Political Gumbo: I Don’t Think Anybody Was in the Queue

[UPDATED] MeTV aired “A Ransom for Yesterday” on Monday. Without a doubt, this is the best Mannix episode in the series run.

Here’s the synopsis, a new ransom demand for $250,000, plunges Mannix into the five-year-old unsolved case regarding a kidnapped boy.

I typically watch Mannix before the City Council really gets going. Sometimes when they’re really late starting I get an episode of Rockford Files in also, top two detective shows ever for my money.

I come in when the City Council gets down to the City’s business with the vote on the consent calendar.

After all, that’s what the meeting is about, the City’s business.

Which brings me to the end of the meeting on Monday.

Things got contentious at the end of a six hour session.

In short, the City Council was unable to reach the five votes required to establish a CEQA finding on a safe parking program that would have allowed 25 people to sleep in their cars overnight at All Saints Church.

I won’t get into the procedural language.

Just understand, the vote was 4-3 with five votes needed to pass the item. Councilmember Steve Madison was absent.

Mayor Gordo, Tyron Hampton and Justin Jones opposed.

After the vote, it quickly turned into back and forth.

Councilmember Jason Lyon called out the mayor for having no alternatives. Vice Mayor Jess Rivas asked the mayor if he planned to overturn the ordinance at Trinity Lutheran Church.

There are 10 safe parking spaces there.

Gordo said maybe Trinity should be reconsidered due to the number of complaints received.

Rick Cole on the other hand called the vote by the dissenting members a travesty because rhe minority vote stopped the item from moving forward.

Not exactly the kind of Pier 6 brawl Dick Lane used to call at the Olympic Auditorium when Blassie and Tolos battled it out.

If you know, you know.

By the way, why are there never brawls on piers 5 or 7?

Either way you get the gist. It was not pretty at all.

But, I liked the real emotion.

It was authentic.

And it was the City’s business.

Real business.

It felt like an old PW editorial meeting minus the weed and the beer.

The island of democracy is surrounded by choppy waters, I made that up a few years ago.

Of course we don’t need this every week. Procedure and decorum are good.

So what’s my take?

I would remind all involved that the City can attack the homeless problem from more than one direction.

We can have a true safe parking program, but I would say they need more than one security guard.

It’s got to be monitored to make sure it does not disrupt the quality of the neighbors living nearby.

By the way, safe parking is not a solution to the homeless problem.

At the same time, there is nothing wrong with considering a system that would keep people sleeping in their homes instead of their cars.

Separate item entirely, but one that should be considered at a City Council meeting. At some point, help has to go to people on the verge of homelessness.

All I ask now is you give me a solution as good as the discourse.