They took my plastic bags, straws and sugary drinks and I remained silent. They diminished the privacy of my home with housing mandates, accessory dwelling units and rent control, and again I remained silent. They abused my freedom of association with my neighbors with mandated homelessness solutions, sober living and drug rehab homes yet I remained silent. They want to bypass local planning departments to fast track high density housing units without regard to the local impact to existing residents. When will the political elites of California have enough regulations and enough control over you and me? It will never be enough as long as I/we continued to remain silent! The mouse was given a cookie.
I, and the majority of the Los Alamitos City Council recently “broke our silence” by deeds and actions against the regulatory encroachment by the super-majorities in the California State Assembly and State Senate. The State’s passage of SB 54, aka “California Values Act,” is another example of the continuous childish tantrums and egregious overreach by state legislators in Sacramento. Enough is enough! The mouse was given a glass of milk.
The City Council voted 4-1 to take a courageous stand against the State. We were the first, and continue to be the only city in the state to have passed an ordinance (our own local law) that codifies and affirms our rights to exercise local control over our “municipal affairs.” The rights of local control by a Charter City over “Municipal Affairs,” and specifically over our police force, are granted and guaranteed to us by the State Constitution. This constitutional right cannot be taken away from us (or other Charter Cities) by the Governor or the State Legislature. It can only be taken away by a Constitutional amendment, or it can be surrendered away by weak Charter City leadership that capitulates and concedes that we are wrong, that we were uppity, and that we should simply bow our heads in quiet submission and let the State dictate what municipal affairs we can control. The mouse asked for a straw.
The City Council action of codifying our guaranteed right (as a Charter City) of local control over our police force and municipal affairs, triggered an ACLU-funded lawsuit by a Los Alamitos resident and a citizens group. The resident and citizen’s group opposes the City Council’s action of exercising local control over our municipal affairs by our passing of our ordinance that essentially affirms that Los Alamitos is not a sanctuary city. Another nuanced message is that our (Charter) city is not a “ward” of the State.
My colleagues fail to understand that our city is perhaps the most ideal city to challenge the State’s overreach on this specific topic: We do not have a traditional jail where inmates are held for days; so we do not contact ICE to see if an immigration detainer request is issued before releasing anyone. We do not have sizable manufacturing plants that exploit illegal immigrant laborers and that would be potentially subjected to requests for ICE inspections and audits. We do not have enclaves of immigrant communities where violent illegal immigrants could hide and avoid attention from local police and Federal law officers; enclaves where violent illegal immigrants could commit crimes against legal and illegal immigrants.
Many, including my colleagues, are focused only on the money expended to defend against the lawsuit initiated against the City by the resident and citizen’s group. Unfortunately, my colleagues are failing to see that protests on both sides of the Sanctuary State issue are merely the loudest voices that do not always represent the true majority in the middle. The majority’s voices are often subtle, but well-reasoned, and they typically do not speak loudly. When they do speak, it is at the ballot box with their vote.
I believe that I was elected to be a leader and advocate for the voters, citizens and stakeholders in the City of Los Alamitos. I will not step away from this fight by claiming a moral victory. There is no moral victory possible if the Council reverses and rescinds our ordinance, and the State prevails and mandates how our locally elected Council can attend to our local municipal affairs.
Much like that classic children’s book “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie,” the appetite of our State Legislators cannot be satisfied; and they will continue to covet, then take, and then regulate and control which decisions that local elected leaders can and cannot do. We as Councilmembers must not fail to comprehend that this lawsuit is an existential fight for the State Constitution granted rights to the municipal entity known as the (Charter) City of Los Alamitos.
This is the fight for the people!
Warren Kusumoto
Los Alamitos Mayor Pro Tem
Editors note: This article appeared in the Aug. 29 issue of the Event-News Enterprise