Freedom SleepOut #49 Will Follow Council's Doling Out More Cash for Cops

There is more bad news at the afternoon's City Council agenda: Rubberstamping of the Budget and Police Pork on the Consent Agenda.

ON THE COUNCIL AGENDA
The 2:30 PM has item #5, expanding triple fine zones for the holidays from the downtown area to include the entire city for July 4, Halloween, and New Year's. Plus expanding the time affected to 48 hours before and 48 hours after the holiday itself. Pretty serious expansion of police power for harassment (and fund-raising) for minor offenses.

Item #6 kicks down $100,000 for grafitti abatement; item #8 $50,000 for a trash container up at the golf course; item #10 authorizes the City's whole financial packet without any examination of investments in war profiteering or companies boycotted by the BDS movement (to boycott Israel unless it leaves the Occupied territories); item #11 $36,000 for new police helmets at $350+ a helmet.

BREN LEHR'S BARRICADING
Item #12 includes two demands for damages because of police abuse, but City Administrator/Clerk Bren Lehr has removed from the agenda packet the original written claims of the victims, so the public doesn't know what's happened or how to contact them. Even though these are Public Records and should be available 72-hours before the meeting. Lehr has them. She simply won't post them. At my demand some months ago, she did initially post the original claims with contact information removed. When I demanded she include that information, she pulled the claims entirely. She was forced to provide them as Public Records to me as an individual but not for the public generally through the agenda packet.

If anyone wants to talk on these Consent Agenda items, I encourage you to send an e-mail to a Council member (mposner [at] cityofsantacruz.com, dlane [at] cityofsantacruz.com, cchase [at] cityofsantacruz.com, etc.) asking them to pull the item from the agenda for separate discussion and vote. Or call them at 420-5020 and leave them a message.

Otherwise you need to talk real fast during the 2 minutes that Mayor "Two Minute" Mathews allows. Sum up your views on any and all 18 Consent Agenda items during that two minutes. Folks who have serious issues to raise on more than one item and need at least 2 minutes per item to present them, should contact a Council member in advance with suitable gestures of respect, gifts, and campaign contributions. Since all this is now "at the discretion" of the Council. Constitutional Attorney (now Cannabis-hostile Supervisor) Ryan Coonerty removed the public's right to individually address items back in 2007 or so--unless a Council member pulls the item.

NUMBER AND LOCATION OF BLUE BOXES NOT SETTLED
The Resolution specifying the number and location of the blue cages, or "exempt zones" (as the blue bracketed areas on Pacific Avenue are called) is NOT on the agenda as anticipated. However the law banning jewelry and other "Commercial" sales and uses, tightening the "move every hour" law, and enacting further restrictions on using the blue cages goes into effect on June 23 or 24th.

FOOD AND FROLIC AT FREEDOM SLEEP-OUT #49
More vegan vegee's throughout the afternoon and evening compliments of Food Not Bombs soupsters. Probably some hot coffee and rich broth from Jumbogumbo Joe Schultz in the early evening. And the traditional visits from First Alarm Security Thugs, engaging in their unwanted "wake up" routine for people sleeping on the sidewalk (last week 20-30). Still no citations for sleeping on the sidewalk there (though elsewhere houseless people still face $159 fines.

Freedom Sleepers will also be organizing a July 5 Memorial and Anniversary Event probably at an 8 PM meeting on or near the sidewalk. If you'd like to help, contact us at 831-423-4833.

Donations of food, blankets, clothing, and energy (not to mention your time sleeping on the sidewalk) are earnestly solicited.

WRESTLING VIDEO FROM THE GRIP OF POLICE AND CITY ATTORNEY
On Friday June 17 I have a Motions Hearing on my two "in the park after 10 PM" citations (10 AM Dept. 1). Technically it's termed a Motion to Compel. Police have been photoed and videoed as they themselves videoed the Freedom Sleepers. Repeatedly, they and the City Attorney have declined to turn over to defendants, charged with $198 citations, the video and audio they took on night after night.

The issue here is to get the police video and audio released prior to trial to show (a) a political protest at City Hall was being suppressed, (b) the law allowing us to be on the path through the City Hall Courtyard was ignored, and (c) we were denied access to the City Council agendas, as required by the Brown Act. See https://www.indybay.org/uploads/2015/08/20/sleep-out-22-santa-cruz-police-sgt-david-forbus-city-hall.jpg .

I hope to use the occasion to publicize the City's continuing harassment of Freedom Sleepers (and, of course, the unhoused community).

There is a chance that the well-documented City staff's movement of agendas to the sidewalk in December actually acknowledges the illegality of police action in blocking Freedom Sleepers from reviewing the agendas--which were inside the "Forbidden Zone". This may nullify my tickets (and perhaps those of all other Freedom Sleepers) and show that the arrests were false. My court (not jury) trial before Judge Marigonda is currently slated for June 24 at 10 AM but may be postponed--if the Discovery Motion is granted.