Your post condemning Senate Bill 634 as a dangerous overreach by Sacramento’s single-party machine is spot-on, and I align with your call to protect Riverside’s autonomy. However, as Riverside’s has only one lone conservative voice on the council, you must acknowledge that the city’s leadership—including your colleagues and the Mayor’s Office—has fed into this power grab and exacerbated our homelessness crisis through complacency and misguided priorities. For years, I’ve watched the council, like trained seals, clap for reports of failure while ignoring the root causes of our problems. Riverside must stop endorsing Sacramento’s failed ideology, reject wasteful spending on self-serving committees, and demand accountability on homelessness. Your post is a start, but the council’s track record demands a sharper course correction.

Sacramento’s Overreach and Riverside’s Complicity

SB 634, authored by Senator Sasha Renée Pérez, epitomizes California’s 20-year single-party governance and its single-brain ideology, which you rightly critique. By restricting local enforcement tools, this bill handcuffs Riverside’s ability to balance compassion with public safety, forcing a one-size-fits-all approach that ignores our community’s unique needs. But Riverside’s leadership has not been an innocent bystander. The City choose to align with Governor Newsom’s agenda—seen in photo ops during his 2020 housing tour or in rubber-stamping high-density housing mandates like SB 50 (2019)—which has emboldened Sacramento’s power grab. These actions project compliance, not resistance, and align Riverside with the same failed policies you decry.

Worse, the city wastes taxpayer money on affiliations like Big City Mayors events and other committees that often endorse Sacramento’s ideology. For example, the U.S. Conference of Mayors, which Riverside’s leadership has attended, frequently champions state-driven housing and homelessness policies without questioning their efficacy. These self-serving platforms do little to protect Riverside’s autonomy and divert resources from real advocacy. As I’ve urged before, if groups like the League of California Cities fail to challenge bills like SB 634 effectively, we must redirect funds to legal challenges or coalitions with inland cities facing similar pressures.

The Homelessness Debacle: Riverside’s “Build It and They Will Come” Failure

Riverside’s approach to homelessness mirrors the state’s dysfunction, and the council shares the blame. Like California’s broader leadership, our city has adopted a “build it and they will come” mentality, prioritizing housing projects over accountability. For years, I’ve commented at public meetings, including one at the downtown bookstore with the City Manager and Mayor, begging for oversight of the wasteful homeless industry. Yet, the council—yourself included at times—has clapped for reports celebrating one-off stories, like housing a single person at taxpayer expense, while ignoring systemic failure.

Success isn’t housing one person on the public’s dime; it’s enabling them to pay rent and become contributing members of society. Simple questions could expose the homelessness department’s shortcomings: What was the homeless count last month versus today? How much have we spent per person removed from the streets? Instead, the dais responds with “thank you” and applause, as if platitudes solve encampments or street crime. This lack of leadership, which I’ve called out repeatedly, reflects the same single-brain ideology plaguing Sacramento—a refusal to question failing policies.

The state’s role in this debacle is undeniable. Newsom’s $24 billion homelessness spending since 2019 has yielded little, with California’s homeless population still near 180,000. But Riverside’s council has mirrored this by funneling millions into programs without demanding metrics or results. For instance, the city’s 2023 homelessness plan cited partnerships with nonprofits but lacked clear benchmarks for reducing encampments or recidivism. Your opposition to SB 634’s restrictions is commendable, but where is the council’s plan to enforce public safety and accountability locally?

A Path Forward: Reclaim Local Control

To break free from Sacramento’s grip and address homelessness effectively, Riverside’s leadership must act decisively:

Reject Sacramento’s Agenda: Stop photo ops with Newsom and attendance at events that prop up his narrative. If you engage with state officials, use the platform to demand Riverside’s right to tailor solutions, as Sacramento’s Mayor Steinberg did for SB 50. Publicly oppose bills like SB 634 through resolutions and media campaigns.

Overhaul Homelessness Oversight: Implement rigorous metrics for the homelessness department. Monthly reports must include homeless counts, per-person spending, and outcomes like employment or stable housing. Hold staff accountable for failures, not one-off anecdotes. Explore enforcement tools—like those SB 634 threatens—to ensure public spaces remain safe and accessible.

Redirect Advocacy Funds: Withdraw from committees that endorse failed state policies, like Big City Mayors events. Strengthen ties with the League of California Cities to lead opposition to overreach, or fund legal challenges to protect local zoning and enforcement powers.

Empower Conservative Leadership: Riverside’s sole conservative, must rally the council to prioritize community-driven solutions over state mandates. The other councilpersons must abandon their alliance with failed policies and ideologies. Celebrate local successes, like faith-based partnerships, that don’t rely on Sacramento’s playbook.

Listen to Residents: My years of public comments have been met with retort and no action. The council must engage with critics like me, who demand accountability, not platitudes. Host town halls to rebuild trust and develop a homelessness strategy that works for Riverside.

Councilman Mills, your post rightly calls out SB 634’s threat to local control, but Riverside’s council has fueled this crisis by aligning with Sacramento’s ideology and mismanaging homelessness. The city’s “build it and they will come” approach, lack of oversight, and wasteful spending on self-serving committees mirror the state’s failures. Yu must join forces with the lone conservative voice, and lead the charge to reject Newsom’s power grab, demand accountability, and restore Riverside’s autonomy. The dais must stop clapping for failure and start asking hard questions. I urge you to bring these concerns to the next council meeting and invite public input to forge real solutions.