The City Council Appointees are Dismal and Today’s Agenda is Alarming

Friends, this is a long one. Please read through it if you have the time, tonight’s council agenda has several critical items.

We sent a letter to the council this morning and hope you will take a few minutes to review it, and perhaps send one yourself. You can also post public comment on agenda items here. If you are comfortable doing so, please consider showing up this evening and commenting on these agenda items in person - it is the best way to ensure your comments are actually heard.

The council appointees are as terrible as we would have expected from this council, shady no-bid contracts are being awarded to council cronies, City Attorney Ewing is updating the city’s anti-homeless ordinances to try to pull one over on the public (and the judge), and a right-wing Trump associate is being awarded another no-bid contract to provide services to the city. Phew. This is nuts even for Chico of late.

Councilmembers:

We are writing today to express our concerns regarding several agenda items.

2.4: It is alarming that Point of Contact is being awarded $49,900 for a no-bid contract. It’s clear that number was specifically derived to give them the maximum amount possible without being required to solicit bids. It is worth noting that while several of the people involved in this organization seem to have good intentions, their practices have been questionable and, in some cases, have included posting pictures and videos of unhoused people without their permission, even calling the police on some who had the temerity to refuse their “outreach.” There are many local organizations that have licensed clinical social workers who could provide more effective outreach, quite possibly at lower cost, and those options should be explored.

In addition, the naked cronyism is also alarming. Kasey Reynolds started Verum Community Solutions in January 2020, only recently signing it over to Laurie Maloney, et al, in March 2021. It reeks of impropriety and cronyism.  This item should be pulled and put on a future agenda for public comment. 

5.1: Most people believe our parks and waterways are not an appropriate place for encampments. Advocates have never suggested this was an acceptable solution, nor did previous councilmembers.

What we have asked for, again and again, are actual solutions. Instead, multiple councils, the city manager, and city administration have failed to implement any meaningful solutions whatsoever. In fact, just the opposite. You have failed to add any low-barrier shelter beds, despite the fact that the efficacy and safety of low-barrier shelter has been amply demonstrated.  Even worse, we now have fewer services available to people on our streets than we have had at any point in the last 20 years; there is no longer one single place in the community where someone who is homeless can walk-in to get a meal, get a shower, get clothing, or even get help with something like obtaining an ID.

Last winter, when you began to evict people, in the dead of winter, in the midst of a pandemic, in defiance of CDC policy recommendations, we told you that what you were doing was not only immoral, but unconstitutional. You knew that people had nowhere else to go, that no service providers were accepting new clients. We pleaded with you to provide actual solutions, rather than enforcing punitive ordinances that made being impoverished a crime in Chico.

It took a costly lawsuit to stop you from continuing to persecute a minority population that continues to be villainized in our community. The judge confirmed what we said all along; these ordinances violated the civil rights of our citizens. The judge also pointed out that issues with homelessness facing our city are not unique – and suggested you educate your constituents rather than continuing to pander to them. Your ongoing failure to address the judge’s suggestions led to the granting of a temporary injunction that further constrains the city from enforcing its laws.

And yet, in light of these abject failures, you are doubling down again. Your attempt to gaslight the community and the judge by making a few minor tweaks to the verbiage of these ordinances demonstrates your commitment to indulge the whims of the people that bought your seats, rather than to do what is right for our community. Your failure to support and implement solutions has led directly to further degradation of our parks and waterways. The course of action you continue to pursue is not only unethical, but environmentally and fiscally irresponsible.

We are unequivocally opposed to the approval of these ordinances while you fail to provide any solutions that might improve outcomes or move our community towards successfully addressing the underlying issues.

5.2: Mark Orme’s recommendations are stunning in their failure to actually address the issues of homelessness in our community. He gives the game away early on when he discusses the background, saying “This nomadic type lifestyle and living on the streets makes the homeless population far more visible…”  These folks aren’t nomadic and it isn’t a “lifestyle” for the majority of the people on our streets. In fact, it has been amply and repeatedly demonstrated that the majority of the people living on our streets were local residents before they became homeless, something that holds true for homeless populations across the country.  It has also been amply demonstrated that most people prefer housing if is available.

But never mind, to admit this is a homegrown problem might hint at our collective failure to provide affordable housing, as well as behavioral health and other services that could address the real issues, and those aren’t things this city manager or council intends to do.

Paul Webster is a Director of Financial Services at HUD. His direct experience with programs addressing homelessness is quite limited; what he does have in abundance are connections with the far right. This includes an alliance with Robert Marbut, a widely discredited trump appointee, and an endorsement from Dr. Drew, a widely discredited reality TV snake oil salesman who is also beloved by the right. That he was invited to the council by a QAnon-subscribing disgraced former councilmember speaks volumes about who he is. His organization has no experience, no successful projects to show, and no evidence of efficacy whatsoever.

Webster’s also known for politicizing and spreading misinformation about the homeless and COVID.

“A day after Marbut’s report was released, a senior HUD advisor cited it in arguing against using empty hotel and motel rooms to isolate at-risk homeless people – a practice employed around the country to reduce the number of people in cramped shelters, where the coronavirus can easily spread. Paul C. Webster, a senior policy advisor in HUD’s Los Angeles field office, told colleagues he had “encouraged Robert to highlight the low prevalence rate and low number of deaths among people experiencing homelessness,” according to a July 7 email obtained by the Howard Center.”

The CDC affirmed they do not have any information that supports Webster’s statement.

Solutions for Change, where he worked for a few years, provides high-barrier shelter to families who can prove they are clean and sober. Chico already has an abundance of privately funded religious/sober-living shelters and transitional housing options with similar requirements, including those provided by the Esplanade House, Jesus Center and Torres. Those types of facilities work well for certain segments of the homeless population and are an important resource for the community. However, what we don’t have is true low-barrier shelter, a livable sanctioned camp, or tiny homes/SROs that address the needs of those in extreme poverty who may need longer-term or permanent supportive housing. We don’t need more of what we already have in abundance, and that is all that Webster is selling. Add to that, he won’t even provide a “plan” until March 2022.  To throw money at a man who doesn’t know our area, has no experience with our particular challenges or resources, and no track record of success is fiscally irresponsible, particularly given the good that money could do locally.  It is also worth noting that as with Point of Contact, you are voting on a no-bid contract, set to the maximum possible amount it can be without triggering a bidding process.

We need action, not more partisan obfuscation. We have ready-to-deliver projects that could house people with appropriate supportive services in a matter of months. Reject this proposal and do the right thing for Chico.

Final comments:

It has been 6 months since you oversaw the round up and forced evictions of people during the dead of winter, when literally not one shelter was accepting new clients. Many of them had no way to transport their meager belongings and were left with no protection from the elements. Since that time, several more people have died on our streets. I was at some of those evictions and saw people weeping and asking where they could go, only to be told by the police, “we can’t tell you where to go, but you can’t stay here.” 

It has been 6 months since you were warned those actions were not just immoral but unconstitutional, and chose to pursue them anyway, embroiling the city in yet another costly lawsuit.

It has been 5 months since you gaslighted the public that you could “ban” harm reduction and syringe exchange in the community, knowing full well that action was superseded by state law. Chico again has active harm reduction services, and the only thing you accomplished was wasting our time and money.

It has been 6 weeks since the right-wing extremist group that paid for several of your seats harassed Scott Huber until he was forced first to quit his job, then the council. That harassment included paid ads with links to Scott’s employer – so no surprise that his employer was also contacted and harassed. Since that time, the only person to publicly condemn those actions was Alex Brown.

It has been 5 weeks since Kami Denlay resigned in disgrace after it was discovered she had been living at her family home in Red Bluff since days after being sworn in. Subsequent investigations revealed that she may never have lived at the District 3 address she gave when running for office, and she herself made references to providing “decoy addresses,” something that is patently illegal.  And still, you are not calling for an investigation into what may have actually been election fraud.

It has been 4 weeks since you voted, again with the exception of Alex Brown, to openly subvert our democracy and appoint two council members whose views aligned most closely with your own.

Today you will swear in two council members who do not reflect the concerns or diversity of our community. One of them is a former Police Chief who stated that he believes we should continue to prosecute unconstitutional, illegal ordinances. Your other pick was someone who donated the maximum allowable amount to both Mayor Coolidge and Vice Mayor Reynolds campaigns, as well as significant amounts to Tandon and Morgan. You didn’t make the slightest pretense of representing our community with these appointees, you simply installed two yes-men and rewarded a big-money donor. You have made a travesty of democracy in our city.

You have done nothing in the last 6 months except gaslight the public and pander to the people who paid for your seats. It is shameful and our city is blighted by your actions.  When will you make an attempt to do the right thing for our city, and for all of the people you were elected to serve?