HomeMy WebLinkAbout08-04-2021_Open Session_General Comments_Lara, AndyJuly 31, 2021 Dear San Bernardino City Council: I watched your meeting on July 21st, 2021, with utter distaste. It was the saddest city council meeting I’ve ever seen. Below are the five most egregious issues. 1) You all talked about how amazing the event at Garcia Center was, but I haven’t heard from you guys that you want to fund it. If you want to celebrate the arts, please put your money where your mouth is. Please find ways to fund the arts and culture in this city and make it less depressing. 2) I heard you guys grilling the Violence Intervention Program about funding and where the money is going, but I don’t hear you guys holding a hearing on the police budget and accountability for them. How can they be our most bloated department and still crime is on the rise and nobody wants to live here? It’s almost like inflated police budgets do not directly equate with reducing or stopping crime. And you should think about that before you continue giving them so much of our city’s operating budget without any questions asked. I also heard you ask how VIP is partnering with the school district? That is the first time I ever hear you discuss the school district. These schools are in decrepit conditions. Have you ever held a hearing on the state of our schools? 3) It is also very disappointing to keep seeing again and again how certain council members do not know or obey the rules of order. Certain council members want to censure the mayor, yet he’s the only one who knows the rules, making him the most competent one. The mayor shouldn’t have to keep saying “you’re out of line” and reminding people that he presides over the meeting and grants people permission to talk. The most outrageous response to this at the previous meeting was Fred Shorett disrespectfully saying, “yeah, well, you’re not the king.” Despite the experience and qualifications of some people, it’s disappointing that they still act like petulant children. Fred Shorett needs to resign from his gerrymandered district since he is no longer a productive member of this council nor is he addressing the needs of SB at large. You guys want to censure the mayor, you all need to censure yourselves and learn how to conduct yourselves. That’s another thing that we need to redraw the ward maps or eliminate them entirely so that some wards are not home for the wealthy, out-of-touch residents and councilmembers, and so others are not neglected and “disgusting,” to use the mayor’s words. 4) I also heard a proposal to ban liquor stores near schools? That is utterly ridiculous and simple-minded and not in favor of development. In my 6th
ward, we have a food desert. We need more grocery stores and housing, and yes less liquor stores and gas stations, but we need to legislate positively, not negatively. We need to build up not down. 5) I also heard the mayor talk about half million-dollar homes and his guests on private jets. Those are not the people who voted for you. Most San Bernadinans make too much money for public assistance, and not enough to live in a nice neighborhood. We are having a housing crisis, and nobody is doing anything about building modest homes for low-or-middle income residents. I see large swaths of empty desert getting swooped up by plundering developers for warehouses, which then sit ghost-like, unused and pristine waiting for someone to lease it, but where is the fast-track construction and cleanup to build modest homes and new apartments? I urge you to prioritize the housing crisis. But there are so many issues. You all have other jobs. And giving this council full-time jobs is not something I would recommend. This city has so much potential. But we must act fast and work together with the people’s well-being and future in mind. To quote the book of Jeremiah chapter 2 verse 6, “this is a land of deserts and pits, a land of drought and deep darkness, a land that no one passes through, where no one lives…” “Is San Bernardino a slave? Is he a servant? Why then has he become plunder? The lions have roared against him, they have roared loudly. They have made his land a waste, and this city is in ruins.” Best, Andy Lara