Issues Omitted from the SHO Debate

Editor,

The Social Host Ordinance known as SHO takes the combination of greed and ignorance that are now common with the Laguna Beach City Council into a new playing field, the legal system. State judges don’t care about local ordinances, because they don’t compare to the programs the courts already have. But we as a city should care about the fact that our paid employees are campaigning on behalf of lobbyists with distorted facts pitched to some bleeding hearts who care more about control then the needs of the public.

As a minor busted for under age drinking or substance abuse in Orange County, you may be walking into juvenile court with your parents. But really you’re entering into a program that is so advanced, judges, deputy district attorneys and the public defenders receive special training to work in unison with psychiatrists, educators and counselors and parents. Chances are you will be in front of my Dad and maybe with my sister at your side. The prosecutor who spoke out on behalf of SHO hasn’t had any of this training and is unknown in Orange County.

SHO has no specifications to it. The backers couldn’t go to the Orange County courts with a demand to fine teen party hosts $1500 for something to be figured out at a later date, which is why they are trying to enter at the local level. Current programs in Orange County allocate over $500 million to tackle teen drug and alcohol abuse, backed by billions at the state and federal levels of government. Facts never brought up by police Chief Paul Workman, nor where the disciplinary actions handed down by judges against parents or people who contribute to the delinquency of minors facts readily made available to police chiefs.

My question to the editor is how did our community leaders become so reckless? And do our newly elected council members plan doing anything about it?

John Kreber, Laguna Beach