Homeless camping, Miller Park, Sacramento. (Photo: Art Taylor for CA Globe)
City of Sacramento asks Judge to Dismiss DA’s ‘Deeply Flawed’ Lawsuit
Sacramento DA suing City for failing to uphold existing laws relating to the homeless crisis
By Katy Grimes, October 19, 2023 12:05 pm
In September, Sacramento County District Attorney Thien Ho filed a lawsuit against the City of Sacramento for failing to abate the homeless crisis in the Capitol city by refusing to enforce existing laws. DA Ho said Sacramento’s homeless crisis has exploded by more than 250% in just 7 years -– the length of time Darrell Steinberg has been Sacramento Mayor.
Rather than working to improve the degraded quality of life of Sacramento residents and taxpayers, the City of Sacramento has now asked a Superior Court to dismiss the DA’s lawsuit, calling it “deeply flawed.”
“We believe the court will see this and correctly bring an end to a case that can’t hope to achieve anything beyond staggering expense to taxpayers and a drain on both City and court resources,” the City Attorney said.
The DA’s lawsuit was filed in tandem with a civil lawsuit by Attorney Ognian Gavrilov, on behalf of Sacramento business owners and city residents, to “allow the people to have a voice.”
“Do laws apply to some of us or none of us?” DA Ho asked. “The city instead chose to enforce some of the laws some of the time against some of the people,” DA Ho says in the lawsuit.
DA Ho described the city as collapsing into chaos and said Sacramento’s homeless crisis has become an “erosion of every day life.”
While city residents make calls (as instructed) to 311 to report open drug use, sidewalks and private property blocked by tents and homeless garbage, harassment, violence and other crimes, their calls go unanswered, or they are told to stop calling 311. Residents even report fires set by homeless.
DA Ho described the treatment by the city as “egregious” and “willful neglect,” and said residents are being treated like second class citizens.
This is why the District Attorney and Attorney Ognian Gavrilov had to file lawsuits against the city, to force city officials to uphold the laws they are ignoring. Ho and Gavrilov say they have more than 400 witnesses for the trial and plan to depose Mayor Steinberg – which is probably the real reason the city is balking, and asked the Court to dismiss the lawsuit.
The Globe contacted District Attorney Thien Ho to respond. “Our office has received a copy of the City of Sacramento’s demurrer to our complaint,” the DA said. “This is a common and expected legal tactic. Our office will be filing a response in court. The Sacramento District Attorney’s Office remains steadfast in our mission to protect public safety and we will continue to do our part to ensure that the unhoused are not left forgotten on the streets and that all residents of Sacramento live in a safe and just community.”
Here is what the city says about the DA’s lawsuit:
The City of Sacramento has filed a motion asking the court to rule a lawsuit filed by the Sacramento County District Attorney is invalid and cannot proceed.
The motion, known as a demurrer, points out that claims made in the DA’s lawsuit are precluded by California law limiting a district attorney’s ability to pursue certain types of civil claims. Another claim, the motion argues, is not supported by the evidence presented in the lawsuit.
“The filing in this case is deeply flawed, and from a legal perspective, is unsound from every angle. It fails the most primary tests in terms of its legality and viability,” said Susana Alcala Wood, Sacramento city attorney. “We believe the court will see this and correctly bring an end to a case that can’t hope to achieve anything beyond staggering expense to taxpayers and a drain on both City and court resources.”
“The City is immune from liability for all claims asserted by the DA.”
“The DA lacks the requisite statutory authority to bring civil claims for private nuisance and inverse condemnation on behalf of the People.”
“The DA’s second claim (private nuisance) and third claim (inverse condemnation) fail as a matter of law because a district attorney is not legislatively authorized to bring them.”
“This Court must stop at the outset the DA’s attempt to blatantly exceed the powers of his office and misuse public funds by bringing these unauthorized claims.”
“The City can find no legislative authority for the DA’s attempt to pursue either a private nuisance cause of action or a private inverse condemnation cause of action. Not surprisingly, the Complaint is entirely silent as to under what authority the DA purports to be acting and the DA failed to identify any such authority during meet and confer efforts.”
This is an interesting twist since DA Ho said he received an email from the City Attorney telling him that the Sacramento Police Department is not issuing citations for unlawful camping, unlawful storage or obstruction of sidewalks or any code violations for homeless encampments.
The City Attorney goes on to say “our data indicates we receive zero citations and reports for prosecution; we can’t prosecute these cases if they aren’t sent to us.’”
Here is a recent photo of a Sacramento Street taken over by homeless vagrants:
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November 28, 2018 -
while the legal trickery may gain some time, I would wonder how many of the Mayor’s staff or City officers ever have to walk daily through this filth and health/safety hazard?
The danger to homeowners who were encouraged to restore some of the great older homes in Sacramento must be cringing every time they look out their window and see tent littering the street in front of them.
Does the Mayor have a reason for preventing his own ordinances being enforced?
I would hardly trust the opinion or judgment of Susana Alcala Wood. She has made so many errors as City Attorney – including the redistricting debacle that left a district in Sac without a council member.
Hopefully, the dismissal will not be granted, and DA Ho will ultimately prevail on this.
Thanks for that 411 those of us from outside Sacramento probably aren’t that familiar with local politicos like her. Those don’t sound like small mistakes either holy moly.