Written Comments in Lieu of Public Comments at City Council meeting Jan 7 2020 Agenda item: 20-0019 2020 Affordable Housing Assessment

Long Beach City Council

Stacy Mungo (5^th Dist) district5@longbeach.gov, stacy.mungo@longbeach.gov

The Mayor  mayor@longbeach.gov

City Manager  CityManager@longbeach.gov, Tom.Modica@longbeach.gov

City Clerk  CityClerk@longbeach.gov

Date submitted: January 5, 2020

Re:      Written Comments in Lieu of Public Comments at City Council meeting

            Meeting Date: Jan 7, 2020

            Agenda item: 20-0019  2020 Affordable Housing Assessment

Dear City Council and Mayor:

Due to the fact that my time is valuable and public comments were limited to 90 seconds by the council in August 2019 I am submitting my written comments below regarding the above matter to be inserted into the written record as if made in person at the meeting.

This proposed tax and related ballot measure is totally unacceptable. Property taxes go up yearly, as do the direct assessments and the “voted indebtedness” and on top of that Proposition 13 may soon be abolished in the state.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has put $500 million into his January 2020 budget proposal to shore up financially struggling board and care homes. https://ktla.com/2019/12/31/500m-from-gov-newsoms-ca-budget-could-keep-l-a-s-most-vulnerable-from-becoming-homeless/

Homeless issues are issues that are statewide and the budget pain needs to be shared by all statewide. We can’t have a tax just on property tax in one city. As this is a statewide issue this needs to be paid for by everyone in the state. NOT just property owners. Otherwise this is sure to pass as renters will see this as no cost to them. Use “other people’s money” to solve my perceived problems.

We also have the county wide measure HHH passed in Nov 2016 and now the expenditure of that money is already being scrutinized as likely wasted. https://laist.com/2019/10/08/prop_hhh_homeless_housing_audit.php

County officials also estimated the average property tax rate required to repay these HHH bonds to be $9.64 per $100,000 in assessed property value It is not clear at all what percentage of those HHH funds are provided to Long beach each year (for Long Beach to spend as it wishes) or what percentage of those finds are spent on or in Long beach each year with respect to the homeless.

LA City also passed its own separate Measure H in March 2016 (authorizing a 0.25 percent county sales tax for 10 years in order to fund homeless services and prevention.) just before HHH was passed. Again same effect. 

There is no accounting of all the NGO, Federal, State and county money currently spent or directed to the city of LB that impact homeless, drug addicted etc. There is also no accounting as to what Long Beach’s current level of spending it on these and related issues. This needs to be clearly presented to taxpayers. No mention of it in the memo from Councilmember Rex Richardson, or any staff report. And Im sure it will not mentioned clearly in the ballot measure as government entities do all they can to obfuscate the real costs to taxpayers in these bond measures.

We can’t force people to take free housing. Even when we do they can’t stay in it. See LA Times article  https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-29/street-within-broadway-place-homeless-los-angeles  This is really not a housing issue. It’s a crime/bail issue (helped along with things like proposition 47). It’s a mental illness problem. (see proposition 63) It’s lack of healthcare. It s drug problem. It’s a human nature problem. Some people clearly like living on the river bed and other places as they have all been offered help and housing by the city numerous times and refused it (that’s why I’m told the city “won’t” “move” them from their tents). Why? They don’t want to follow rules. This just goes on and on.  https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelshellenberger/2019/09/12/why-california-keeps-making-homelessness-worse/#60a587825a61  A tax or bond in Long Beach will do NOTHING but make existing fixed income homeowners more unable to stay in their homes or perform upgrades to their homes.

Half our (general fund) budget now is for police. Half!! So that roughly $557 million dollars each year is really spent on homeless when you think about it. So we need to put more onus on the police to dial in this problem.

As I recall LB was not even part of the Supreme court amicus challenge to Martin v. City of Boise, 902 F. 3d 1031 - Court of Appeals, 9th Circuit 2018. https://www.lbreport.com/news/sept19/martin2.htm  Either way it does not matter. You are over extending the holding of the case and using it to defend non police action in all circumstances. You are also using it as an excuse to build very costly free homes for homeless people. https://www.lbreport.com/news/dec19/boiseprice.htm

The law that was attacked by the ACLU in Boise was an “anti camping” law. That is all it addressed. The holding was narrow. Its states in full:

“Our holding is a narrow one. … "we in no way dictate to the City that it must provide sufficient shelter for the homeless, or allow anyone who wishes to sit, lie, or sleep on the streets... at any time and at any place." Id. at 1138. We hold only that "so long as there is a greater number of homeless individuals in [a jurisdiction] than the number of available beds [in shelters]," the jurisdiction cannot prosecute homeless individuals for "involuntarily sitting, lying, and sleeping in public.”  Martin v. City of Boise, 902 F. 3d 1031, 1049.

It does not say "no trespassing" signs cannot be enforced in areas where humans should not be like in the Eldorado nature center or under bridges crossing the river where we have public safety issues. Re do the signs like Lakewood did here at Carson St. and SG River  https://photos.app.goo.gl/dgZaJc7cN2ACRvSB7  The Boise case does not say you cant arrest or cite or move people due to other crimes like drugs or theft. Its specifically says you can. Also the informal policy of leaving people in posted “no trespassing” areas if they don’t want to go to an available bed is a failed policy. How can that ever work? What constitutes a "bed" under case law? A 500k home or a tent in a lot? No trespassing means NO trespassing by ANYONE homeless or not. This is why the fires were started by the homeless in the nature center. No trespassing laws were NOT enforced with predictable results.

Since Long Beach failed to get the Boise case taken up by Supreme court just create a new case with news fact that the ACLU can loose!. Start rousting people in trespassing areas and let the ACLU sue again then you can revisit the limited ruling in the Boise case. Stop being so passive. We will never have enough beds in LA county to solve this problem. Ever.

Look at how Utah avoided running afoul of the Boise case: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-22/homeless-salt-lake-city-utah-shelter

This is a bottomless pit. It’s a regional and statewide issue. The more money LB gives out the more homeless will come to Long Beach. This is documented. Its that simple. In the years since Measure HHH and H have passed homelessness has increased. I think you have a cause and effect problem. But if your goal is to add more city employees to the payroll (Richardson’s memo says at p. 3: “It would also likely require significant additional investment in staffing and programs to effectively manage the resulting expanded affordable housing program”) and reward NGO campaign contributors them by all means add more taxes onto the backs for struggling homeowners. The exodus from CA is starting to become apparent and is going accelerate for the next 20 years. That’s for sure. The middle class will be gone. It will be elites, high income people, overpaid government workers and homeless or zero income (read not paying taxes) people.

Speaking of homelessness and NGO’s Katie Hill the U.S. Representative for California's 25th congressional district from January to November 2019, was the former executive director of People Assisting the Homeless (PATH). Word on the street is that Hill was making 150k a year at PATH where she made the contacts to get her seat. PATH pays 52% of the (tax) money it gets as payroll. This is at the heart of the problem with homeless funding. Its an emorphoes problem with many causes and many solutions. Exactly the kind of problem where money is thrown at it wil very little success. Just look at PATH as an example. https://www.guidestar.org/profile/95-3950196 and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katie_Hill_(politician)

I am also attaching a copy of the entire thread (226 comments as of today) on this subject from nextdoor.com regarding this issue and as you can see all of the comments were negative. The direct link to the thread (login required) is https://nextdoor.com/news_feed/?post=133260938&comment=325958381

Please vote against adding this Affordable Housing Assessment to the ballot.

Signed:

5^th District Property Owner

Registered Voter

Taxpayer

Cc: mail@LBreport.com, editor@gazettes.com


Long Beach Accountability Action Group™ LAAG | www.LAAG.us | Long Beach, CA | A California Non Profit Association | Demanding action and accountability from local government™ | click here to receive LAAG posts by email

After a seond fire on June 19 2019 at the ElDorado nature center, the time for city and county officials to act has arrived

At about 5:30 this afternoon as I was headed southbound on the San Gabriel River bike path. I  noticed smoke in the area of the Eldorado Park nature center and I said to myself this could not possibly be another fire in the nature center as we just had one on April 3rd 2019 That fire was located here

As I got closer I entered the nature center and saw Long Beach Park Police driving around in their SUVs trying to figure out how to get closer to the fire. I could hear sirens in the distance of the fire trucks trying to locate the fire and how to get closest to it as it was not very accessible. They eventually did locate it and it was in the section of the park where people are not allowed to go near the off-ramp from the southbound 605 freeway to westbound Willow Street. This map shows the location of the June 19th fire to the east of the April 3 fire (about 1500 feet apart). The photos and video here show where the fire trucks are parked to fight the fire. As you can see its far enough away from the freeway that it was not likely caused by any motorist. So we concluded it was likely set by a vagrant as the one on April 3 likely was. LBPD did not catch any suspects who were likely long gone by the time they got on the scene.

Just before leaving the house today I had sent another email to Stacy Mungo's office along with Pat West and the county (see below) explaining to them that the fence along the San Gabriel River which prohibits vagrants from getting into the unoccupied sections or restricted sections of the nature center was still down in about five places where the fire department (and vagrants before them) had cut it down to fight the fire. I also saw over the last few weeks new trash in that area since the April 3rd fire and its seemed likely to me that vagrants were still going into the parts of the nature center that are prohibited to enter

The County of Los Angeles also did one of their infamous river sweeps on May 27th to try to “clean up” the vagrant problem and their “byproducts” along the river which of course is bleeding over into the El Dorado nature center, which gives them cover from the authorities

The problem is you can see from the emails is that the system that the county and Long Beach is using to deal with homeless in this particular area is not working because the drug addicted or mentally ill vagrants often refuse treatment because they do not want to be restricted in any way in their housing situation and prefer to make it on their own out on the river or in the nature center where they can start fires to cook drugs or food and sort of live out in nature sort of like in the middle of a forest.

Obviously this practice of allowing the vagrants to stay under the bridges and living in the nature center is not working and we need to have a new approach. This is not really a "homeless" problem per se it's more of a vagrant drug user petty crime problem. The homeless word is just a label masking a multifaceted causation issue and in a way is preventing realistic solutions.

That new approach needs to be that if these vagrants in these heavily restricted areas that involve public safety issues such as bridges, the nature center places (where fires can break out and are hard to reach and extinguish) and where there are oil and gas pipelines over the river attached to these bridges, refuse assistance or treatment they will have to be told that if they do refuse they're going to have to move their camp to some other place where they can be watched more closely. We cannot allow them to remain in these areas where they can create costly damage and possibly catastrophic damage.

This is the problem with the nature center there is no way for anyone to see what is going on in that thickly wooded area normal people are not allowed to go into. Same with living under freeway bridges or roadway bridges. No one can see the activity under those bridges except the occasional cyclist that happens to drive under that bridge on his bike. Those vagrants are not seen by police and they are not seen by helicopters and they are not seen by residents or motorists passing by. They are invisible 24 hours a day to do whatever they want with our infrastructure and our natural wooded areas like the nature center. Start fires, damage the infrastructure with all the tools they have (we know many have bolt cutters to cut fences and locks and gain access to non permitted areas)

Common sense says that it's one thing to have a vagrant on a sidewalk it's another thing to have a vagrant or numerous vagrants living inside a thickly wooded area that is very difficult for firefighters to reach and even more difficult for them to put out these fires because there is no nearby water for them to use other than the river. Which is why today they had to again use a water dropping helicopter. This is the same problem with the homeless living on the San Gabriel and LA Rivers where numerous natural gas and oil pipelines cross within a few feet of their encampments. If a fire were to happen in those encampments a short distance from those oil and gas pipelines that could be catastrophic results for human life and people traveling over those bridges every day.

We suspect that the reason the vagrants are allowed (by the city and county) to stay in the non visible yet restricted areas is that voters don't see them and so feel there is less of a problem. Out of sight out of mind.

"L.A. County Supervisor Janice Hahn admits finding the right office to call can be frustrating for people looking to report homeless problems. With the county allotting $460 million this year to homelessness-related programs, Hahn says the resources are there to get more people off the street. "What I want to see happen is more of our homeless outreach workers traversing the county of Los Angeles on a daily basis and finding people before someone has to call," Hahn said." Quote from this June 2019 article.

The homeless response situation as it's currently set up needs to change and it needs to change now. This is the second fire we've had in 2 months and it's at least the fifth fire that we've had on the San Gabriel River that is likely been started by vagrants. These last two just happened to be the most visible.

Emails sent today by LAAG just before the fire started:

From: Long Beach Accountability Action Group <updates@laag.us>
Date: Wed, Jun 19, 2019 at 4:27 PM
Subject: Re: SGR river sweep on 5/21
To: Herlinda Chico | Hahn 4th dist LA Co Field Deputy <HChico@lacbos.org>, Hahn 4th dist LA county general email <fourthdistrict@bos.lacounty.gov>, Chris Stone, Asst. Deputy Dir LA Co DPW <cstone@dpw.lacounty.gov>, Rich Armond | LBPD East Division Quality of Life Unit <richard.armond@longbeach.gov>


Herlinda:

The 5/21 sweep was delayed to 5/27. Almost impossible to notice that it occurred. I dont see any homeless folks "gone" from Carson st to the ocean along the bike path as a result of the sweep. Some of their "trash" was taken out but that was it. Ill just assume that all "refused" "help" and were then told to have a nice day trespassing/defacing/trashing county property. We are going to need to start twisting arms when they refuse or apply some sort of consequence. All carrots wont work apparently. But the 125 beds in LB wont help either. drop in the bucket.

I dont want to tell you how pissed off people are on nextdoor.com since the so-called "river sweep". you know that. And no they are not all crazies. Most just concerned homeowners that fear encroachment of more homeless spilling out of the river.

So I hope we can increase the frequency and effectiveness of the sweeps in the near future

​From: Long Beach Accountability Action Group <updates@laag.us>
Date: Wed, Jun 19, 2019 at 4:50 PM
Subject: Re: SGR river sweep on 5/21
To: Herlinda Chico | Hahn 4th dist LA Co Field Deputy <HChico@lacbos.org>, Hahn 4th dist LA county general email <fourthdistrict@bos.lacounty.gov>, Chris Stone, Asst. Deputy Dir LA Co DPW <cstone@dpw.lacounty.gov>, Stacy Mungo Councilwoman City of Long Beach, 5th District <stacy.mungo@longbeach.gov>, Pat West LB city Mgr <patrick.west@longbeach.gov>

Herlinda:

One more point. In the 5/27 sweep no one fixed the fences along the east side of the river (which I was lead to believe was part of the sweep process). Who has fence fixing responsibility from carson to ocean on the east side of river boundary.? The county or LB or both. That fence needs to be checked weekly. the LB nature center fence still down in about 5 places since fire on april 3 2019  Amazing.   That fence being down was the reason the fire got started to begin with  https://photos.app.goo.gl/1XnnES9e2gwy2KKg9

Long Beach Accountability Action Group™ LAAG | www.LAAG.us | Long Beach, CA | A California Non Profit Association | Demanding action and accountability from local government™ | click here to receive LAAG posts by email

There was ample warning given to city officials before the fire at the ElDorado nature center on April 3 2019

Most are already aware of all the publicity surrounding the fire that occurred on April 3 2019 at the El Dorado nature center. Most who use it or ride by it on the San Gabriel River (SG River) bike path are also aware that the area is fenced off from the river and for the most part inaccessible (or supposed to be) from humans. It is in an area that is meant to be "natural" and so there is no tree trimming, grass mowing or any other maintenance of those premises. As a result its a perfect place for the "homeless" ( I use that term loosely) to set up camp.Its also the perfect place for a fire to start. Police and Park rangers don't patrol that area as they rarely bike or ride down the bike path in their vehicles. The squatter camps and trash cannot be seen by passing motorists on roadways and cannot be seen well from the air. I think its ironic that this is all going on while our Mayor Garcia touts his "Everybody Home" initiative on top of the millions if not billions raised by Propositions H and HHH (Garcia touting his Imitative here in Sept 2018 and in April 2018)

Yet despite all this the city is well aware of the problem as you will see from emails below.  This is simply a case of either city management refusing to tell police to clean up the situation or worse a feeling by many at the city that since the problem is not visible to most voters to just leave it alone and wait until problems happen. As long as the problem is well hidden from the majority of voters they ignore it. These are photos sent to the city in Dec 2017 showing the destruction to the fence in the very area where the fire occurred on April 3 2019. Tearing down the fence along the bike path is the only way really for the homeless to gain access to the area where the fire occurred. People are not supposed to be in this fenced off area. This is only visible to bike riders on the SG river trail. Weekly fence damage patrols need to be done in that area.

We are aware of at least three physical attacks of bike riders by homeless on the SG River in the last few years. We have been told by police on the river not to ride down there without pepper spray. We have also been told by police that many of these "homeless" down there would have been in jail but for voter passed propositions (passed in the last few years) that allow "low level criminals" to escape any jail time. (As an aside the cops explain that courts only look at the current offence for the violence determination and ignore all prior violent convictions so the "non violent offenders" claim is bogus..here is an example) Again all homeless are NOT the same. Many are criminals, drug addicted or mentally ill. These are the ones that typically refuse help. 99% of the homeless we see down on the river are adult males between 30 and 50 years of age. No children. No families.

The city leaders of course claim that (1) they did not know about the "problems" and (2) that "the law" "prevents" them from doing "anything". They are wrong on both counts. The emails below take care of item one as well as direct face to face communications we have had with police and park rangers over the last 24 months on the problem. As for the second issue, fortunately the City of Long Beach had a large very capable bureaucratic City Attorneys office to deal with how to legally move these homeless off the trail and into shelters. But they simply don't want to be bothered with the problem until of course it blows up in their face.

The city of Lakewood is responsible for the west side of the Carson street bridge (or rather under it) and has posted no trespassing signs there on the bridge and in January 2019 removed a large homeless camp of many individuals. This camp is now once again starting to form. They have been advised of the problem and how to fix it but like Long beach they are know it alls and will not listen to citizen complaints, dismissing them as not credible or simply "we cant do anything". The Santa Ana river was filled with hundreds of homeless in 2016-2018 and that problem was cleaned up.

There is a legal process to move the homeless out of camps and into facilities. We are not talking about that many people on the SG river, no where near the daunting tasked that faced the cities on the Santa Ana river. The problem is that it has become chronic and we suspect the same individuals are causing the problem over and over again. The city needs to step up and start tackling this problem where it is least seen, not just the visible homeless on the sidewalks around city hall. Problem is cleaning up the river does not garner a lot of re-election votes as so few voters are aware of the extent of the problem.

Onto the fire issues. We have known of three fires on the SG river all in Long Beach. Im sure there are many more as most are not covered by the media and swept under the rug by police and fire depts.

FIRE 1: The first fire was around April 1 2017 and occurred at a homeless camp at the SW corner of the Carson St Walmart parking lot (photo) which was on SG River property (at the NW order of El Dorado park). It was 15 feet off the bike path. Fire and Police dept were on scene. As it was recent it was brought up at a Councilperson Mungo's public event on April 10 2017. Basically Mungo and the police (present) told everyone they could not do anything about it. You know legal stuff that none of you little people could understand.

FIRE 2: On or about November 30 2017. Again this was at another spot favored (prized) by the homeless: The east side of the Willow street bridge over the SG river just 100 feet from where the fire was on April 3, 2019. This fire was under the bridge itself, which I'm sure makes motorists feel comfortable as they traverse that bridge daily. The people living under this bridge were tossed out of there using the legal procedure Dec 13 2017 but within a month they were back again. We have talked to fire personnel in that area literally warning these homeless under that bridge of high water threats in the river but doing nothing to remove them. The problem at this bridge (like Carson st.) is well known. Every time the police and fire go down there to retrieve another dead body in the river they are reminded of the problem. The concern especially at Willow street is that gasoline generators are being used by the homeless. That's right. Gasoline. What could go wrong. No idea what "business" they are running under there but from talking with Seal Beach police in that area its mostly stolen bikes (chop shops for bikes).

FIRE 3: April 4 2019. This fire of course well documented by the media due to its size and location. the perfect place for a fire. hard to get to an no hydrants nearby (just river water which they failed to use)

The next problem that will be occurring is at the 405 freeway and the SG River. This place is notorious for homeless. Seal beach and Caltrans have cleared out a large camp (Feb 2019) at the side of the SB 605 ramp to the 405 north. A few years ago they were literally living INSIDE the freeway bridges over the river accessing them thru panels cut by Caltrans to add seismic updates to the bridge. More recently they are using the holes to store (likely) stolen bikes! A photo from March 7 2019. I would hate to see what it now looks like up inside that bridge. Wonder what internal damage they have done to the bridge itself. I know for a fact many of these homeless carry large bolt cutters and other tools to gain access to non permitted areas. Lock and fence cutting is also occurring at Carson St bridge and SG River as we write this. City of lakewood is well aware of it.

The email exchange with various council people and Long beach city officials is below along with the dates of the communications. Judge for yourself if the fire at the Nature Center was preventable by the city had they listened and taken appropriate timely action. Time has come for some real action with respect to the homeless on the river. Hopefully this fire will draw more public attention to the problem that has been well known by the city for years.


On Wed, Feb 21, 2018 at 8:36 AM, Stacy Mungo <Stacy.Mungo@longbeach.gov> wrote:

Sir or ma’am, 

We will look Into this. I have addd Councilman Supernaw as this is in the 4th and I know he’d like to keep an eye on it.

-Stacy

On Feb 19, 2018, at 9:46 AM, Long Beach Accountability Action Group <updates@laag.us> wrote:

Just focus on the fence for now

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-homeless-housing-gaps-20180217-story.html

On Fri, Feb 16, 2018 at 10:49 AM, Long Beach Accountability Action Group <updates@laag.us> wrote:

Sadly the fence has two new "holes" (just north of willow along river bed east side) and a sagging spot halfway between willow and spring. that sagging spot likely occurred as the fence installers did not properly secure the top of the chain link fencing to the top guide wire still in place between the poles (which you can still see in place in my blurry photo)

Here are some pics from this week. get it fixed before they start going in there again if they are not already.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/RLkmn4JZZ7TzAoOj1

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Long Beach Accountability Action Group <updates@laag.us>
Date: Wed, Dec 20, 2017 at 11:06 AM
Subject: Re: Homeless issues in Eldorado Park Nature Center
To: Stacy Mungo <Stacy.Mungo@longbeach.gov>, "Stacy Mungo Councilwoman City of Long Beach, 5th District" <district5@longbeach.gov>
Cc: Pat West LB city Mgr <patrick.west@longbeach.gov>, "Marie Knight | Dir. Long beach Parks, Recreation and Marine" <Marie.Knight@longbeach.gov>

Stacy:

I ride by thre 3-4 days a week. They are very well hidden from above and even from bike path. military grade camouflage. One thing that would help is keep checking the chain link fence between the nature section and the river bike path. They use the bike path to get in there and have damaged the fence in at least 5 paces to gain access. Keep that fixed and they likely will stay out

As for fires that place is ripe for a fire and most of the people in there likely have lighters or other ignition sources for cooking or for smoking or using drugs

Finally even if these people cannot be locked up they can be "arrested" for most of the things they are "likely" doing and that give you the right to take all their "crap" and store it for 90 days (per ACLU cases) either way its out out of there. If you keep doing that they will get the msg. My retired cop capt friend said whenever they got a homeless person setting up they would move them out as they know more would follow and word would get out that it was a good place to camp. next thing you know its the Santa Ana river. Govt is good at kicking the can down the road and putting off problems until they are huge  and blow up.

On Mon, Dec 18, 2017 at 11:17 AM, Stacy Mungo <Stacy.Mungo@longbeach.gov> wrote:

Hi, just want you to know I’ve followed up with staff and we’ll get a response going. You bring up a good point about the fires. Thanks for your vigilance!

-          Stacy Mungo

---

From: Long Beach Accountability Action Group <updates@laag.us>
Sent: Thursday, December 14, 2017 8:37 AM
To: Patrick West
Cc: Mayor; Council District 5; Christine Schachter; Marie Knight; Valerie Davis; Angela McGrath
Subject: Re: Homeless issues in Eldorado Park Nature Center

Thank you Pat for responding. You are the only one that did out of all the people below. Here is an interesting news article from today on what Santa Ana is doing. of course the lazy reporter did not bother to cite the ordinance number or quote it. I found it and attached it as I know cities like to copy ordinances of other cities. Lets hope Eldo does not become the place all the Santa Ana river and Santa Ana civic center refugees head to next. And I really do fear a fire either under bridges or worse in the nature area. I bike past that area daily and see what is going on. Go take a look for yourself. they are well hidden

http://www.ocregister.com/2017/12/13/santa-ana-begins-enforcing-new-homeless-ordinance/

On Wed, Dec 13, 2017 at 2:00 PM, Patrick West <Patrick.West@longbeach.gov> wrote:

Thank for your email.  We'll make sure the appropriate entities follow up. Pat west

Sent from my iPhone

On Dec 13, 2017, at 10:47 AM, Long Beach Accountability Action Group <updates@laag.us> wrote:

All:

I am sending this email again with new info. I want to be on record of telling the city the problem so that when this issue blows up in your face you wont be able to say you did not know about it or were not told

there was a fire under bridge at Willow (right neat nature park) on Nov 30 2017 as FD records will show. It was started by a long standing homeless camp under the east side of the willow bridge. There was another fire near wal mart at the carson st bridge in April 2017 that was brought up at the Mungo meeting on April 10 2017. Why homeless are allowed to camp IN eldorado park nature center area is beyond me. The park rangers chase out bikes, dog walkers and cars at sunset but Homeless are exempt? This is sheer laziness on the part of the LB elected officials staff and the police. enforce the park ordinances. The park is closed to ALL at sunset. Those are the rules. And I want to go on record as saying there is a very good chance the "Nature" section of the park (along the river north of willow south of Spring) has a very good chance of catching fire reading the stories below and the fires we have already had very near that section. act now. before its too late. This is not homelessness on public sidewalks or in the riverbed where APPARENTLY "different rules" apply. this is a park. I will bet that if I did not get a permit and let a bunch of boy scouts camped out in the park (esp the forbidden "nature section")  the rangers would be all over us in ten minutes rousting us out of there via their vehicle loudspeakers. This is disparate enforcement of rules that favor the homeless!! Outrageous!

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/12/12/us/california-fire-homeless.html

http://www.ocregister.com/2017/12/12/cause-of-skirball-fire-was-illegal-cooking-in-homeless-camp-officials-say/

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Long Beach Accountability Action Group <updates@laag.us>
Date: Fri, Nov 17, 2017 at 3:23 PM
Subject: Homeless issues in Eldorado Park Nature Center
To: "Brad Futak, LBPD Quality of Life Unit" <brad.futak@longbeach.gov>, Chris Roth LBPD Quality of Life Unit <chris.roth@longbeach.gov>, Jeanette Rowe <jrowe@lahsa.org>, "Robert Cerince, Homeless Services Long beach" <Robert.Cerince@longbeach.gov>, "Tom Kirk, LA county dept Mental Health (LACDMH)," <tkirk@dmh.lacounty.gov>, Elsa Ramos | homeless services long beach <Elsa.Ramos@longbeach.gov>
Cc: "Stacy Mungo Councilwoman City of Long Beach, 5th District" <district5@longbeach.gov>, "George Chapjian, Dir Parks, Rec, and Marine Long beach" <George.Chapjian@longbeach.gov>, "Marie Knight | Dir. Long beach Parks, Recreation and Marine" <Marie.Knight@longbeach.gov>, Meridith Reynolds | Long beach parks dept <meridith.reynolds@longbeach.gov>, Byron Brno | LBPD <Byron.Brno@longbeach.gov>, Laura Farinella LBPD <Laura.Farinella@longbeach.gov>, Liz Griffin | LBPD East Division Commander <liz.griffin@longbeach.gov>, William Lebaron | LBPD <William.Lebaron@longbeach.gov>

All:

As you well know the homeless on the SGRT are becoming a bigger and bigger problem and now that OC has evicted all the homeless from SART we are going to get more on SGRT. So now that they are invading the Eldorado nature center (a place that is to remain pristine and natural) and filling it with trash and debris what is going to be done? They need to be moved out. Anywhere. If you keep letting them infest that area as they are doing its only going to get worse. In the last few months it has gotten worse and their numbers are increasing. This is the PARK not the river bed (different issue legally and substantively). Here is where they are at (see attached). Something needs to be done and done now. I have heard ALL the excuses form LBPD and the park Rangers. (they told me to complaint to city hall and city leaders so here I am) I dont need to hear the excuses any more. We are beyond that. Action needs to be taken now.

Thanks

<homeless areas camps.jpg>

Long Beach Accountability Action Group™ LAAG | www.LAAG.us | Long Beach, CA | A California Non Profit Association | Demanding action and accountability from local government™ | click here to receive LAAG posts by email

Government emails on personal devices are public record: California Supreme Court

This took a while but it is the right decision. For years and to this day Lakewood city council members refuse to use city email like "todd.rodgers@lakewoodcity.org" and "prefer" to use their "private" email accounts (just like Hillary Clinton did at the State Dept.). Well those "private" accounts (or any account) are no longer safe or off limits form public records act requests if they have been used to conduct municipal or government business. So if you want to mingle personal business with public business like Hillary did at the State Dept. go ahead, but realize that those private email accounts are no longer safe. I really hope this puts an end to shenanigans by city council members and their cronies. Our initial story on this goes way back to 2008

Here is a lead story and the opinion itself. Enjoy. For once the public wins against City Hall.

Lakewood Accountability Action Group™ LAAG | www.LAAG.us | Lakewood, CA | A California Non Profit Association | Demanding action and accountability from local government™ | click here to receive LAAG posts by email

Lakewood ranked 1,050 out of 1,268 small cities in Wallet Hub's 2015 Best & Worst Small Cities in America.

Lets see how the Lakewood City council spins this one. Lakewood ranked 1,050 out of 1,268 small cities in Wallet Hub's 2015 Best & Worst Small Cities in America. That is the bottom 18%. Yikes. Clearly all the fake awards like "Sports town" USA and "Playful City" USA and all the other fake awards the city paid for are not paying off. Better luck next year Lakewood.


Lakewood Accountability Action Group™ LAAG | www.LAAG.us | Lakewood, CA | A California Non Profit Association | Demanding action and accountability from local government™ | click here to receive LAAG posts by email