by Mark McDermott
The Manhattan Beach City Council last week agreed to enter into a one year contract with Redondo Beach to utilize both its innovative homeless court and for the prosecution of all misdemeanor crimes.
The idea has been under consideration for 10 months, both due to the success Redondo’s homeless court has had in easing homeless people into housing, and City Council’s dissatisfaction with Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon. The DA’s office is currently responsible for prosecuting both felony and misdemeanor crimes in Manhattan Beach, but has been inactive on both fronts. Under the draft agreement approved Tuesday night, Redondo Beach City Attorney Mike Webb will take over prosecution of Manhattan Beach misdemeanor crimes. The total cost for Manhattan Beach will be $300,000.
Have you received a notice of intended prosecution recently? It is vital that you deal with it correctly as it is very easy to get the procedure wrong.
Though the homeless court has been at the forefront of discussions, the Council’s frustration with the absence of misdemeanor prosecutions was the focal point at the January 18 meeting.
“State misdemeanors are not being prosecuted,” Montgomery said. “We’re here because it’s not happening…Homeless Court is one piece of the puzzle folks, but that’s not the whole piece. Let’s keep our eye on the ball here.”
Adding to the sense of frustration, the DA’s office had not responded to requests from the city to discuss the proposal to transfer prosecution duties to Redondo Beach. By state law, the City must obtain the DA’s approval to transfer prosecution duties. Additionally, the City is seeking clarity on what happens should it later want to return to the DA’s prosecution services, which are funded by property taxes city residents pay, regardless.
The city began outreach to the DA last September, and didn’t hear anything back. On December 13 Mayor Hildy Stern sent a letter to the DA urgently asking for a meeting. The City finally had a response on January 12, and a meeting scheduled for January 20.
“We cannot promise any residents when, if ever, the County will give us approval,” Montgomery said. “We can sit on our hands for a year and do nothing or take action and hire someone else to do [prosecution] for us. Either way, sitting on our hands is not going to do anything. We are not getting what we deserve.”
Mayor pro tem Steve Napolitano agreed that the DA’s office has been a problem but questioned if Redondo Beach is the solution.
“We went down this road because of the battle cry that we have to do something, we can’t just sit around doing nothing. And given the [prosecution] numbers that are on the screen right now, I think that that bears itself out,” Napolitano said, referring to the staff’s PowerPoint presentation. “So we want to do something, but I still think it needs to be the right thing. I’m still not convinced that this is the right thing.”
Napolitano noted that Redondo Beach has 170 homeless people, 20 of whom qualify for homeless court services, compared to 15 homeless in Manhattan Beach and an estimated seven who might be able to benefit from homeless court. He questioned how this would be any more effective than the outreach “navigator” position the Council has already funded to assist the MBPD with the local homeless population.
“This is a lot of money spent to gear services towards seven people who may or may not be breaking any rules,” Napolitano said. “Just because folks are homeless doesn’t mean they’re criminals.”
Another concern was raised by former Hermosa Beach public works commissioner Matt McCool, who suggested that his city’s experience contracting out prosecution from Redondo Beach has not resulted in effective prosecution. He said in 2014, when Hermosa put out a request for proposals for prosecution services, Redondo was the only bid that did not charge by the work done, but instead at a flat rate.
“I can tell you having been involved at an intimate level with the City of Hermosa Beach on this, under no circumstance should the City of Manhattan Beach contract prosecution services out with the City of Redondo Beach,” McCool said. “…Anybody in business With this many variables in the equation, you would never ever have a flat rate. They are going to cut as many corners as they can, and cut as many plea deals as they can to get this done as cheap as possible.”
McCool suggested Council talk to Hermosa Beach City Attorney Michael Jenkins and former city manager Tom Bakaly regarding Hermosa’s experience. Napolitano agreed.
“I think that shows due diligence on our part, and I would like to see that before we agree to this proposal by the City of Redondo Beach,” Napolitano said.
Councilperson Suzanne Hadley said that the nature of the contract with Redondo Beach, which includes a 90 notice to opt out at any point, and only lasts a year, meant the City would be taking little risk.
“No one has said Redondo Beach was going to be perfect,” Hadley said. “If we hired a city prosecutor for Manhattan Beach, that wouldn’t be perfect either….it’s a one year play. It’s not the rest of our lives. We are getting literally zero prosecution right now with the District Attorney of misdemeanors. How can we be worse off by going with the City of Redondo? Surely, [City Attorney] Mike Webb will be prosecuting more misdemeanors then DA George Gascon.”
Councilmember Joe Franklin agreed.
“Residents want this. We all know they want it every time you go on social media, when you talk to somebody, a friend, a neighbor,” Franklin said. “It’s in our Neighborhood Watch weekly reports from the police department, the crime statistics — people don’t want this to be happening. So we’ve got to do something.”
Stern said she’d always supported utilizing Redondo Beach’s homeless court and that early discussion indicated prosecution services would necessarily come with this. But she also argued that it was worth at least waiting until the January 20 meeting with the DA’s office to proceed, and to further investigate Hermosa Beach’s use of Redondo’s services.
“We haven’t done a level of due diligence that makes me comfortable making what is really a big change,” Stern said. “We have always used the services of the District Attorney. This is a very big change for Manhattan Beach, and I think it should be taken seriously. The way we address public safety and the criminal justice system is very important to our residents and we owe it to them to do our due diligence and to make a good decision.”
Hadley called the question to vote, and was seconded by Montgomery, who added a friendly amendment that other prosecution services be investigated. The council voted unanimously to accept the draft concept agreement with the City of Redondo Beach for prosecution and homeless court services, subject to subsequent approval by Redondo Beach and Manhattan Beach City Councils. ER
