A visibly moved Mayor Warren Kusumoto explained to city residents that he would not be voting in favor of yet another change in an agreement that puts the city on the hook for a decade regarding the growing ‘homeless’ population.
His comments came in a special meeting this past week in which the city, yet again, changed its Memorandum of Understanding with the North Orange Service Planning Area.
The North SPA, comprised of the cities of Anaheim, Brea, Buena Park, Cypress, Fullerton, La Habra, La Palma, Los Alamitos, Orange, Placentia, Villa Park, Stanton, and Yorba Linda, has been working collectively over the past several months to find suitable locations for multiple shelters to provide homeless neighbors in the region with needed services.
Federal Judge David O. Carter, presiding over homeless litigation, has reportedly insisted on a “regional” solution to the growing homeless crisis.
At the city’s last regular meeting, they actually voted to rescind their earlier approval of a Memorandum of Understanding to participate in the coalition, citing concerns of a lack of financial controls over the life of the agreement.
Outgoing city manager Bret Plumlee said there was a mixup in the interpretation and that the city’s initial share would not be $4,000, as thought, but more like $41,000, which included a one-time construction cost contribution of $19, 102 and a ten-year operational commitment of $26, 327 annually, not including cost escalations.
At their previous meeting, council member Dean Grose moved to limit the city’s financial liability over the life of the agreement and the city council ultimately voted 4-1 to rejoin the alliance, with the imposed financial caps.
Since that vote, however, the city learned that it was not legal to impose caps and thus they met in Special session August 15, which included two closed sessions, wherein city attorney Michael Daudt apparently explained the need to modify the agreement to remove the caps.
“Fundamentally, we have a real problem here,” said Kusumoto. For the past year, he said, the city of Los Alamitos has literally gone back and forth regarding their commitment to a special entity formed by the state to ‘solve’ the area’s homeless situation.
“This is a tough one,” he said, adding that he wanted the public to know that the council had made the decision with “much deliberation and debate.” Even though he would not be voting for the motion, Kusumoto said the other members believed in their hearts it was the right thing to do. “It’s the best they believe we can do in this situation.”
Going further, however, Kusumoto said he could not vote in good conscious to commit the city to at least $250,000 over the next decade, while “the city could be bankrupt in the next six years.”
By working with Precious Life, We Care and other city nonprofits, Los Alamitos has already “demonstrated the community’s compassion” toward those living on the streets. Moreover, he called the term ‘homeless residents’ an oxymoron. “If they are homeless, they are not a resident.”
Nevertheless, Kusumoto said he firmly believes the city has solved the situation in the best way it could. “The whole idea that we, as a city, can be put into this position,” said the mayor, is “really wrong.”
He called for the vote and was the lone dissenting vote as Grose, Mayor Pro-Tem Richard Murphy and council members Shelley Hasselbrink and Mark Chirco voted to approve the latest change to the North Orange County Service Planning Area.