From Councilman Rosendahl:
Venice Neighborhood Council Boardmembers,
Thank you for your recent support of the Winter Shelter Pilot Storage program. Your support goes a long way towards encouraging more of our communities less fortunate to take advantage of services that will not be available after March 1st.
With that in mind, as you may recall during your January 22nd Board Meeting, our City Attorney representative reiterated that the city is going to need to invest in a long term program that deals with items left on our sidewalks, parks, beaches and/or streets to name a few. Because of that advice, I am moving forward with our Police Department, Bureau of Street Services, Bureau of Sanitation, and our Recreation & Parks to identify a location for a program of this sort. Based on City Attorney advice, a location for this program must be within a reasonable distance from where items are confiscated.
My goal is to have a program up and running as of March 1st. The program would allow our city departments to drop off confiscated items while a social service contractor collects, inventories, and keeps the property for the required number of days, which as of today is 90.
While my goal is to consistently work with my Neighborhood Councils, time is of the essence as we work through this issue as it makes its way through the courts. That being said, my staff and our city units will identify a facility in the next month that will accommodate the program being discussed. Of course it will take an investment of city resources but being that my constituents have phoned, emailed and met with me requesting that I do something about all the items left on our sidewalks, beaches and streets, I know this is a priority.
In conclusion, know that my staff will be working with the above mentioned city entities to formulate all the specifics. By March 1st, my goal is to have a social service agency working with our city entities for the purposes of collecting confiscated items, maintaining those items for a maximum of 90 days, and provide access to those that choose to reclaim their items during reasonable day time hours.
I realize this is something new but it is precedent setting and I look forward to your support and assistance as we all work to address this community wide issue.
Regards,
Bill
