and the probability of the judge simply sentencing the criminal to probation is great.
We learned that Police and Sheriff forces are overwhelmed and do and will respond to crimes that are committed, however, crimes of misdemeanor vandalism are difficult to prove and result in warnings, escalated to citations and sometimes arrest and bookings for more serious offenses, and are rarely sent to court.
We learned that if there is rape, robbery, drug sales, or private property trespassing, the law enforcement officers have some “tools” to take action.
What we learned is that Dr. Mase has interjected herself into the City of Santa Rosa’s plan to disburse the encampment under Highway 101 (at least temporarily). Apparently, Dr. Mase has requested the City of SR delay the disbursement of the illegal encampment under Highway 101 due to health concerns.
What we also learned, is that approximately half the normal population of inmates at the Sonoma County Jail have been released because of Covid-19 concerns.
We also learned the combined (with the vast majority of the calls from the City of Santa Rosa), annual “Homeless Related Incidents” average calls to the Police and Sheriff are around 21,000 per year.
We also learned that the District Attorney office will prosecute crimes “but that it takes a tremendous amount of time, cost, effort, and the probability of the judge simply sentencing the criminal to probation is great.
We learned that Police and Sheriff forces are overwhelmed and do and will respond to crimes that are committed, however, crimes of misdemeanor vandalism are difficult to prove and result in warnings, escalated to citations and sometimes arrest and bookings for more serious offenses, and are rarely sent to court.
We learned that if there is rape, robbery, drug sales, or private property trespassing, the law enforcement officers have some “tools” to take action.
Due to space limitations, I will “cut to the chase”.
The Business Community is fed up. We are done seeing County and City Officials “pointing the finger” at each other and the system failures. Voters have to wake up, and vote for tougher judges and tougher laws. The advice we got was to advise property owners to install good security cameras and post their property with No Trespassing signs so officers can react legally to trespassing events.
I will print more frustrating things we have learned and steps we are taking but there is a big meeting today (June 18, 2020) with County Health Director that should get resolved to allow encampment disbursement plans to proceed ASAP.
Bottom line-our City and County economic health is at stake, and therefore the ECA members economic health is at stake. There is no greater problem right now facing us locally then getting a handle on this situation. Businesses, already feeling the Pandemic shutdown effects, are seeing the general public stay away from their retail and food businesses because of the homeless situation. Soon, there will be more and more businesses shuttered and closed down, and an empty downtown Santa Rosa. This is a crisis and the ECA is fully engaged in finding a solution.
No more finger pointing. We demand the encampments be moved out of the City and into a controlled environment that is suitable. We also demand that crimes be prosecuted.
We want to take our Community Back!!
That’s All Folks
John
