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HomeMy WebLinkAbout06-02-2015 C5 HedrickLomeli, Monique From: Donald Hedrick <donhedrick @sbcglobal.net> Sent: Monday, June 01, 2015 8:33 PM To: Mejia, Anthony; Donald Hedrick Subject: June 2 council meeting C5 For Consideration at the June 2, 2015 City Council Meeting ;To; San Luis Obispo City Council Subject: Consent Item 5 JUN 02 2015 COUNCIL MEETING: No ap- L � ITEM NO.: _�� On reading the whole submissions to C5 it appears to be more interested in aligning with and rubber stamping of the mandates of higher up governments to make a paper trail of their activities in the handling of the problems of homelessness and the mentally ill. It appears that the Federal Idea is to use the law enforcement system as a major participant in the CAT that is supposed to address the issue. Social Services is the other side of the CAT program. Both seem more interested in the documentation of the efforts of a coordinated attack on the suffering objective of the problems in our society. Even more it appears to be a way to hook into those addictive government grant monies that come with such strings that bring to mind the increased intrusion of big government into our lives. What seems more disturbing is the intended clients are important to the successful coordination of the multi agencies task force which is mostly representative of law enforcement and detention than the actual social services participants. It appears that the Federal view is it is a criminal act to be homeless or mentally ill. We should not be treating the homeless and mentally ill as a crime. I have had a recent experience with the CAT program in their supposed service to help my friend who I have been helping for the last nine months since she was dragged out of her duplex that she had ;been in for 12 years under fair housing for a disabled person. She became a refugee of the LUCE Plan and the South Broad Street Expansion Plan when her landlord saw dollar signs and raised the rent of her neighbors but her on fixed income was given the notice to vacate. After the cops pinned her up against the refrigerator and checked between her legs to confirm they had the right person with one leg, they dragged her out of her house wearing only a Tee shirt and no shoe ore underwear and slapped her down and the paramedics put and IV port into her. She was abducted against her will to French Hospital and then on to a hospital in Santa Ana. Two weeks there then into a FEMA camp old folks home. She was sprung from there by some friends after they would not let her crawl out. She lived in her wheel chair in my parking space for near eight months until my landlord threatened to evict me because of her distraction to the business neighbors. So she was relocated onto the street with her stuff on my forklift trailer and for a time has been stuck there for lack of batteries in her wheel chair. The forklift trailer was needed for Whale transport duty and I put my utility trailer in place of the forklift trailer to be loaded with her stuff for transport to storage. I had researched the batteries on eBay and found a great deal for the group 27 batteries and eventually when the social services and CAT got involved a donor was found and the batteries were shipped. Dee received them at the start of the week but it took the rest of the week with me even offering to transport and install them. I had made it clear that I had a job to work in Pismo that weekend but on Friday afternoon before the holiday week and the batteries were delivered. It was a suprise that the batteries came an inch longer than the usual group 27 and there needed to have some adapter fabricated. I can do that kind of thing but the long delay stuck in the social services system for the week required that I do the adapter after the holiday. It took too long for Lisa to commit to loading her stuff for sotrage that a complaint was made and over the holiday at three in the morning my trailer was towed. The priority then became the recovery of my impounded trailer. While at the police shop I was accosted by officer Behrins and was told that I was a thief and that I had to return the batteries. I responded that they were safe and I needed them to measure for a proper fit of the batteries to the chair. Several days later after two days of recovering my trailer that was impounded by officer Diggens and I had finished my morning duties and was heading back to start the adapter fabrication I came across the whole CAT team it seamed and more gathered around Lisa. There I was again called a thief by officer Behrins and Lisa was publicly announced to be mentally ill. I had been helping Lisa survive for the better part of a year and now while still doing an act of mercy and then we have to be denigrated in public as a thief and mentally ill. I think that the CAT team need some review and at the least some sensitivity training. Well, Officer Behrins demanded that I give him the batteries before I could start work on the adapter so he stole them under color of authority and called me a thief again and took them back to social services so I had nothing to get the measurements from. I finished the adapter at three o'clock and placed it in the chair but we had no batteries because Officer Behrins had stolen the batteries from the fabricator of the adapter. Due to lack of access to the batteries for proper measurements I wound up having to remake the adapter. Then with the job done Officer Behrins accosted me at my shop and again called me a thief and Lisa as being mentally ill as he demanded under color of authority to relieve me of the adapter and who knows where he would have taken it. I guess it was an accessory to stolen property. Fortunately it was already installed on the wheel chair or the officer would have been the thief of the product of my hands. The next day there was a gathering of a bunch of social worker types and their mobility aid tech of choice who installed the batteries and praised my handiwork of making the adapter. I strongly urge caution and stronger oversight of the CAT program as it has shown its colors of authority and they seem more like a heavy footed intrusion of Big Brother in the federalizing of our town and the concepts expressed in the lengthy grant proposal seem to off to an awfully roughshod start. I also think that there is more to this experience than just gtetting a problem off the street. There could be an overtone of politics and the harassment of a candidate which may be a federal crime. It is said that no good deed goes unpunished and my giving mercy to a fellow person who has experienced the malfeasance of government before are now getting another dose. Where do I send the bill for the interference with my project to adapt the battery platform on Lisa's wheel chair as It made the job twice as long?