CITRUS HEIGHTS, CA (MPG) - As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, the June 25 meeting of the Citrus Heights City Council was held again through teleconference to comply with social distancing recommendations.

COVID-19 has severely disrupted the local economy, so City staff recommended the approval of two COVID Relief Actions: an ordinance providing an automatic five-year extension to the entitlements of unexpired development projects within the city and a resolution encouraging the business use of outdoor space by temporarily relaxing City regulations regarding outdoor dining, signage, and parking. The Council unanimously approved both the Relief Actions.

During Public Comment, Brendan Quinn stated that he recently emailed the Council asking what is being done “to combat systemic racism by reforming Citrus Heights PD policies.” He said a response from Councilmember Bret Daniels stated that nothing is being done because there is no systemic racism in the Citrus Heights Police Department (CHPD). Quinn’s public comment disputed that claim, citing PoliceScorecard.org, which gave Citrus Heights an “F,” based on statistics showing that Black people in Citrus Heights were 3.4 times more likely than whites to be targets of deadly force from 2016 – 2018.

Quinn reaffirmed his stance that the CHPD does have a problem with systemic racism and asked, again, what actions the Council is taking to reform police behavior in the city: “If I am to stay here, spend money here, and raise another generation here, I need assurance that this Council will take action. Police reform is sweeping the country and if we do not catch up, Citrus Heights will be on the wrong side of history.”

In response, Mayor Jeff Slowey said, “My only comment is, as we all know, numbers can tell many stories. Personally, I think it’s disingenuous to take a specific timeframe and pull numbers. If you would really want to talk numbers, talk about the entire inception to now of the Police Department, and those are completely different numbers. So, I’m just going to leave it at that. I think we have a great Police Department.”