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Brad Arnold
5/18/222022 HAY 18 AM II: 16
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Mayor Victor Gordo ([email protected])
Vice Mayor Andy Wilson ([email protected])
Councilmember Tyron Hampton ([email protected]) Councilmember John Kennedy ([email protected]) Councilmember Steve Madison ([email protected]) Councilmember Gene Masuda ([email protected])
Councilmember Jessica Rivas ([email protected]) Councilmember Felicia Williams ([email protected]) Members of the Public Safety Committee
[email protected],
[email protected]
Re: Public Health Department Funding, FY 2023 Recommended Operating Budget Dear Mayor Gordo, Members of the City Council, and Members of the Public Safety Committee:
My name is Brad Arnold and I am a Pasadena resident for 20 years. I have 4 kids, and I am a volunteer pastor in the community and live close to the corner of Washington and Los Robles in District 1. My two middle school boys attend Octavia E. Butler School around the corner from my house. My boys play basketball at Jackie Robinson and the Boys and Girls Club on Fair Oaks 4 days a week. My wife is a bilingual nurse practitioner in the community and a minister at our church. I connect and minister every week with people in the community in various places all over the city.
I am SHOCKED to hear the City Council wants to allot almost $90,000 to the police department but, during Mental Health Awareness Month, we are considering ZERO dollars from the general fund to go to the Public Health Department. How is this possible? What are we thinking? Is one of the chief lessons we've learned from George Floyd and Anthony McClain to allocate more money to the Pasadena Police Department? I live in the community where homelessness is on the rise, bullets regularly fly, and gang signs are thrown 5 feet from my sons and I as we walk into the gym. I TEACH my boys that the answer IS NOT judging or more policing. I teach them the answer is more connection and compassion by both the police and the community for the sake of the community. It's a TEAM effort to create a better city especially for those who over the most overlooked. We had a nice chat with the guys throwing up gang signs and it created a place a peace. Bullets would fly less if we put more money into reaching out to the young men and families suffering from violence or trapped in a violent cycle! The homeless and under-supported families in our community would be more helped by public health dollars not police dollars. Therefore, the answer is more money into PUBLIC HEALTH not policing! What are we thinking? No one is saying give zero dollars to the police. But zero dollars from the general fund to public health? Wow! Really!! Allocate more general funding money for public health! Intimidating, non-relational policing tends to create fear in the community and make people feel controlled and guarantees increasing the division between the police and the community. Do we really need more division? A better path to city-wide peace for all is more money placed in the general fund for public health to connect and assist the community in the way they truly need it. The police have an adequate budget. Public health clearly needs more because so many in our community suffer from mental, physical, emotional, psychological, and financial health deficits. Please do not increase the police department budget. Please listen to the community and come up with an adequate dollar amount allocated to our Public Health Department.
Thank you for listening.
Sincerely,
Brad Arnold
Husband ofFina, dad ofTasha, Reese, Dre and Zach and resident of District 1.