On Wednesday evening, October 2nd, I attended the Ukiah City Council’s regular meeting to speak in support of the council passing a resolution to support State Proposition 36. I made a comment, urging the council to pass a resolution supporting Prop 36.
City Manager, Sage Sangiacomo did an excellent job putting together information to back up the staff recommendation to support the resolution. He presented the case well, making strong arguments why our community, and many in California, need Prop 36 to pass. Council members Crane and Orozco acknowledged that Prop 36 wouldn’t entirely or immediately fix the issues our community is facing in regards to rampant theft, substance misuse, and homelessness, but felt it would be a step in the right direction.
Council members Rodin and Duenas didn’t do enough research prior to the meeting to productively contribute to the discussion. Coming unprepared to a council meeting is unacceptable and a disservice to the community you are elected to represent. Because they did not come prepared with enough information, they voted to abstain.
Council member Sher, who solidly voted no, claimed that Prop 36 would lead us back to mass incarcerations and The War on Drugs. I strongly disagree with this claim.
Prop 36 does not mandate that prosecutors seek a felony charge for theft or drug offenses. Prop 36 gives them the discretion to charge certain crimes as felonies if there are two prior charges for the same offense. Repeat offenders that now qualify for a felony charge, could be held without bail until their arraignment instead of being released within hours which is currently the policy for misdemeanor offenses.
The punishment for theft and drug offenses has become so inconsequential that they have been effectively decriminalized, leading to rampant retail theft and open drug abuse. While drug and mental health diversion options still exist, the threat of state prison is gone because effectively, we have no stick to push people suffering from substance abuse disorder to accept the carrot of treatment. This situation very likely is contributing to the epidemic of drug abuse, overdoses and suicide we are seeing today. Mendocino County is in the top ten of California counties in per capita opioid deaths and suicides. This isn’t something to be proud of.
Passage of Prop 36 won’t bring us back to the War on Drugs. Cannabis, which historically accounted for a substantial portion of drug arrests, is now legal. Drug offenses will still be charged as misdemeanors until the third offense and up charging to a felony will be at the discretion of the DA. With the scourge of drugs such as fentanyl, having that stick of a prison sentence should push more people into treatment programs and if not, they can sit in prison which is better than watching them die on the streets of an overdose.
While the vote of the Ukiah City Council was disappointing, not all is lost. Ultimately, this issue will be decided by the voters and polling shows very strong statewide support. Hopefully the three council members who did not support Proposition 36 will be on the wrong side of history. One of those council members is now up for re-election. Hopefully the voters of Ukiah are savvy enough to remember how they voted against the best interest of public safety when they get their ballots and vote accordingly.
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