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Tag: David Warren

  • Guest Column: Thoughts on Thanksgiving in Citrus Heights

    Guest column submitted by David Warren–
    As an empty nester with family members either too distant to visit or who are now gone, it was difficult to find meaning for Thanksgiving. I awoke to view news that we seem to have forgotten the meaning of the holiday and civility.

    David Warren

    After briefly watching the news, I turned to other television channels only to find a barrage of advertisements attempting to coerce us to shop as soon as possible. I turned to the cable music channel to listen to the sounds of the season, yearning for a Saturday Evening Post Norman Rockwell Thanksgiving, knowing that such family times are likely long gone for too many of us.

    My wife, for whom I am always grateful chose to marry me, asked me to go for groceries again, for the one thing “that I forgot” to purchase. As I drove to the store, even with the potholes that we have in our streets, I realized the streets are in better condition than those in the adjacent unincorporated areas and enjoyed the knowledge that our police department responds timely to requests for service.

    I have observed ignorant individuals telling people speaking Spanish that if they do not speak English, they should go back to where they came from and leave Citrus Heights to real Americans. I remembered reading threatening mail addressed to a Hindu individual if they did not leave Citrus Heights, and having my Kippah knocked off my head by ignorant teenagers threatening me because they thought I was a Muslim.

    As I sat brooding over a mug of tea, the rain clouds parted and the sun broke through. At that moment, I realized that my cup is half full, not half empty.

    Our community for the first time in twenty years has elected a member to the City Council who was likely a teenager when the city was incorporated. Despite municipal political acrimony, the city staff, i.e., police, planning, municipal services, etc., continue to respond to each resident’s questions and requests, whether we like the answer(s) or not. I remembered the too many unnecessary gun deaths.

    Related: Citrus Heights City Council approves first-ever $12M line of credit

    When I sat down to prepare this submission to The Sentinel, although there is a need for commentary over the city’s recent decision to obtain a multi-million-dollar line of credit, there was something much more important to say. So, to each of you, I share these paraphrased thoughts of others which are not repeated enough.

    Be thankful for your tax bill, because it means that you have an income.

    Be thankful for the clothing that fits a little too snugly because it means that you have enough to eat.

    Be thankful for the sun in your eyes, causing you to squint and tear because that means that you can see.

    Be thankful that your windows need cleaning because that means you have a home to live in.

    Be thankful for the mess to clean after a holiday gathering because it means that you are surrounded by friends and family.

    Be thankful for the complaining you hear about the government and the media because it means you have freedom of speech.

    Be thankful for the space you find at the far end of the parking lot because it means that you are capable of walking and will get some exercise.

    Be thankful for hearing the woman who sits behind you in worship singing off-key because it means that you can hear.

    Be thankful for piles of laundry and ironing because it means that you have clothes to wear.

    Be thankful for the stream messages arriving through multiple devices because it means that people are thinking of you and opportunities are coming your way.

    Be thankful for what a friend, a Holocaust survivor, called “the magic of a boring evening at home,” because it means that you are blessed with security, rest, companions and choices.

    Be thankful for weariness and aching muscles at the end of the day because they mean that you have been active and, hopefully, productive.

    Be thankful that every morning when you awake, your spouse is by your side.

    Be thankful for the alarm that goes off in the morning because it means that G-d has given you another day of life.

    At the last council meeting, the plans for the municipal “holiday” celebration were discussed with gusto and joy. What was forgotten during that discussion is a reminder from our municipal leaders that our community is a tapestry of cultures and holiday celebrations, and that we should all respect and participate with those different celebrations with the same gusto and joy.

    As we prepare for the end of the year celebrations, if you see mistreatment of any member of the community, do not remain silent. Instead, remember that “You either have to be part of the solution, or you’re going to be part of the problem.”

    David Warren is a Citrus Heights resident and legislative advocate at the State Capitol with Taxpayers for Public Safety. He can be reached at David@forpublicsafety.com.

    Want to share your own thoughts on this topic or another local issue? Submit a letter to the editor or opinion column for publication: Click here

  • Guest Opinion: Three Citrus Heights council members got it wrong

    *Editor’s note: On July 26, 2018, the City Council voted 3-1 in favor of a resolution giving the City Manager authority to submit letters in support or opposition to “high priority” state legislation where the League of California Cities has requested such action, but where it is determined there is not sufficient time to have the City Council vote on the matter. Mayor Steve Miller, as well as Councilmen Jeff Slowey and Al Fox voted in favor of the resolution. Councilman Bret Daniels voted against the resolution, and Vice Mayor Jeannie Bruins was not present for the vote. The resolution will sunset on Dec. 31, 2019, unless extended by the council. (See full document)

    Guest opinion submitted by David Warren–
    The primary safeguard of a democracy is the requirement that officials act only under the light of public scrutiny, and the Brown Act requires placing all matters for which action is taken by the City Council on a meeting agenda with adequate notice to the public to allow community members to attend and voice their support or opposition to any action under consideration.

    David Warren

    Notwithstanding the importance of public debate and comment, councilmembers approved a resolution last month that allows them to avoid public scrutiny of their actions and simultaneously prevents public comment upon issues of significant importance, apparently believing that Edmond Burke is correct that the electorate lacks the ability to fully comprehend issues of public importance and must be treated as children to be lead to the “proper conclusion.”

    Citrus Heights is a member of the League of California Cities. The League appears before the California legislature to lobby in support and opposition to various items of legislation. The League does not answer to Citrus Heights residents.

    On numerous occasions, the League requests a letter from the City to support or oppose pending legislation, sometimes requesting an immediate response. Because the Brown Act requires minimum notice periods, councilmembers often cannot provide an immediate response to a League request.

    Three councilmembers, deeming a response to the League more important than open discourse upon all issues of public importance, delegated authority to the City Manager to write letters in support and opposition to legislation on behalf of the City in response to requests from the League.

    The three councilmembers’ justification for adopting the resolution is that placing items on the council agenda prevents rapid responses to a League request. To appease the League, and to the detriment of the city residents, three councilmembers chose to ignore their duty to the electorate by approving an end run around the Brown Act meeting notice requirements via a resolution authorizing the City Manager to issue letters of support or opposition to legislation based solely upon the League’s recommendation, without placing the League request on the council agenda for discussion and debate by both members of the council and the public.

    The resolution does purport to limit the City Manager’s power by (1) limiting the authority to matters for which there is insufficient time to obtain council direction; (2) is consistent with previously adopted policies of the City and City Council; and (3) a requirement that the League deems the legislation of “high priority,” a very subjective definition.

    In adopting this resolution, the three councilmembers abandoned their responsibility to determine whether or not the requested letter supporting or opposing legislation is consistent with City policies and in the best interests of the City, relying solely upon an unknown person at the League of Cities to make that decision, at the same time denying residents the opportunity for public comment.

    In response to objections to the motion to adopt the resolution, the City Attorney was asked by Mayor Steve Miller whether or not the City Manager could poll the councilmembers to obtain their decision to issue the letter requested by the League. The City Attorney responded that the City Manager could call each councilmember and request their position, so long as the City Manager did not disclose the decision by any other councilmember, thus sidestepping the open meeting requirements of the Brown Act which ensures councilmembers must publicly explain the reasons for their vote and guaranteeing public comment upon the matter for which there should be approving or rejecting vote.

    The councilmembers are thumbing their noses at the Government Code open meeting requirements for which reason there are three very important issues of concern to every resident.

    First, who should be making community policy decisions, the councilmembers or the city manager? The answer is absolutely clear, the councilmembers.

    Second, should the councilmembers seek to avoid the Brown Act open meeting requirements in the name of expediency? Clearly not.

    Finally, shouldn’t the councilmembers be more concerned with guaranteeing an opportunity for a public hearing than the needs of the League? Absolutely.

    The truth remains, that which is to be most feared is government acting without public scrutiny, and it is the duty of the brave to do everything possible to assure public discourse on all public issues.

    Stand up for your democratic right to assure that all matters before the City Council are decided in a meeting open to the public, not by secret telephone calls. Call your councilmember and ask that the resolution be withdrawn.

    David Warren is a Citrus Heights resident and legislative advocate at the State Capitol with Taxpayers for Public Safety. He can be reached at David@forpublicsafety.com.

    Want to share your own thoughts on this topic or another local issue? Submit a letter to the editor or opinion column for publication: Click here

  • Three more residents pull papers to run for Citrus Heights City Council

    Updated July 27, 6:01 p.m.–
    Sentinel staff report–
    As of Friday, there are now a total of nine residents who have taken the first step towards running for three city council seats up for election this year.

    Latest names to pull papers for council are David Warren, Treston Shull, and Anthony Gutierrez — in addition to six others last week.

    Shull currently serves as an at-large director on the governing board for the Residents’ Empowerment Association of Citrus Heights. According to his professional profile posted online, he also serves as treasurer for the Birdcage Heights Neighborhood Association  and works as a labor relations representative for the Laborers Union. In 2014, he was one of four residents who applied for a vacant position on the Citrus Heights Water District governing board, but was not appointed.

    Warren is a regular attendee and speaker at city council meetings and also serves as a legislative advocate at the State Capitol with Taxpayers for Improving Public Safety. He has regularly taken public positions on controversial topics, including writing in favor of raising local taxes to pay for road repairs, criticizing the city council for censuring Councilman Bret Daniels, and arguing in favor of Proposition 47, a statewide initiative that reduced some felony offenses to misdemeanors in 2014.

    Background information about the other candidate who pulled papers, Anthony Gutierrez, is not known, as is also the case with two other residents who pulled papers last week. More information about each candidate is typically available once election papers are submitted and are available for public review. The deadline to file necessary paperwork is Aug. 10.

    As reported last week, six others have also pulled papers, including all three current council members whose seats are up for election: Mayor Steve Miller, Vice Mayor Jeannie Bruins, and Councilman Al Fox, who was appointed last year to fill the vacancy left by the late Councilman Mel Turner. Planning Commissioner Porsche Middleton also pulled papers, as well as residents David Huber and William Crofton.

    Related: How much do Citrus Heights council members actually get paid?

    After pulling papers, those seeking to qualify for the ballot still have to collect a minimum of 20 valid signatures from registered voters and pay a $25 fee upon filing the signatures with the city clerk’s office. The clerk also checks to ensure candidates are at least 18 years old, are U.S. citizens registered to vote, and are residents of Citrus Heights.

    While the $25 fee is the only cost required to run, candidates can also opt to pay $650 to include a 200-word candidate statement in the November election sample ballot, which is direct-mailed to each voter. As of July 3, the city clerk’s office reports there are 43,747 registered voters in the city.

    Related: Bret Daniels’ election to city council called ‘a shocker’ by Citrus Heights leaders

    In the past, winning candidates for city council have typically raised over $10,000 — although Bret Daniels’ election in 2016 was considered “a shocker” by many, including himself, when he pulled off an election win while raising just $3,100. He was outspent by two other candidates who lost, despite their raising more than three times as much as Daniels.

    The top three vote-getters on Nov. 6 will be seated at the city council’s first meeting in December.

    Want to follow local elections this year? Subscribe to The Sentinel to get exclusive local news delivered to your inbox each Sunday and Thursday.

  • Guest Opinion: Delaying road repair in Citrus Heights is a foolish option

    Road work ahead sign // Citrus Heights Sentinel
    File photo, road work construction sign.

    Guest opinion by David Warren–
    At a recent community meeting in Citrus Heights hosted by Supervisor Sue Frost, some of the individuals present complained about the poor condition of roads in our city and noted potholes going unrepaired for a significant period of time. Supervisor Frost noted that she had personally incurred an expensive automobile repair associated with poor street maintenance, which she also repeated in her newsletter.

    David Warren

    In Los Angeles, City Councilman Joe Buscaino proposed a $3 billion plan to fix thousands of miles of the city’s most deteriorated streets, with potential funding coming from asking property owners to increase taxes by the equivalent of 1% of their property’s value, paid over 29 years. On a home worth $600,000, that would mean paying about $200 more a year. The new revenue would be used to resurface and rebuild the city’s broken streets, part of a 60-year backlog of repairs. Why hasn’t this been done in Citrus Heights?

    Citrus Heights City Council members repeatedly brag about the lack of civic debt. Regretfully, the municipal balance sheet does not reflect the accrued street and curb repair costs.

    Although an effort was made in 2012 to increase taxes to pay for these repairs (along with other public services including an increase in the number of police officers), the ballot measure failed, which means more and more unrepaired streets and sidewalks. Regretfully, the city council has adopted a policy of “pay as you go” — which is okay for operating expenses, but foolish when postponing repairs — instead of increasing taxes or borrowing to make repairs.

    Unfortunately, the Citrus Heights City Council fails to acknowledge the obvious solution demonstrated by the following example. Assume that the roof leaks on your home. Delaying repairs in fact increases the cost of making repairs. Each time it rains, the water enters the home and will cause, at best, damage to the wood frame and wall services. At worst it will damage the utilities inside the home, and possibly introduce mold. Delay in making the roof repair dramatically increases the repair cost.

    There are two ways to pay for the repair: either save enough money to pay for the new roof or borrow to pay for the new roof. The false assumption is that the first alternative will cost less because there is no borrowing interest, assuming that the individual does not have increased earnings to pay for the roof.

    Failing to either increase taxes and/or borrow to pay for municipal street repairs is a false economy. Each day that street repairs are not made, the cost of making the repairs increases — both because the street damage increases, along with increased labor and material costs for the repairs. Further, bad streets increase automobile wear and tear, the repairs being a “tax.” Paid injury claims due to bad streets and sidewalks are also a “tax.”

    A further cost of saving, instead of borrowing or increasing taxes to pay for repairs, is the simple fact that the benefit belongs to those individuals who have not paid the taxes to make the repairs. In other words, the benefit of the repairs is for those that use the streets after the repairs are made, rather than for those that have paid taxes for years for repairs that might be made years into the future.

    A basic economic principle is to examine the present value of an expense discounted for future use. The discount is determined by comparing the estimated cost in the future for the repairs with the interest costs over the term of the loan with the current cost of the repair. The current period of low interest and low inflation made it beneficial to borrow the money and make the repairs now, instead of postponing the repairs until the money is saved.

    Yet, because of what may be perceived as the most important mantra of the city council, i.e. “the city is debt free” and the city should wait until the day that property taxes are no longer paid to Sacramento County, the city’s infrastructure continues to crumble.

    Although it is wise to never borrow money to pay for operating expenses, mitigating infrastructure deterioration by making repairs immediately through a special infrastructure tax or borrowing is preferable to deferring repairs.

    Citrus Heights residents should not look to the county, the state or the federal government to make the necessary repairs. We residents should solve the problem, instead of hoping that someone else will pay the bill.

    David Warren is a Citrus Heights resident and legislative advocate at the State Capitol with Taxpayers for Public Safety. He can be reached at David@forpublicsafety.com.

  • Guest Opinion: Citrus Heights lacks safe disposal spots for unused drugs

    Editor’s Note: This opinion piece refers to the city council recently purchasing secured pill bottles for residents. While the city is helping distribute the bottle locks, the funding came through a $6,000 grant secured by Sacramento County Supervisor Sue Frost, as previously reported in The Sentinel on Jan. 13th. Vice Mayor Jeannie Bruins has also responded to this opinion piece in a letter to the editor.

    Guest opinion by David Warren–
    The insidious proliferation of substance abuse and drug pollution is the silent killer of our community. Any resident having had the unfortunate experience of visiting the Mercy San Juan Hospital emergency room, a park, or shopping center has observed the consequence of substance abuse.

    David Warren

    We rarely think about the taxpayer’s cost of substance abuse and pollution such as the un-reimbursed costs of transportation by ambulance and paramedics after an overdose, an assault or an automobile accident, or the time spent by Citrus Heights police officers dealing with individuals under the influence. Those expenditures pale in comparison to the deterioration of real estate value caused by graffiti painted on walls, drug sales on street corners, the palpable sense of fear, real or imagined, in neighborhoods where sales take place, and the increased pollution treatment cost of water and trash.

    No one ever says “I like to pay taxes.” Taxes to pay for more municipal services means a significant value and benefit in the form of maintenance of property values and peace of mind because of the reduction of substance abuse, reduced property damage/theft loss and the number of both drug purchasers and sellers on our streets. Yet, an insidious form of tax is that imposed upon us by government failing to adequately address substance abuse and pollution problems.

    The City Council purchased a significant number of “secured” pill bottles for distribution to residents in an effort to reduce substance abuse. Although perhaps well meaning, the minimal benefit was not sufficiently considered.

    Related: Citrus Heights offering free locks for prescription pills to help curb misuse

    Individuals that use strong pain medication typically require care givers to remove medications from bottles, i.e., senior citizens, individuals in severe pain from arthritis, cancer, etc. Thus, the secure code to the pill bottle lid is given to those assistants or family members, the very individuals most likely to steal those pain medications. Also, the secure bottles do not address the problem of drug disposal.

    Although the City Council will never be able to unilaterally remove all illegal substances from City streets, it can demonstrate municipal leadership by amending the business license ordinance to require businesses which sell prescription medications to have a secure disposal box at the location to dispose of unused drugs to prevent illegal and improper use or sale. After all, it is the pharmacies and the pharmaceutical industry which are creating the clear and present danger.

    Unfortunately, unlike State and Federal laws which provide for the recovery of batteries, florescent lights, used tires, etc. to prevent pollution, drugs have no such safety provisions. The danger associated with the improper disposal of prescription drugs is not limited to street corner sales or family member abuse, it also includes ground and water pollution.

    There is only one secured pharmaceutical disposal box at a Citrus Heights pharmacy, and the City only twice a year participates in a national program of safe disposal. It is human nature because it requires no effort to improperly dispose of drugs by dumping them into the trash or dropping them into the toilet — even while individuals who dispose of drugs via the sewer system or landfills endanger the water supply, perhaps because they do not know what to do with unused pharmaceuticals.

    The illegal use, improper storage and irresponsible disposal of drugs is a tax that we pay indirectly. We all pay more for the things we buy because of the increased cost of doing business due to theft along with the repair of structures to remove graffiti and clean up the mess and danger caused by needles which are disposed of improperly. We all pay more for water in order to have it treated to remove all types of drugs which have seeped into the water supply, another indirect tax.

    A City Council member told me recently that the reason for not mandating the drug disposal box is that it will discourage business in Citrus Heights. The City Council would rather that we as residents indirectly “pay the tax” in the form of higher prices for goods and services caused by substance abuse and pollution related costs instead of compelling the businesses that are selling the drugs to provide safe and proper disposal.

    Why, especially when one of the City Council members wants to be the County Sheriff, is the City offering bottles to store drugs instead of making sure that drugs do not either fall into the wrong hands or are the cause of pollution? Why isn’t the City Council demanding the businesses which sell the drugs pay for their proper disposal?

    David Warren is a Citrus Heights resident and legislative advocate at the State Capitol with Taxpayers for Public Safety. He can be reached at David@forpublicsafety.com.

    Have a different perspective on this topic or another local issue? The Sentinel welcomes letters to the editor and guest opinion columns on local issues from Citrus Heights residents. Click here to submit one.

  • Guest Opinion: Citrus Heights mayor should apologize for ‘kneeling’ remark

    Guest opinion column submitted by David Warren–
    At the Sept. 28 Citrus Heights City Council meeting, the Cub Scouts presented and posted the colors, followed by leading the Salute to the Flag. As the audience took their seats, Mayor Jeff Slowey said “thank you for nobody in the audience taking a knee,” a derogatory reference to athletes who for some demonstrated their concern about social issues or in response to statements made by the President of the United States. Regretfully, no member of the city council criticized the inappropriate statement.

    David Warren

    Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts were present at the city council meeting for an educational experience. They may have learned that although freedom of speech is a constitutional right, those who exercise that freedom in a way the mayor disagrees with cannot be tolerated.

    The First Amendment to the United States Constitution “prohibits the making of any law respecting . . . abridging the freedom of speech.” The California Constitution at Article I §2(a) states: “Every person may freely speak, write and publish his or her sentiments on all subjects, being responsible for the abuse of this right. A law may not restrain or abridge liberty of speech or press.”

    The price of freedom of speech is not censoring or preventing the actions or words which one finds intolerable, stupid, ignorant and uninformed, so long as they are nonviolent. Every member of the city council must govern by the oft-quoted legal axiom “Each side takes the position of the man who was arrested for swinging his arms and hitting another in the nose, and asked the judge if he did not have a right to swing his arms in a free country. ‘Your right to swing your arms ends just where the other man’s nose begins.’” Unfortunately, the mayor appears to have forgotten his responsibility to uphold all provisions of the Constitution as the nonviolent “taking a knee” did not strike the mayor’s nose.

    The California oath of office states: “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which I am about to enter.”

    Also on The Sentinel: The Civic Minute: What’s happening at Citrus Heights city hall? (Oct. 12)

    The mayor swore to protect freedom of speech for all persons, including Citrus Heights residents. The mayor’s constitutional freedom of speech as a private citizen includes expressing the opinion that athletes not standing for the National Anthem is wrong. However, when the mayor speaks in his capacity as the chief spokesman for all residents of the City of Citrus Heights, the mayor should not proffer those opinions during a city council meeting, because the mayor’s duty is to represent all residents, not only those who agree with him.

    A recent poll of college students revealed that 20% of college students agree that violence is acceptable to silence offensive speech. In communities across the country, public demonstrations and civil disobedience became out-of-control riots. Nationally, rhetoric has divided the country, not united it. City council members in their official roles have a responsibility to lead by example and unite the citizenry by praising the exercise of freedom of speech, no matter how repugnant.

    Apparently too long ago, and now apparently forgotten by the mayor, incidents such as George Wallace’s attempts at the University of Alabama to preserve segregation, and the accusation that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a communist, led to youthful civil disobedience, which culminated in the need for national introspection after the violence outside the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago.

    When individuals demonstrate disagreement in a nonviolent manner on issues of public concern, they do not show any lack of respect for the military or veterans, the National Anthem, and the pledge of allegiance. The mayor’s “teaching moment” should have been to reinforce that, although some people in the council chambers that night believed that not standing for the National Anthem is disrespectful and insults those that have been wounded or died protecting our constitutional freedoms, honoring those who have served includes assuring that the sacrifice is not forgotten by those who believe that they, and they alone, know what is appropriate conduct and speech.

    At the very least, the mayor in his role as the titular leader of the City Citrus Heights and all city council members should publicly disavow the Sept. 28 statement and reaffirm respect for the constitutional right to freedom of speech, no matter how offensive. That is true democracy.

    David Warren is a Citrus Heights resident and legislative advocate at the State Capitol with Taxpayers for Public Safety. He can be reached at David@forpublicsafety.com.

    Have a different perspective on this topic or another local issue? The Sentinel welcomes letters to the editor and guest opinion columns on local issues from Citrus Heights residents. Click here to submit one.

  • Guest Opinion: Prop 47 has reduced crime and made Citrus Heights safer

    Guest opinion column submitted by David Warren–
    Recent comments by Citrus Heights Police Department representatives assert that legislation adopted to divert nonviolent offenders to local supervision has increased the crime rate. That legislation includes Prop 36, which allows habituated individuals to obtain treatment instead of being incarcerated; Prop 57, which provided for parole of numerous inmates under local probation department supervision; and Prop 47, which returned crimes to misdemeanors that had become felonies because of economic inflation.

    David Warren

    Actually, the crime rate has diminished over the last six years, according to data from the California Department of Justice cited in a Sept. 25 article by the Public Policy Institute of California. State crime statistics, especially for Sacramento County, confirm that crime is decreasing, except for certain urban cities, where non-violent crime has increased.

    Related: Citrus Heights sees spike in burglaries, drop in violent crime

    In 1974, Willie Horton robbed and fatally stabbed a gas station attendant. Horton was convicted of murder, sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, and incarcerated in Massachusetts. On June 6, 1986, Horton was released to a work furlough program, but did not return to prison. On April 3, 1987, Horton raped a woman after pistol-whipping, knifing, binding, and gagging her fiancé and escaped in a car stolen from the man he had assaulted. Horton was convicted and sentenced to two consecutive life terms, plus 85 years.

    1988 presidential candidate Michael Dukakis was the governor of Massachusetts at the time of Horton’s release and supported the weekend work furlough which excluded life sentences. George W. Bush’s presidential campaign aired a television advertisement suggesting that if elected, Michael Dukakis would endanger America because if he would allow dangerous felons to be released being “soft on crime,” as president, he would not have sufficient intestinal fortitude to stand up to America’s enemies.

    “Tough on crime” began when public office candidates promised to outdo others to incarcerate as many people for as long as possible. The litmus test for election became who is “toughest” on crime. Too often when a crime occurs, police and politicians blame supposedly “soft on crime” laws as the cause. The “if it bleeds, it leads” mentality of television strikes fear into the hearts of the public, especially when respected police officers blame a false cause for the crime: penal reform. Funding for public health; road repairs; primary, secondary, and university education; forestry preservation; the social safety net; and public safety such as fire, police and sheriff’s officers, have been reduced annually in order to pay for the costs of mass incarceration.

    A frightening consequence of “tough on crime” was the disproportionate number of racial minorities that were incarcerated. Inmates formed racially segregated gangs inside the prisons, initially for mutual racial safety, and then to exploit the sale and distribution of drugs, weapons, and human trafficking outside prisons. La EME, Nuestra Familia, Black Guerrilla Family, Aryan Brotherhood, and the Nazi Low Riders came into existence because of the harsh sentences which caused inmates to believe they had little chance of ever being released from prison, believing that “it was better to be a prince in hell than a slave in heaven.” Those gangs threaten Citrus Heights by bringing gang violence and drugs to our community.

    In 2011, the federal courts ruled that the California prisons violated the United States Constitution because of overcrowding. California was given three choices: build new prisons, reduce inmate population, or have the court’s release inmates. The legislature refused to raise taxes to build and operate new prisons, and elected to choose which and how inmates would be released from prison.

    Further solutions are now necessary. Sacramento County funds 75 mental health beds, yet Sacramento County has more than 2,000 homeless including many in Citrus Heights, many of whom are veterans suffering from PTSD. Statistics confirm than 25 percent of the prison inmate population are in custody for crimes as a consequence of mental illness issues, almost 30,000 men and women in California. California has not built a single mental treatment facility since Governor Reagan closed them, except for 1,500 beds in a California prison due to court orders. California’s education system in middle and lower economic areas is in a near state of collapse.

    Despite blame pointed at penal reform by Citrus Heights police, a more realistic cause of increased property crime is lack of financial support for rehabilitation services and police patrol staffing increases on the street.

    For some individuals, nothing can be done to prevent their criminal conduct.  The hiring of more Citrus Heights police officers to maintain a very public presence, along with adequate funding for the AB 109, Prop 47 and Prop 57 rehabilitation services, will make us all safer with a concomitant lower crime rate.  We in Citrus Heights have two choices: pay the cost of criminal conduct, i.e., property damage and increased insurance premiums, or pay our city to increase the police presence to prevent crime.

    David Warren is a Citrus Heights resident and legislative advocate at the State Capitol with Taxpayers for Public Safety. He can be reached at David@forpublicsafety.com.

    Have a different perspective on this topic or another local issue? The Sentinel accepts guest opinion columns on local issues from Citrus Heights residents. Click here to submit one.

  • How will the vacancy on Citrus Heights’ city council be filled?

    Mel Turner, city council
    The Citrus Heights city council is seeking to fill a vacancy left by councilman Mel Turner, who passed away April 20. // Image credit: Sac Metro Cable 14

    Following the recent death of Councilman Mel Turner, the five-member Citrus Heights city council is seeking to fill a vacancy among its ranks.

    With three options at their legal discretion to select, the four current members of the council opted during an April 27 council meeting to appoint a new member within the next 60 days, rather than call for a special election, or leave the seat vacant until the next municipal election.

    Mayor Jeff Slowey and several other council members cited costs as the primary reason for avoiding a special election. According to the city clerk, estimated costs of a special election would be in the range of $460,000 to “upwards of $920,000.”

    A sole resident spoke during public comment at the meeting, advocating that a special election would be most in line with principles of democracy.

    “I believe it to be entirely inappropriate for the city council to select an individual,” resident David Warren told the council. “We should be allowed to vote on the next member of the city council.”

    Council members were unconvinced by Warren’s comments and unanimously opted to fill the vacancy through an appointment process.

    “I’m not willing to spend the minimum amount or the maximum amount [of a special election], quite frankly,” said Slowey. His comments were echoed by Councilwoman Jeannie Bruins, who said the appointment process has a track record of successfully filling at least two past vacancies on the city council.

    Bruins also said she agreed that an election would be ideal, but said costs prohibited the option.

    The council’s decision was followed by a news release on Friday announcing that applications are currently available and will be accepted through May 11 at 5 p.m. Applications are available from the city clerk’s office at city hall, as well as on the city’s website.

    To qualify, city council applicants must be at least 18 years old and be a resident and registered voter in the city of Citrus Heights. The appointed council member will serve on the city council through December 2018.

    According to the news release, a special council meeting will be set “on a date yet to be determined” to conduct interviews with applicants. An appointment is required to be made within 60 days.

    —
    Application information: Click here

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