The Globe Talks With Sacramento DA & Attorney Following Public Safety Lawsuits Against City

Sacramento County District Attorney Thien Ho announced Tuesday at a press conference that he filed a lawsuit against the City of Sacramento for failing to abate the homeless crisis in the Capitol city, and for failing to consistently following the law. The DA’s lawsuit was filed in tandem with a civil lawsuit by Sacramento Attorney Ognian Gavrilov, on behalf of Sacramento business owners and city residents, to “allow the people to have a voice.”

This makes a three lawsuits against the City of Sacramento by residents. In August, the Globe reported that attorneys representing a group of those homeowners and concerned citizens in the Del Paso Park neighborhood of Sacramento, filed a lawsuit against the City of Sacramento for failing to enforce Measure O – a measure put on the ballot by the City Council and passed by voters in 2022 – that prohibits the city from establishing and maintaining a homeless shelter within 1,000 feet of schools, playgrounds, and other key places. 

DA Ho said Sacramento’s homeless crisis has exploded by more than 250% in just 7 years, and puts homeless and law abiding residents at serious risk because of illegal dumping, open drug use and discarded needles, public defecation, theft, illegal “camping” and squatting, harassment and threats to residents, and other similar issues.

The Globe met with DA Ho Tuesday afternoon for a one-on-one interview to discuss his lawsuit, the issues covered in it, and the laws not being enforced.

The Globe asked DA Ho about the impact the lawsuit could/should have on the City. “One – it pressures them to do what they need to do,” DA Ho said. “And when the people are victorious, the mandate from the court will be to abate the public nuisance of homelessness.”

We discussed my recent article about the national survey which found Sacramento is the 2nd dirtiest city in the country based on the high number of sanitation-related 311 complaints, of which, most stem from the city’s huge homeless population.

Following DA Ho’s lawsuit announcement, Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg accused the District Attorney of  politicizing the homeless issue. DA Ho told the Globe that his lawsuit isn’t personal or political. “Public safety is my only concern,” Ho said. “I can’t raise taxes or assign housing to be built,” DA Ho said. And he reiterated that public safety is his purview as District Attorney.

Ho remained above the fray and did not ridicule the Mayor at the press conference Tuesday, instead saying that he is sure Mayor Steinberg has good intent, but his methodology isn’t working.

Ho did not receive the same consideration from Mayor Steinberg:

“Frankly, we have no time for the District Attorney’s performative distraction from the hard work we all need to do together to solve this complex social problem plaguing urban centers throughout the state and nation,” Steinberg said in a written statement, CapRadio.org reported. “The city needs real partnership from the region’s leaders, not politics and lawsuits.”

Ho said city officials claim they have been able to obtain “voluntary compliance” from the homeless, which is patently ridiculous given that the homeless vagrants in tent cities on the street are only multiplying. And, the City isn’t providing drug addiction or mental health treatment, so what the homeless are “voluntarily complying with” is a mystery.

DA Ho issued a challenge: “Ask city officials to walk down C Street barefoot – walk down Bannon Street, walk down Auburn Blvd. or Alhambra, W St., X St. or Broadway – barefoot.” The thousands of discarded drug needles make it dangerous and extremely risky.

The Globe also spoke at length Wednesday with Attorney Ognian Gavrilov who filed the other civil lawsuit on behalf of local business owners and residents. “Our lawsuit is about everybody,” Gavrilov said. “We just want our city back.”

“But I’m a whole lot less nice than the District Attorney,” Gavrilov said. “I am livid. I want this to be fixed.”

“But good people have to get together over this – this has to be a common cause.”

Sacramento is dying, Attorney Gavrilov’s lawsuit says:

“Darrell Steinberg, the City’s Mayor, is the executioner. The failure to address the ubiquitous spread of homelessness throughout the City is Steinberg’s poison.”

“The Steinberg Decree has transformed this once bucolic tree-lined city into a rotting cesspool of decay and despair. Far from exuding the prestige which accompanies being the nerve center of a massive global economy, the streets and neighborhoods of Sacramento resemble the urban decay that blight the world’s poorest developing nations.”

“Since Steinberg took office in 2016, the City’s homeless population has increased more than 250 percent. This unprecedented surge in homelessness is the direct result of a mayoral decree (the “Steinberg Decree”) which prohibits police and other City officials from clearing dangerous homeless encampments that clutter the sidewalks and pollute local neighborhoods.”

Attorney Gavrilov said the District Attorney is being attacked because of aggrandizement, “which is very rich since Steinberg is on a taxpayer funded trip to Norway. It’s audacity at best.” Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg and California corrections officials are in Norway to tour the prison system, the Sacramento Bee reported.

“Our DA is not alone,” Gavrilov said. “Everybody, irrespective of race, financial status, politics, is on the same page when it comes to allowing unchecked criminality on the streets, public defecation, drugs, theft…” Gavrilov asked, “Who can possibly tell the police not to fight crime? The answer is Steinberg.”

“He’s been Mayor for 7 years, and he’s responsible for the greatest failure of any mayor in the nation.” Gavrilov asked how Sacramento could be worse on homeless than the state average. “Why are we higher than San Francisco and Los Angeles? The answer is Steinberg. Criminals go where there is softness.”

“Let’s say Steinberg is a man of integrity. Then he should resign. He’s a monumental failure… a social parasite,” Gavrilov added.

Steinberg claims he is working hard on the homeless problem. “From Norway?” Gavrilov asked. “How is he working hard? Looking at the fruits of his ‘hard work’ I see tents at city hall – double tents. Tents at Chavez Park. There are more ‘success stories’ everywhere – tents. This is the product of a hard working man?”

Gavrilov said this is a political will issue. “The resolution requires not someone soft like a marshmallow. He lacks substance, conviction. You can’t hug people into prosperity,” Gavrilov added.

At the root is, “he doesn’t want to hold anyone accountable. He wants to be liked. The city attorney hasn’t prosecuted one case? Don’t they see people openly doing drugs, defecating on sidewalks? These are people who want no rules.”

“I’m not alone in calling for his resignation,” Gavrilov said. “In the 24 hours since I filed the lawsuit, I’ve received more than 200 emails and phone calls from Sacramento residents – and not one rebuke. Not one person said ‘what do you think you are doing?'”

Steinberg is trying to politicize something that is not a political issue. “He’s making human tragedy and human suffering a political issue,” Gavrilov said. He added that there are “other real good council members who can show us they will do the right thing. They are with us for a solution, and not going to want a ‘perfect’ solution.”

“What Steinberg is doing is failing miserably,” Gavrilov said. “Is he man enough to sit through a 7 hour deposition and answer questions, or is he going to find a bunch of excuses why he shouldn’t be deposed?”

“I think he’s going to run scared.”