Tag: Chico City Council

Chico moves to dissolve lawsuit settlement

Winslow: The pallet shelters are "hostage" in the homeless case
by Leslie Layton and Natalie Hanson | Posted July 17, 2024

photo by Dave Waddell
Eric Johnson

The City of Chico announced today that it plans to dissolve the lawsuit settlement that for the past 18 months has restricted its ability to conduct eviction sweeps at homeless encampments. It says it will return to court.

The January 2022 Settlement Agreement produced by the Warren v. Chico lawsuit requires the City show it has shelter beds available before evicting unhoused people from public property. If the City prevails in a new round of litigation, it will once again be able to enforce anti-camping ordinances and conduct eviction sweeps freely.

In today’s press release from the City, it said the agreement should be replaced following the 6-3 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Grants Pass v. Johnson. The City said it’s proposing “a new agreement that would supersede the Warren Settlement Agreement …” read more

Chico residents again plea for a ceasefire resolution

Some students say they're facing harassment
by Natalie Hanson | Posted March 21, 2024

photo by Natalie Hanson
Yahmo Aqhba: “[The war is] affecting people, killing people we know and love.”

A group of Chico residents again have called on city leaders — in a third effort — to pass a ceasefire resolution that would show support for the Palestinian community amid Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.

At the meeting earlier this week (March 19), activist Rain Scher stepped to the podium to present a revised ceasefire resolution to the City Council. Scher, a member of Chico Jews in Solidarity with Palestine, pointed out that the new resolution calls for declaring that all human life is “precious.” Scher told ChicoSol that the resolution “explicity names both the Palestinian and Israeli casualties.” read more

Emergency meeting violates Brown Act

"Urgency" and "emergency" different things, attorney says
by Leslie Layton | Posted January 11, 2024

Emergency meeting agenda

A Jan. 6 emergency meeting held by Chico City Council appears to have been illegal – in other words, a violation of the Ralph M. Brown Act that governs meeting access in California.

The Saturday meeting was called on short notice to consider matters “involving the disruption or threatened disruption of public facilities” after the winter sheltering program, Safe Space, held intake at The Hands sculpture near the Municipal Center on Jan. 5.

An attorney consulted by ChicoSol indicated he doesn’t think the nature of the disruption justified an emergency meeting under state law. “The bottom line is, I don’t think this rises to the level of emergency under the Brown Act,” said David Loy, legal director for the San Rafael-based First Amendment Coalition (FAC) that works to defend open-government laws. read more

How City sidelined the “quickest and simplest option” for unhoused people

Winslow: "the government owes safety and security to everyone"
by Addison Winslow | Posted September 3, 2023

photo by Karen Laslo
City staff cleared Depot Park Aug. 31, evicting people from what had become the last large encampment.

The Warren v Chico settlement forced Chico into a reckoning with homelessness; such a reckoning that city policy now has the effect of a boulder rolling down a hill. Not once since I was sworn into office last December has the City Council been asked for or given direction on homelessness.

Taking the settlement forced on us by a federal court as the entirety of our City’s policy to address homelessness puts Chico in a rut. Because the court decided that a shelter bed only qualifies as a token for eviction if it is indoors, we have sidelined the quickest and simplest option to improve conditions of people camping in public spaces: managed camping in an environmentally responsible location. The biggest absurdity of this is that, as part of the settlement agreement, we have sanctioned campgrounds (three of them, technically, though all at the same intersection), and regulation is just piecemeal or nonexistent. read more

Democrats issue call for special Council election

by ChicoSol staff | Posted June 29, 2021

David Welch, speaking for the Butte County Democratic Party, today called for a special election to replace two former Chico City councilors: Scott Huber and Kami Denlay.

The Democrats say the council election should be combined with the “attempted recall of the governor.” See our story “Chico in turmoil” for more information on the town’s political drama and homelessness crisis — photo and reporting by Karen Laslo.

Chico in turmoil with shrinking City Council

Councilor Kami Denlay resigns
by Leslie Layton | Posted June 28, 2021

photo by Karen Laslo
Councilor Kami Denlay resigned June 27.

This is what a political crisis looks like: Two City Council resignations in seven days. A barely-used emergency shelter for homeless residents that was erected by the city on a remote lot. Social media threads where commenters use terms like “trench warfare” to describe local politics.

The second City Council resignation came June 27 when first-term Councilor Kami Denlay announced she was stepping down — only seven days after her colleague, Scott Huber, had resigned. That leaves two vacancies on the seven-member panel – an unprecedented event, at least in recent decades.

The resignations — from councilors at opposite ends of the political spectrum on the issue of homelessness — come as Chico, bitterly divided over how to manage the problem, approaches a July 2 deadline imposed by a federal judge for action on an emergency shelter. read more