Santa Rosa to consider getting tougher on quality-of-life complaints

Now that its shiny new $10.5 million downtown square is open to the public, Santa Rosa is rethinking how it should handle the kinds of quality-of-life complaints that could tarnish the attractive new public space and other areas of downtown.

The City Council will take up the touchy subject today of how to handle crimes most associated with the homeless, such as littering, public urination and aggressive panhandling.

These and other petty crimes like camping on public property, graffiti or obstruction of public sidewalks are all punishable as misdemeanor offenses, which can result in jail time and fines. But in recent years the city has taken a softer approach, choosing to charge such violations as infractions, which do not carry jail time, only fines.

Now, with high hopes its new investment in reunified Old Courthouse Square will make the downtown a more attractive place for visitors, businesses and developers, the city is considering cracking down on the kinds of nuisance crimes that many view as having the opposite effect.

In a study session that begins at 3 p.m., the City Council will consider whether it should return to prosecuting violations of city ordinances as misdemeanors, as was common before 2013, when the city had additional staffing in its City Attorney’s Office.

Downtown business interests, which are hoping to take a more direct role in management in the square later this summer, are hoping to see the city enforce the myriad laws meant to address the quality of life for all its residents, said Jonathan Coe, president of the Santa Rosa Metro Chamber.

“We want to support all of the people who come to Santa Rosa, but we have expectations about behavior, and the city already has on the books the ordinances and the means to enforce them,” Coe said. “From the Chamber’s perspective, we’d like to ensure they are utilized.”

The chamber is in the process of trying to establish a Business and Property Improvement District downtown that would raise $800,000 from downtown property owners and businesses toward the maintenance, marketing and management of the downtown.

For now, much of that work is being done by the city’s Parks and Recreation Department, which has dedicated additional time to square maintenance. Increasing the number of volunteer police officers who serve as downtown ambassadors is another part of the city’s strategy.

Last year, the vast majority of the 800 citations for ordinance violations police handed out were to people who never appeared in court to defend themselves, Santa Rosa Police Capt. Ray Navarro said.

There are also numerous instances when police are not able to issue citations because they did not witness the incident, which is required for an officer to write a ticket, Navarro said.

Allowing police to issue misdemeanor citations for such violations would give police more tools, but it doesn’t mean they’d be hauling homeless people off to jail for petty crimes, Navarro said.

It would likely only be used in case of repeat offenders and only after working closely with partner agencies to get people intervention services, he said.

“We’re going to continue to make sure we work with service providers to make sure people who need help get it,” Navarro said.

That’s what Jennielynn Holmes, director of shelter and housing for Catholic Charities, is hoping. She would hate to see increased enforcement of homeless related issues without increased intervention. In that vein, her organization now has two people working inside the Sonoma County Jail to try to prevent people from being discharged back into homelessness.

Her goal, she said, is to turn “moments of crisis into moments of opportunity” to get people into the housing situation they need.