City Council discusses homeless, city management

Home City News City Council discusses homeless, city management

The Hillsdale City Council proposed a new vagrancy ordinance during a Sept. 7 council meeting.

Hillsdale City Councilman Robert Socha proposed that the council adopt a vagrancy ordinance that would allow police to remove individuals from occupying public property. Attorney Thomas Thompson opposed the proposal, arguing that the proposal was unconstitutional.

“A judge from a local community was uncomfortable walking downtown with some of the things they witnessed. They told me that they won’t come back here until the issue has been reconciled,” Socha said. “It is a terrible injustice that our country is absolved to such a terrible state that we prefer vagrants over tax paying residents.”

Socha added that vagrancy degrades the city’s reputation.

Thompson cited a 2021 federal appeals court decision to uphold a ruling protecting homeless people’s right to sleep on the sidewalk and in public parks within the city of Los Angeles.

While job availability in Hillsdale remains high, according to the five-year master plan, several challenges to resolving homelessness remain. 

“I think we are dealing with people who have substance abuse and mental health issues,” Councilman Bill Zeiser said. “I know that when we start discussing solutions to those issues, they press on the issue of housing first which I see as a non-starter. You aren’t dealing with the main problem here just by giving them a house.”

For the majority of the session, the council discussed other topics. It approved the city’s five-year master plan, dissolved the Hospital Finance Authority, and discussed combining the board of public utilities director role with the city manager position. 

The five-year master plan outlined how the city government will address several operational challenges. In this plan, the council discussed zoning, street operability, and roadway repairs.

Additionally, the council unanimously adopted a resolution to dissolve the Hospital Finance Authority, which oversaw Hillsdale Hospital’s finances when it was a public institution. 

“The hospital went private five years ago, and the board was established during the world wars. Basically, the board has not met in years and it’s obsolete,” said Hillsdale Mayor Adam Stockford.

The council also discussed merging the city manager and BPU director into one position.