Greater responsibility, understanding are past due

I have 36 years law enforcement experience, 12 as a chief of police, plus another 10 years experience with college level instruction and management. I worked in three great cities — Santa Cruz, Chico and Santa Rosa.

Quality of life was exceptional in all three. Politics were different. Santa Cruz was consistently liberal. Santa Rosa was nicely balanced. Chico historically swung from liberal to conservative and back again. The good news for Chico is that the city ultimately benefited when the best ideas of either “side” were used.

During these years, I also found myself dealing with lawsuits in both state and federal courts. I never lost. Primarily because I benefited from high caliber, well-trained peace officers, 911 operators and support staff operating within the parameters of lawful policy and procedures. Added to this were some of the most competent and professional attorneys who were supported by city councils.

I learned early on that you never, ever give the impression that you might be playing games with an issue before a federal judge. Never. Unfortunately, Chico is currently demonstrating that this lesson is not well understood. The failure wastes resources and fails to use revenues in the most meaningful manner. Perhaps worse of all, it creates a broad, public perception that Chico does not have its act together. Preferring instead to polarize what is otherwise a challenging issue but one that can be improved with reasonable minds and efforts.

On the matter of homelessness, any Chico ordinance already criticized by any court should have been repaired by now. Efforts working on homelessness should routinely involve, in a team-like manner, County Mental Health; and, as Sheriff Honea has aptly demonstrated, the working relationship between local law enforcement and County Mental Health must be very strong. Anything less is simply not good enough.

An easy rule of thumb to go by for shelters is this: Would you feel comfortable with a 6-year-old child (your own?) staying in it with their parent? Too many people classify homelessness based upon seeing the worst-case examples living on the street and abusing medications and other substances. Many homeless people are parents and children. One either opens their eyes to this, or they have no business making decisions about this matter. Mental Health is routinely challenged by insufficient funding. Like it or not, cities must help if honest improvements are really desired.

Finally, those who propose homeless services, including food, near commercial business centers have harmed Chico too much over the years. Additionally, the jewel of Chico is Bidwell Park. When Annie’s

Glen is used as a campground and a symbolically important riparian corridor suffers all variety of pollution, the entire community is harmed. Greater responsibility and understanding is way past due.

Chico has strengths. The one I was most hoping to see during this divided period in our nation is intelligent management focused on best practices and broad understandings. To date this has not happened. We all lose when our elected officials lower themselves to the type of behavior we are currently watching.