by Leslie Layton
posted Aug. 8
The City of Chico plans to file a court motion next week asking for “relief” from the Warren v. Chico Settlement Agreement, an effort to give City leaders the latitude they seek to enforce anti-camping ordinances, conduct evictions and generally address homelessness.
As negotiations between the City and Legal Services of Northern California (LSNC) came to a crashing halt, the City today issued a press release that says “… with regard to the Warren Settlement Agreement itself, the City expects to file a motion to seek judicial relief” next week.
LSNC represents the homeless plaintiffs in the Warren lawsuit that was filed against this City in 2020.
The City released the July 31 LSNC letter that ChicoSol described in its Aug. 7 story here that proposed revisions to the agreement. It also released the City’s rejection of that proposal.
In an Aug. 7 letter from Attorney John Lam, the City says LSNC’s proposal “would unreasonably restrict the City’s governmental discretion to exercise the City’s constitutional police powers …” Lam wrote that the proposal requires “continued adherence to principles” that have been rejected in the June 28 U.S. Supreme Court ruling Grants Pass v. Johnson.
Dissenting Councilmember Addison Winslow released his statement that illustrates the starkly different views of how homelessness might be addressed, and warns that a “legal battle” will be costly.
“In this direction to refuse negotiations the City is committing to an uncertain legal battle which will exhaust city resources and those of the only legal defense organization in Chico that freely serves seniors and low-income tenants facing unlawful abuse by landlords,” Winslow states.
The City’s press release says that dispute resolution efforts between the two parties in the Warren lawsuit began in November 2023. The City says that one of its goals was to “gain the authority” to manage the Alternate Site campground at Eaton and Cohasset roads, which is for unhoused people who have been referred because they aren’t able to enter a shelter.
That site has increasingly been a focus of community concern, with outbreaks of illnesses, a sense of chaos and a lack of security. Campers complain they’re harassed and shot at by passersby. There are a couple of portable toilets, but there has been no management or provision of lighting and restrooms.
“This is a period of Chico’s history that will survive in infamy” — Addison Winslow
The City says it hasn’t had the ability to control “who is at the site,” and only since February 2023 has it had some control and a “limited ability to manage conduct at the site.”
“Predictably, this resulted in a lawless, chaotic situation that defies reasonable, normal standards for public safety, public health and common sense,” the City says.
The City released the “Implementation Agreement” that came out of the dispute resolution process “as it existed on June 26, 2024” – two days prior to the Grants Pass ruling — that was never signed or executed. It deals with processes to streamline evictions as well as modifications to the Alternate Site. Those modifications included the installation of lighting with surveillance cameras and pop-up shade structures.
The City nevertheless indicates the Settlement Agreement stopped it from making the changes that are needed; Winslow says that’s “disingenuous,” because campers also wanted controlled entry and rules.
The City is now installing lighting, and its press release goes on to list some new rules that bar, for example, most unauthorized entries and dogs off-leash.
“The dispute resolution process that began in November 2023 has now unsuccessfully concluded following the Grants Pass decision,” the City states.
Councilmember Winslow, who has most often been the single member of the panel to object to the majority decisions related to homelessness, defended LSNC’s July 31 revised settlement offer. That offer would allow the City to enforce all anti-camping ordinances with “no more than a three-day notice, while maintaining the practice of ensuring adequate shelter is available …” he states.
Winslow says that in the Aug. 6 closed sessions he “made a plea for us to retain the reasonable practices,” including, for example, involvement by social workers.
“Throughout the shadowy process of managing public policy on homelessness, I have found some of my colleagues on the Council motivated by a genuine resentment of the poor and those who defend them, and others by a belief that uncompromising repression is simply what the majority of Chico voters want,” he states.
(Mayor Andrew Coolidge had not returned a request from ChicoSol for comment on the issue at the time of this story’s posting.)
“This is a period of Chico’s history that will survive in infamy, just as we look back with shame on the persecution and expulsion of the Chico Chinese,” Winslow adds.
Leslie Layton is editor of ChicoSol.
The way to end this cruelty is by voting these individuals out of office. When presented with the choice between governing with compassion to help those in need and turning a blind eye to suffering, it’s disheartening that council members Andrew Coolidge, Sean Morgan, and Tom Van Overbeek have chosen the latter. Their stance is morally bankrupt at best. They stand on the wrong side of history, and history will not remember them kindly. What we do in life, echos in eternity.