The crisis at Elderberry Commons comes before the Sebastopol City Council, Part 1
Council members hear about the issues at Elderberry Commons and discuss how the City might help
This is Part 1 of a two-part article.
The ongoing issues at Elderberry Commons, the new permanent supportive housing complex for the homeless, spilled into the council chambers last night, as a group of Elderberry residents spoke during public comment about the conditions there. They characterized Elderberry Commons as rife with drug use, drug dealing, prostitution, domestic violence, and other issues, and they pleaded with the council to pressure Burbank Housing, the property’s landlord, to enforce the tenant protections in their leases, both for their sake and for the sake of the city.
In this two-part article, we will cover both the discussion of this issue between the council and Police Chief Sean McDonagh (Part 1), as well as the testimony of the tenants who came to the council looking for help in solving the issues at Elderberry Commons (Part 2).
The cost of policing and who’s responsible?
Mayor Stephen Zollman introduced the agenda item on Elderberry, which was focused on the frequency of police visits to the site and the fiscal impact of that.
“Sebastopol police have spent 48 hours responding to calls at Elderberry Commons, equating to $4,149.12,” Zollman said before turning the podium over to Sebastopol Police Chief Sean McDonagh
“I asked for updated figures on the time that was spent there as of today, and it’s now 56 hours and 26 minutes,” McDonagh said, “and that does not include the construction of reports or any follow-up investigations.”
“I think that it’s quite clear in the staff report that we spent a copious amount of time attending to this location for what I perceive to be avoidable issues that are outside of the police department or the city of Sebastopol’s control,” he continued. “I’m hoping that there’s some way that we can mitigate that time, working with the respective stakeholders”—namely Burbank Housing, West County Community Services, and the tenants—”so that we have some sort of a standard and the people are held to account for what their actual roles are.”
“My understanding is that Burbank Housing is the responsible party for the leases, and there’s issues that we get involved in where we've been called to the location for issues that can be addressed by enforcing the terms of the lease, which is an internal thing for Burbank. That’s probably the bottom line,” McDonagh said.
Since Elderberry Commons is a county project, Councilmember Sandra Maurer wondered, “Could the residents be directed to call the county sheriff?”
That met with a resounding no, both from Chief McDonagh and City Attorney Alex Mog.
“From a public safety standpoint, it’s our job to protect the vulnerable from harm,” McDonagh said. “Our proximity to that location is ideal for a response. It’s within our city, and we do the right thing and respond. I just think that there’s things we can do, or there’s things other organizations can do, that will greatly reduce the issues that are occurring at that location. So we really need everybody to come to the table to do that.”
“The city is the law enforcement authority within our jurisdictional boundaries,” Mog confirmed. “So even though the county has some involvement in this project, we are still the law enforcement agency. But the county is a partner in this, so there will be efforts to have them get involved. The city of Sebastopol has no agreements with the owner of this building or anyone there regarding this building, the county does.”
Mog noted that the city has relatively few levers in this situation—it doesn’t have a contract with the property owner or with the county about the property. “We have a political relationship or personal relationships, not a contractual relationship, with the county,” he said.
Mayor Zollman noted that, “We are setting a meeting with Burbank Housing to talk to them about what the issues are going on down there. After that, we would probably want to set a meeting with the county to discuss with them the agreement that they have with Burbank and the issues that are happening there as well.”
Addressing the police chief, the mayor asked, “It doesn’t sound like we can just arrest our way out of this, right?”
“Arresting our way of the problem is not the answer when, as far as I can tell, if everybody just did their jobs and got involved and all the stakeholders worked together, you can solve the problem from the inside out,” Chief McDonagh said.
He also noted that booking charges at the county jail had gone up 400% and indicated that the county would likely release anyone they brought there.
“I mean, we can still take people to jail and book them in, and the county can cite them out so we don’t have that sort of final determination a lot of the time. And we're finding that for quite serious things,” McDonagh said.
The mayor then asked if doing more 5150 holds—a three-day hold for mental health issues—would help.
“No. There’s certain criteria that needs to be met in order to 5150 someone. They need to be a danger to themselves or to others. That’s a tough standard to meet,” McDonagh said, noting that most of the issues at Elderberry Commons didn’t qualify.
Councilmember Phill Carter suggested that the police should simply call Burbank Housing every time they were called out. “I was just thinking that, when you get a call, you call them to make sure that they know that you’re going out there all the time, and so it's like ‘a squeaky wheel gets the grease’ kind of thing.”
A question of security
Vice Mayor Jill McLewis, who owns a business near Elderberry Commons and who vehemently opposed its creation from the start, said, “Part of the issue is, when they opened this facility, Burbank had no property manager. They made it very clear… that they actually did not have anyone on site to manage. And then secondly, West County Community Services has made it clear that their job is to manage social services, nothing else, nothing related to any of the property management. So in the absence of management, this is what we get.”
Mayor Zollman asked if the issues were caused by people from the outside “jumping the back fence,” something he said had been an issue at HorizonShine, the city’s now closed homeless RV Village.
McDonagh thought some of that might be going on, but the real problem was that the security guards simply let anyone in.
“The security are not doing their job out there, and I’ve had words with them about it,” McDonagh said, “As I understand, they're supposed to be regulating who comes in and out of the facility, and they're not doing that. They’re somewhat scared of certain occupants or people that don’t live there that are frequenting the location, so they're just not checking them, and they just give them a free pass. So on goes the problem, and it starts to snowball…If they were doing more about regulating entry in and out of that property, all of these issues could be taken care of before it became a police issue.”
Maurer noted that the facility was fully fenced and locked so “fence jumping” probably wasn’t the issue.
“What I hear from residents is that some people there are just giving the [gate] code out to everybody. So you can have a 50-foot fence, but if the codes are not protected, fences mean nothing,” McDonagh replied.
McLewis asked about what local businesses could do about the questionable people hanging out in the parking lot that is shared with businesses at Gravenstein Station. McDonagh suggested, if they suspect there is criminal activity going on or just loitering on private property, they should call the property manager of Gravenstein Station, who should call the police to have those people removed.
“Correct me if I’m wrong, but it would not be advised for the public to go out and confront those questionable people, right?” McLewis asked
Chief McDonagh concurred, “Please don’t do that,” he said. “We’re here to take care of you. So if there’s any issues, just please call us.”
“I think the frustration that some are feeling is bubbling over,” McLewis said, referring to the local business owners.
But business owners aren’t the only ones who are frustrated.
“Some of the residents, who we’re speaking with quite regularly, are clearly very frustrated,” Chief McDonagh said, looking out at a small group of Elderberry Commons tenants in the council chamber. They had waited patiently an hour and half—through council conversations about insurance pools and pension funds—for their chance to speak.
We’ll hear from those residents and other local community members in Part 2 of this two-part article.
Sounds like a few bad apples spoiling the whole Elderberry. Enforce the lease terms, evict the bad tenants and bring in the needy folks who will appreciate what is being provided.
I feel for both the other tenants who's behavior doesn't infringe on others and the business owners nearby who's business is being negatively impacted.
And although as the article points out, this is all inside the City limits and mainly a city matter, I still believe Supervisor Hopkins should provide some support at the County level. She initiated the purchase of the hotel for conversion to a homeless shelter, so this problem wouldn't exist without her actions.
And thanks for reporting on this matter!
Sounds like an ideal opportunity for Sebastopol Police Department to develop or expand its community policing programs and skills. Community policing involves coordination between responsible agencies and non-profits and law enforcement, and aims to enhance community safety, which I think is the goal here. Thank you.