http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7YFKm9gnKo


Urgent Action Alert: Oppose
a "Merger" Which Wipes Out the South Coast Homeless Advisory Committee
(SCHAC) Until There Is A Fully Qualified New  Committee Which Will
Defend the Human Rights of the Homeless/Houseless with Regard to
Police/Sheriff/Jail Operations

For Brown Act compliance, I am required to post the following document, which is a Public Document under State Law and cannot be copyrighted by me, Indymedia, or anyone else and is Public Domain. Since the committee will have, the public is permitted to also have it.
_____________________________________________
I was requested to serve on the Hate Crimes Subcommittee of the South Coast Homeless Advisory Committee of Santa Barbara California to which I am a member in the capacity of Advocate and as a member of the full committee hereby submit the following for distribution in support of my verbal report pursuant to the agenda item making provision for such reports.


I oppose and am actively seeking citizen support for opposition to a so-called "merger" which wipes out the South Coast Homeless Advisory Committee (SCHAC). I maintain this opposition and will continue to seek citizen action until there is a fully qualified new committee which will defend the Human Rights of the Homeless/Houseless with regard to police/Sheriff/jail Operations.


Kelly Thomas was beaten to death by police officers who did not expect his father, retired Orange County Sheriff's Deputy Ron Thomas, to pack city council meetings and rally hundreds of citizens creating an international outrage. I ask citizens, SCHAC members and the Supervisors to help to MAKE SURE that such a horrible thing NEVER AGAIN happens anywhere, and certainly not in Santa Barbara County. I ask your support in preserving, not destroying, the structures that will serve to provide the necessary oversight to monitor citizen complaints and also to make constructive suggestions on how to improve the mechanisms which are necessary to provide assurance that the civil and human rights of ALL CITIZENS will be honored.

(1) Oppose the so-called "Merger" of Bringing Our Community Home, Common Ground, and the County Homeless Advisory Committees unless the proposal preserves the South Coast Homeless Advisory Committee (SCHAC)

(2) Require that the "Merger" be a true merger and not a cover-up for wiping out the SCHAC.

(3) Register your disappointment that proponents of the merger have called for support letters without disclosing the specific contents of the staff report proposal.

(4) Express your outrage of the harsh and often brutal of homeless/houseless and mentally ill persons who are subject to police action or confinement in the county jail.

(5) Express your appreciation that the horrible brutality which the Los Angelos Times is documenting in their county jail system has not migrated to Santa Barbara County, and that the horrible brutality demonstated by the Fullerton, California police has not migrated to Santa Barbara County.

(6) Demand that the Board of Supervisors recognize that there is nevertheless room for improvement in the treatment of the "homeless" in Santa Barbara County jail and with regard to police interaction with citizens who are experiencing homelessness.

(7) Let the Board of Supervisors know that the time is not right to take action on this half-baked proposal until and unless there is full disclosure of how it intends to preserve the function of the SCHAC and how it intends to preserve the institutional memory, knowledge, skills and abilities of its members.


Departmental Item #6: The Board of Supervisors will consider unpublished recommendations regarding a "Homeless Support Systems" Merger


Please come to the Board of Supervisors meeting room on Tuesday, May 15, 2012 time certain 1:30pm. The Board of Supervisors Hearing starts at 9am. You can call (805) 568-2240 for an update on the time of agenda item. If you can't make it, please send emails, calls and letters to all of our BOS members.


WHAT

There is a move to create a new agency to address homeless issues. This agency would split elected officials off from the South Coast Homeless Advisory Committee and those officials would be the executive directorate of the new agency. Under that directorate there would be several committees, but its promoters have been evasive with regard to an apparent hidden agenda to get rid of the SCHAC, which has been a persistent and pesky thorn in the side of the power strudture.

Rob Fredericks presented the proposal to the SCHAC in a form in which the SCHAC was preserved intact as a separate committee of the new entity. Supervisor Farr indicated that she did not want to have two meetings per month to attend, and it was proposed that perhaps some of the elected officials could be split from the SCHAC, but that the rest of the SCHAC would remain intact.

However, at the general planning meeting in the San Ynez Valley, Fredericks has inexplicably erased the SCHAC. He never adequately accounted for this erasure and there are other indications that, unless you take action, the county will create a new bureaucracy and a new "Czar" but will demolish one of the few entities - the SCHAC - which has monitoried on reported on alleged police misconduct with regard to "the homeless".

WHY THIS IS URGENT

Santa Barbara has a good overall record with regard to police excessive use of force but (1) it is not at all perfect, (2) there are serious problems with the current jail and (3) there is no assurance that at some future date there may be an incident in which an advisory committee of some kind would be a key ingredient to achievement of a favorable resolution. The SCHAC has received and issued reports on alleged officer excess; routine bureaucratic failure of jail property management; environmental health issues at the jail. Families ACT and others have recently highlighted one of many complaints regarding management of inmates in the local jail and there have been numerous unanswered questions with regard to the service provided to our jail by Prison Health Services, Inc.

This is a public record. Please feel free to repost, circulate, reprint.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7YFKm9gnKo

URGENT ACTION ALERT
I was requested to serve on the Hate Crimes Subcommittee of the South Coast Homeless Advisory Committee of Santa Barbara California to which I am a member in the capacity of Advocate and as a member of the full committee hereby submit the following for distribution in support of my verbal report pursuant to the agenda item making provision for such reports. 
I oppose and am actively seeking citizen support for opposition to a so-called "merger" which wipes out the South Coast Homeless Advisory Committee (SCHAC). I maintain this opposition and will continue to seek citizen action until there is a fully qualified new committee which will defend the Human Rights of the Homeless/Houseless with regard to police/Sheriff/jail Operations. 

Kelly Thomas was beaten to death by police officers who did not expect his father, retired Orange County Sheriff's Deputy Ron Thomas, to pack city council meetings and rally hundreds of citizens creating an international outrage. I ask citizens, SCHAC members and the Supervisors to help to MAKE SURE that such a horrible thing NEVER AGAIN happens anywhere, and certainly not in Santa Barbara County. I ask your support in preserving, not destroying, the structures that will serve to provide the necessary oversight to monitor citizen complaints and also to make constructive suggestions on how to improve the mechanisms which are necessary to provide assurance that the civil and human rights of ALL CITIZENS will be honored. 

(1) Oppose the so-called "Merger" of Bringing Our Community Home, Common Ground, and the County Homeless Advisory Committees unless the proposal preserves the South Coast Homeless Advisory Committee (SCHAC) 
(2) Require that the "Merger" be a true merger and not a cover-up for wiping out the SCHAC. 
(3) Register your disappointment that proponents of the merger have called for support letters without disclosing the specific contents of the staff report proposal. 
(4) Express your outrage of the harsh and often brutal of homeless/houseless and mentally ill persons who are subject to police action or confinement in the county jail. 
(5) Express your appreciation that the horrible brutality which the Los Angelos Times is documenting in their county jail system has not migrated to Santa Barbara County, and that the horrible brutality demonstated by the Fullerton, California police has not migrated to Santa Barbara County. 
(6) Demand that the Board of Supervisors recognize that there is nevertheless room for improvement in the treatment of the "homeless" in Santa Barbara County jail and with regard to police interaction with citizens who are experiencing homelessness. 
(7) Let the Board of Supervisors know that the time is not right to take action on this half-baked proposal until and unless there is full disclosure of how it intends to preserve the function of the SCHAC and how it intends to preserve the institutional memory, knowledge, skills and abilities of its members. 
Departmental Item #6: The Board of Supervisors will consider unpublished recommendations regarding a "Homeless Support Systems" Merger 
Please come to the Board of Supervisors meeting room on Tuesday, May 15, 2012 time certain 1:30pm. The Board of Supervisors Hearing starts at 9am. You can call (805) 568-2240 for an update on the time of agenda item. If you can't make it, please send emails, calls and letters to all of our BOS members. 
WHAT 
There is a move to create a new agency to address homeless issues. This agency would split elected officials off from the South Coast Homeless Advisory Committee and those officials would be the executive directorate of the new agency. Under that directorate there would be several committees, but its promoters have been evasive with regard to an apparent hidden agenda to get rid of the SCHAC, which has been a persistent and pesky thorn in the side of the power strudture. 
Rob Fredericks presented the proposal to the SCHAC in a form in which the SCHAC was preserved intact as a separate committee of the new entity. Supervisor Farr indicated that she did not want to have two meetings per month to attend, and it was proposed that perhaps some of the elected officials could be split from the SCHAC, but that the rest of the SCHAC would remain intact. 
However, at the general planning meeting in the San Ynez Valley, Fredericks has inexplicably erased the SCHAC. He never adequately accounted for this erasure and there are other indications that, unless you take action, the county will create a new bureaucracy and a new "Czar" but will demolish one of the few entities - the SCHAC - which has monitoried on reported on alleged police misconduct with regard to "the homeless".  WHY THIS IS URGENT 
Santa Barbara has a good overall record with regard to police excessive use of force but (1) it is not at all perfect, (2) there are serious problems with the current jail and (3) there is no assurance that at some future date there may be an incident in which an advisory committee of some kind would be a key ingredient to achievement of a favorable resolution. The SCHAC has received and issued reports on alleged officer excess; routine bureaucratic failure of jail property management; environmental health issues at the jail. Families ACT and others have recently highlighted one of many complaints regarding management of inmates in the local jail and there have been numerous unanswered questions with regard to the service provided to our jail by Prison Health Services, Inc. 

This is a public record. Please feel free to repost, circulate, reprint. http://la.indymedia.org/news/2012/05/253122.php

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7YFKm9gnKo [GOOGLE: Kelly Thomas Documentary]