CHICO — After a week with a holiday weekend to process the Supreme Court decision on homelessness, the Chico City Council will review the ruling in a special meeting Tuesday.
Councilors will convene at 5 p.m. for a closed session in which Mayor Andrew Coolidge anticipates discussion but no immediate action. Citizens may address the council in public comments before the conference with City Attorney John Lam and City Manager Mark Sorensen.
On June 28, the Supreme Court issued a decision in Grants Pass v. Johnson that jurisdictions may enforce anti-camping ordinances regardless of availability of adequate shelter. That consideration was the crux of the appellate court ruling in Martin v. Boise that underpinned how a federal judge’s opinion — and the subsequent settlement agreement — in Warren v. Chico. The city of Chico filed an amicus brief in support of Grants Pass, Oregon, in the high-court case; the state of California also advocated for the position that ultimately carried 6-3.
Chico councilors were set to meet once this month, on July 16, but Coolidge called the special meeting.
“I felt it was necessary to go into closed session, hear from our attorney, see how the decision will affect the city of Chico moving forward, impact our settlement with Legal Services of Northern California — and what options are available to us,” he told this newspaper. “At this point, it’s a lot of questions; we’re looking for a lot of answers so over the coming weeks we’ll have a lot more information to deal with the situation and how we want to approach it, or re-approach it.”
The settlement agreement has governed the city’s approach to unhoused people living in public spaces. The Genesis site by Silver Dollar Fairgrounds emerged from the settlement.
“Last week’s ruling by the Supreme Court in the Grants Pass case decisively overturned Martin v. Boise and brings the Ninth Circuit into conformance with the 11 other federal district courts in the U.S. as it relates to the ability of cities to enforce laws prohibiting camping in public spaces,” Councilor Tom van Overbeek said. “The council is meeting in closed session on Tuesday to decide the city’s next steps; our decision will be guided by what maximizes the quality of civic life for the citizens of Chico.”
Councilor Addison Winslow, the lone liberal member among six conservatives, said city officials “anticipated the Supreme Court ruling and are already well-informed of the limited impact it has on our settlement agreement. But attorneys can always advise that we pay them to thrash around in the courtroom.
“If it were my opinion that mattered in these backroom discussions, we would be civilly renegotiating the settlement agreement so our laws are in line with human rights and any sleeping outdoors in Chico is never in parks, near schools or on bike paths. Most, if not all, of this conversation should be done in open session, and we should immediately be engaging our neighboring cities to prevent their race to criminalize the homeless from unfairly impacting Chico.”
Coolidge said the city would engage other jurisdictions, including Butte County, which partnered with Chico on the Pallet shelter facility.
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“I think this is something where discussion needs to take place,” the mayor continued. “If the council was not discussing this now that we’ve had this massive Supreme Court decision, it would be negligence.”
The Chico City Council regularly meets at 6 p.m. on the first and third Tuesday of the month at 421 Main St., with closed session — like Tuesday’s — starting at 5 p.m. Meetings are free and open to the public.
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