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Page | 2 <br /> <br />In very simple terms, policy making means deciding what you are going to do - not how <br />you are going to do it. An example may help illustrate the difference. Deciding that your <br />community is going to emphasize the provision of low-income housing is a basic policy <br />decision. Making that decision means that you will be spending money on housing <br />programs, that you intend to make this subject a priority, and that, in all likelihood, some <br />other programs will have to wait their turn. (…). Policies are formulated for the broad <br />issues that affect your community. <br /> <br />These may include everything from providing jobs to paving streets to making sure that <br />children have enough playgrounds. <br /> <br />As a policy maker, you are sometimes judge and sometimes advocate; you need to <br />hear opposing views, consider the arguments, think about the concerns of the <br />constituency you serve. <br /> <br />I commend Mr. Aguilar’s commitment to our community and in particular, to the most <br />vulnerable segments of that community. He is being a fearless advocate for right <br />action and representing the most vulnerable sectors of that community. <br /> <br />2. On the moratorium and unenforceable “gentlemen’s agreements” <br /> <br />Not only did the community appear in force both last night and at the January hearing, <br />but you, the City Council and Mayor, have received multiple letters and statements <br />about the current housing crisis both in the State of California and in particular in the <br />Bay Area. As members of the City, the State, the country, the planet, you have an <br />obligation to stay abreast of this situation. This City has its own homeless, and <br />unhoused people do not live long. Their lives are usually cut short because of the <br />terrible difficulties of living in the streets. NOT signing an immediate moratorium, and <br />allowing these actors to continue to act WITH IMPUNITY, is an act of human and <br />political MISFEASANCE . <br /> <br />The United Nations has made a damning report about our treatment, as a country, of <br />our homeless populations. The issue is imperative, and the requirement for a <br />moratorium is imperative. As I mentioned last night, it is a MORAL issue. Not to be <br />adjourned, not to be relegated to “a future meeting,” not to be deferred for further <br />consideration. That is damnable, execrable behavior. And I say this as someone <br />who has sung Amazing Grace too many times at ceremonies honoring members of our <br />unhoused population who have died from exposure to the elements in their early fifties. <br /> <br />In the same way that I commended the comments by Victor Aguilar, I repudiate the <br />comments made by Councilman Ballew. I repudiate his characterization of H. John <br />Busch’s selfless and principled actions. <br /> <br />The fact is that Bayshore Commons deliberately destroyed a community of people <br />who were living at the trailer park. The letters I provided last night showing that there <br />was a problem with setbacks with Bayshore Commons, specifically affecting Unit 13,