Ahead of the March primary election, the San Clemente City Council on Tuesday, Jan. 16, took a stance against an approximately $6.4 billion bond package that would expand the state’s behavioral health treatment system.
Mayor Victor Cabral and Councilmembers Steve Knoblock and Rick Loeffler voted to adopt a resolution opposing the bond package and two-part initiative known as Proposition 1. The resolution cites the state’s erosion of local control and institution of zoning changes that would place substance abuse and addiction treatment facilities in residential neighborhoods, as well as the bond’s “massive hit” to taxpayers, as reasons to oppose the ballot initiative.
After initially stating the council shouldn’t take a position on the matter, Loeffler decided to support the resolution. He said he didn’t have the confidence to believe the money intended for positive uses would reach where it was supposed to go.
“(As I can’t support) writing the blank checks anymore without having any culpability in having any success, I’m going to vote yes,” Loeffler said.
Prop 1, under Assembly Bill 531 and Senate Bill 326, would build 11,150 new behavioral health treatment beds and create 26,700 outpatient treatment slots, fund supportive housing, and amend the state’s Mental Health Service Act. Gov. Gavin Newsom said in an October 2023 release that the bills would transform the state’s mental health and substance use disorder treatment system.
“We see the signs of our broken system every day – too many Californians suffering from mental health needs or substance use disorders and unable to get support or care they need,” Newsom said. “This will prioritize getting people off the streets, out of tents and into treatment.”
In December, the League of California Cities (Cal Cities) Board of Directors voted in favor of Prop 1, after the organization engaged with lawmakers to secure $1.5 billion for cities and counties to fund behavioral health beds through AB 531 and SB 326, according to a Cal Cities release.
Cal Cities supported both bills throughout 2023 before a last-minute amendment to AB 531, a change that also drew concerns from Mayor Pro Tem Mark Enmeier and Councilmember Chris Duncan during Tuesday’s meeting.
“These amendments allow for by-right approvals of unlocked and locked behavioral health facilities, sober living homes, and recovery housing,” the organization’s release read. “While existing law generally requires by-right approval of these facilities in residential areas, Proposition 1 would also apply this approval process to office, retail, and parking zones.”
Cal Cities then indicated it would strive to fight the saturation of sober living homes in residential areas and to institute “reasonable oversight” of such facilities going forward.
Both Duncan and Enmeier said Tuesday that they would be open to sending a letter asking for modification of the bill concerning the sober living homes, but they otherwise supported the measure and how it would combat homelessness in California.
“It does give more direction and more money straight to our city instead of to the county, so that we can make the decisions (on) how we want to address homelessness as opposed to the county telling us how we should do it,” said Enmeier.
Cabral and Knoblock countered by saying the bill couldn’t be modified, as it was already on the ballot, and that the resolution was all or nothing.
The money in Prop 1 will provide for many more sober living homes to pop up in San Clemente, Cabral contended, adding that he supported the resolution for the purpose of opposing the sober living homes.