It was a GRAY-T Night
By Susan Motander
Tuesday’s city council meeting was filled with small, relatively routine matters such as switching the company used to support its website and re-developing it, adopting a Bicycle Master Plan for the city, and requesting bids for the sale of the building that formerly housed the city’s redevelopment and housing authorities. While each of these issues is important, and was given due thought and consideration by the council, not one was very exciting.
Somehow it seems appropriate that without prior planning, the city manager, police chief, fire chief, city clerk and even the Public Works manager, all wore gray suits.
Perhaps one of the most important issues discussed came up under the report of the Mayor. Tom Adams asked Police Chief Jim Hunt to explain a few of the details of a proposition supported by Governor Jerry Brown – proposing to alter the prison time served by various felons. The proposition, disarmingly named the Public Safety and Rehabilitation Act, is supported by the governor as an attempt to prevent the federal courts from ordering the release of prisoners based on overcrowding in the prisons.
According the Hunt, the measure would instead severely limit the amount of time prisoners spend in custody after their convictions. It would allow for early release for what the penal code defines as serious, but not violent crimes. The problem arises in the distinction between the two. For example, the mayor expressed astonishment that rape while the victim is unconscious is considered merely serious and not violent.
Mayor Pro Tem Alex Blackburn suggested that the city council do more than just express their opposition to the proposition. On his motion and with unanimous support of the council, city staff was directed to draft letters to be sent to the governor and the Southern California Association of Governments, and the League of California Cities. He also requested that the representative of the publication follow up on the issue, which will be done in a future article.
