All new coming to Fort Bragg: Booze outdoors, Five new murals, lots of new Police Gizmos, including see-all cruiser cameras

The biggest news from this week’s Fort Bragg City Council meeting was that Fort Bragg will get FIVE MORE murals this year.  Hurrah!  Murals have become the latest art wave across California. Dreary office buildings have turned into art attractions everywhere since the pandemic started, which is when the city launched the program to expand the mural program.

2021 article on expanded mural program

The most serious subject right now is how will mass deportations impact our friends, neighbors and economy? The home health care, hospitality, restaurant and agriculture industries could be devastated if this becomes a reality, not just here but elsewhere. If only the John McCain plan to allow a path to immigration had gone forward, immigration would have not been such an issue. But it is and a discussion of police surveillance cameras showed how difficult it can be for a local law enforcement agency trying to maintain the trust of a fearful community.

Will an upgrade of FBPD cameras get into federal databases and prompt ICE to arrive?  Police Chief Neil Cervenka gave the council info on new body cameras and other equipment but the new front-facing cameras with panoramic views and license plate readers prompted the chief to say that the info sought does not include matters related to immigration. Cervenka asked the council to spend not more than $118,047.65 on camera upgrades.

The department already has two of these fixed cameras with four more on the way but putting them on the patrol cars will be new, he said. They are watching and recording and for now they are looking only for the felons.

He said the cameras mounted on police cruisers will be like adding extra officers.

“When a police officer is driving through a parking lot at, say, Boatyard shopping center where we don’t have any cameras in that area. It’s scanning all the license plates for wanted vehicles, stolen vehicles,, Amber Alerts (missing children) and Feather Alerts (missing indigenous people) and Ebony Alert (missing black person)”. It also Fchecks for outstanding federal and state warrants. 

“All available information automatically downloads into the system and it checks viewed license plates continuously while it’s driving, if it connects a plate the program sends an alert on the screen, it also sends an alert to the officer’s cell phone, and also sends an alert to everyone working that case that the program has detected a wanted vehicle. So it is a huge force multiplier, and we’ve had history of people committing serious crimes, homicides in other parts of the state and coming to the coast to hide out. So this really helps us find those people and remove them from our community. 

What about ICE? (Nobody said that during the meeting.)

“The public knows there are specific laws in California that cannot be used for any immigration enforcement whatsoever, so our scan doesn’t check for that, or our systems don’t check for that. So it cannot be used for immigration enforcement, and it is also locked down for other law enforcement officers outside the state of California. So there are no non-California agencies that can look at our system.”

I pressed the chief about this in an interview.

“Because SB54 prohibits the use of police resources for immigration purposes, Automatic License Plate Recognition in California cannot be used for it.  The database used is the California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System (CLETS) and the National Law Enforcement Telecommunications System (NLETS).  License plates of stolen vehicles and those driven by someone with a felony warrant are entered.  Therefore, since immigration detainer requests are not warrants, there would be no way to enter the plate.  Any questions about CLETS should go to Cal DOJ.  Also, every hit requires the officer to verify the plate and reason before the stop,” Cervenka told me.

Why do the police need cameras inside patrol cars? “The officer can live view it on the screen if they choose. And this is helpful when we have an hour and a half prisoner transport across the mountain to the jail at night. You know it gets real quiet back there, and you need to know that your prisoner is still doing okay. Sometimes prisoners suffer medical emergencies, and if you’re driving on Highway 20, you may not notice that they’ve passed out or unconscious,” Cervenka said.

It also records the back seat, which is very beneficial for complaints of officer misconduct during transports. So it’s very easy to just look back at the video and either confirm or deny that allegation and move forward either way.” Just one lawsuit prevented could probably pay that bill, he suggested. The council talked about TV shows where body camera footage would be used. It was pointed out to the slightly addled councilmember that those were not live shows but the question about whether those body cams could be acquired with a California Public Records act request. 

Yes! 

The council authorized a five-year contract for an in-car video and license plate reader equipment not to exceed $118,047.65

It was then suggested that Fort Bragg might have such a show filmed once the cameras arrived.

“Not while I am chief,” said Cervenka. 

Cervenka also took the lead on Fort Bragg’s Council’s discussion of plans to let customers take their alcoholic drinks outside.  Nothing is final and it will be back for a public hearing after being worked over by the Community Development Committee but they agreed that allowing drinking outside as a way to continue to improve tourism could be a benefit and gave staff guidance to come back with a proposal. The city wants to be ahead of the pack of cities to enact this. Police chief Neil Cervenka, telling about how the idea works in other places with a trial in San Francisco that showed no increase in bad behavior. The chief had demands such as no glass bottles outside and drinks going in cups and that signage be used to mark the boundaries of where this would be allowed.  The big concern was that glass bottles would be thrown in the trash and break and tear the bags. LOL. The city is very tickled about the fancy new garbage cans it is about to install.  I can think of much worse acts of villainy that could be perpetrated by glass bottles but of course, you could always buy glass Coke bottles at Purity and do the same thing. Fort Bragg Real Estate king/gadfly Paul Clark had some good advice – include the whole city, not downtown as proposed as events might happen at CV Starr, the Skunk/Millisite or Glass Beach

“If you are going to do something like this then include the entire city and leave all your options open,” he said. Half a dozen others chimed in for the city to expand this beyond downtown. Next was a trashy item.

But why the heck do we all have to drive to Caspar to throw away those bags torn by revelers?

That was the question Councilman Lindy Peters had in pulling the item to renew the Casper transfer station lease from the consent agenda. They extended the use of the dump lease to 2032 with a vote at the end. Peters was pushing the city to make garbage hauling less of a haul for city residents and keep promises made to people in Caspar that the dump would be closed eventually. Peters mentioned that there was a place right in the city that would save a ton of time and carbon. Jacob Patterson , who speaks on most every subject at most evey meeting, jumped in to support this, identifying the old Waste Management transfer station, of course, and saying the city should use its eminent domain powers and take that property for the public good. Many other people have asked the question as to why not use eminent domain. We have never gotten an answer. Patterson also opined it was likely under contract law and that the city could break the contract if they needed to before 2032. With the amount of time it would take to do something else, even eminent domain, Peters said the time frame might work and the city should start working on a plan now.

The city appointed Diane Paoli as city clerk in closed session, with the announcement made by the city attorney when they emerged at the start of the meeting.. The previous clerk, Diana Sanchez, who replaced June Lemos, who replaced Cindy Van Wormer. The latter two women were iconic figures in Fort Bragg who kept the city organized. After Monday’s meeting, the city manager will appoint the city clerk, not the council. Back in 1980, the city of Fort Bragg ended the usual tradition of cities to have clerks elected. It saved a lot of money. The reason other cities elect is that the person is responsible for elections and agendas, both of which can be places for corruption to slip in. It seems like a big change.  The city attorney announced that the vote in closed session to appoint Paoli was 4-1 with Mayor Jason Godeke dissenting.  Hmm. Seems there might be more to this issue. 

Anybody? 

Got news? Send more info to frankhartzell@gmail.com.