HomeMy WebLinkAbout03-20-2012 JenkinsJTEW JENKINS RECEIVED
ATTORNEY MAR 2 0 2012
SE O CITY CLERK
arnc auy & %a
1336 Morro Street, San Luis Obispo CA 93401
Phow (000) 6414765 FAX (006) 949 =16011
March 19, 2012
Mayor Marx
Council Members Carter, Ashbaugh, Smith & Carpenter
City Hall, 990 Palm Street
San Luis Obispo, CA 93401 By Hand Delivery & Email
j ashbaug@ slocity .orgjmarx @slocity.org;ancarter@ slocity. org;dcarpent @slocity.org;ksmith @slocity.org.
Reference: March 20, 2012 "Safe Parking" in Prado Day Center Proposal — Agenda item B -1
Dear Mayor Marx & Council Members,
My friends. For the first time since moving to San Luis Obispo in 19611 am ashamed of my City. When and
how could it become acceptable to criminalize human existence based on poverty? That is what the
implementation of the City's ordinance 17.16.015 and Penal Code Section 647(e) is doing. I do not believe
any of you want or intend to criminalize people simply caught in hard economic times; but that is the result of
the recent direction given our police to systematically roust families, couples and individuals who have
nowhere to lay their head but the seat of a car or the bench in an RV.
The City's recent program of enforcement against the homeless has turned a planning ordinance into an
unconstitutional vagrancy law; particularly with the way that has been coupled with PC §647(e). Banishing
the impoverished members of the public from public spaces has been repeatedly struck down by American
courts and dates back to the rights of even the poorest English citizens to use of "the commons."
To make it plain, exempting 5 vehicles out of the 601 that City staff could find where people are forced to
sleep on the street is not a solution. The City's implementation of the ordinance already violates California
law, and the California and United States Constitution, by criminalizing human existence. Throwing out a
bone to give special privileges to those sleeping in 5 vehicles only makes the Constitutional disparity worse.
You are better than this. Our City and its citizens are better than this.
I urge you to revise the resolution being considered on agenda items B -1 to do four important things:
1) Entirely and permanently suspend ordinance number 17.16.015 on San Luis Obispo City streets;
2) Direct the City Attorney's office to dismiss all currently pending citations, court cases, and
prosecutions of violations of that ordinance;
3) Make motion in the Superior Court to expunge any conviction on that ordinance obtained since
November 1, 2011, and vacate any fines, penalties, punishments or warrants related to those
convictions.
4) Refund any fines paid by any individual to the City or to the Court based on that ordinance
since November 1, 2011.
I Plainly, the survey of the City Staff concentrated on the Prado Road vicinity, and common experience tells us that
many more than 60 vehicles are being used as overnight refuge by families, couples and individuals in other
neighborhoods. In my own neighborhood, common respect yields a more effective remedy than 17.16.015 does.
"Locus poenitentiae" is in the Law the point of repentance; a moment when a wrong can be called back before
it is given full effect. Adopting the 4 measures recommended above instead of the resolution sought by Staff
under agenda item B -1, will put the City in locus poenitentiae; and reverse this public wrong. Any other
course will predictably result in legal challenges of the City's actions.
I urge you to consider spending the considerable savings the City will enjoy by avoiding such litigation to
instead have the police periodically distribute free vouchers to homeless families living in RVs on the street
so they can use the $10 sewage pump -out station identified in the staff report. You could consider using those
savings to place conveniently located honey -huts near where folks are congregating in creeks and in the scrub,
or sleeping in cars. Having police contacting these impoverished families and individuals to help the
homeless know about pump -out vouchers and where sanitary facilities were available will positively change
the tone of relations between the homeless and the police. It will make it easier for the police to learn when
real crimes are committed in and near our homeless neighbors.
The fundamental nature of the issues at hand is as old as human existence, and is not simply enshrined in the
Constitution. Other authors have addressed the basic duties of public action and restraint we owe each other.
Matthew 25:31 -46 (King James Version): "Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye
blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: 35 For I was an
hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in 36
Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. 37 Then shall
the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave
thee drink? 38 When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? 39 Or when saw we
thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? 40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say
unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto
me. 41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire,
prepared for the devil and his angels: 42 For I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat; I was thirsty, and ye
gave me no drink: 43 I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in
prison, and ye visited me not. 44 Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an
hungered, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? 45 Then shall
he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye
did it not to me. 46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal."
I thank you for your consideration, service, and
— including the "least of these" forced to live on the stre
Stew
to you to serve all of the residents of our City