There are few places where people experiencing homelessness can simply be without fear of being asked to leave, such as public libraries, community centers, homeless shelters, and parks.
The pandemic changed that. Libraries, including Santa Maria’s, closed and may continue to stay that way for months. Homeless shelters’ resources are stretched thin.
Now, parks in Santa Maria will see new limitations, too—but not because of COVID-19. On June 2, Santa Maria City Council passed an ordinance that establishes rules of conduct for city parks, plazas, and facilities. Breaking the rules can result in anything from a warning or exclusion notice to a misdemeanor citation.
While the language of the ordinance doesn’t explicitly target individuals experiencing homelessness, some Santa Maria residents have said that the ordinance is problematically aimed at this community. Others think the rules are nothing new.
Recreation and Parks Director Alex Posada said that similar versions of the rules already exist for the city’s libraries and public transportation.
The new rules intend to “[point] out violations of personal conduct that don’t quite reach the level of breaking the law, but are either offensive or somehow deemed inappropriate in a community setting,” Posada said during the May 19 Santa Maria City Council meeting when the ordinance was originally introduced.
For Santa Maria resident Gale McNeeley, this is precisely why he opposes the new ordinance. During the public hearing section of the May 19 meeting, McNeeley said that he already takes issue with rules from previous ordinances. Expanding those rules to parks, he said, only makes it worse.
“What has happened at our library is the benches were removed so no one could lie down, chairs were removed so no one could sit there,” he said. “Everything is uncomfortable for everyone because they’re trying to move the homeless people along.”
McNeeley spoke out against a rule in the new ordinance that bars “unreasonable odors from the person’s body or personal property.”
“I think the city could be sued on an odor rule,” he said at the meeting. “What is an unpleasant odor? What rises to the level of an unpleasant odor? Change this ordinance so it does not criminalize the homeless.”
Posada told the Sun that enforcement of the rules is, generally, “complaint driven.” For this reason, he said he does not expect the odor rule to result in frequent needs for enforcement.
“We’re not going to go out and do a sniff test or anything like that,” he said. “It would be something more along the lines where that individual is somehow interacting with other public users of the park and they find something offensive and call in.”
Other rules in the ordinance include “unreasonable use of restrooms, including laundering/bathing,” as well as no “disorderly conduct, inappropriate behavior, vulgar language and/or gestures, inappropriate displays of affection, abuse of park, plaza, or facility grounds, equipment, or staff.” There are 16 total rules in the ordinance.
As far as enforcement, Posada said, “The [park] rangers are responsible for the library and the transit center and our public spaces. They are usually the first ones that get sent out to contact individuals.”
He also said the new ordinance affects not just outdoor parks and plazas, but also city operated community centers.
After the initial reading at the council’s May 19 meeting, the City Council passed the ordinance at its June 2 meeting. Councilmembers Gloria Soto and Mike Cordero voted against it, and Councilmembers Etta Watterfield and Michael Moats and Mayor Alice Patino voted in favor.
The Sun asked all four council members for comment on the ordinance, but none of them responded before press time.
At the June 2 meeting, Cordero appeared to be in favor of the ordinance, stating, “I would be concerned if we didn’t [pass it].”
However, he and Soto both expressed hesitation over the fact that the city’s Recreation and Parks Commission didn’t see the ordinance before the City Council.
The commission is what Posada called an “advisory body.” It’s composed of five members, each nominated by a different council member and appointed by the mayor.
“Their role is to give perspective to the department on issues and items that we bring to them,” Posada said, though it’s not required that the commission see an ordinance before the City Council.
Parks Commissioner Laura Henderson said she believes “it’s a logical starting point that the discussion happens at the commission level first. … It’s not required that all ordinances start there, but it is precedent that they do.”
Henderson said that if the ordinance had gone through the commission first, there would have been more opportunities for the public to weigh in. Given the obstacles COVID-19 presents for public participation in city government, “the more opportunities we have for the public to participate, the better,” she said.
Henderson said she wrote a letter to the mayor and City Council requesting that the item come back to the commission for a discussion before council voted on it. She said that Soto and Cordero, the two council members who ultimately voted against the ordinance, were the only ones who responded to her. She also noted that Posada apologized for the item not coming to the commission first, saying it was an “oversight.”
“My own personal opinion on this wasn’t what I really discussed with council members,” Henderson said of her letter. “But at the end of the day, if a community member is using the park and they are not breaking any other rules, do we really need an odor ban to keep them from these public spaces? … It conveys a message of ‘unwelcome.’”
Community member McNeeley echoed this sentiment in a conversation with the Sun.
“Santa Maria’s leadership has tried to criminalize homelessness in as many ways that they can,” he said.
Reach Staff Writer Malea Martin at mmartin@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jun 11-18, 2020.