BLUE FOLDER ITEM
Blue folder items are additional back up material to administrative reports and/or public comments received after the printing and distribution of the agenda packet for receive and file.
CITY COUNCIL MEETING
September 1, 2026
H.8 APPROVE AN AGREEMENT WITH THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
OFFICE OF TRAFFIC SAFETY (OTS) FOR THE SELECTIVE TRAFFIC
ENFORCEMENT PROGRAM GRANT AWARD IN AN AMOUNT OF
$157,500 FOR THE TERM OCTOBER 1, 2026 THROUGH SEPTEMBER 30, 2027, TO SUPPORT POLICE DEPARTMENT INITIATIVES FOR
ENFORCEMENT OF DISTRACTED AND IMPAIRED DRIVING
APPROVE BY 4/5THS VOTE AND TITLE ONLY RESOLUTION NO. CC2609-073 A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY OF REDONDO BEACH, CALIFORNIA, AUTHORIZING A FISCAL YEAR 2026-2027 BUDGET
MODIFICATION TO APPROPRIATE $157,500 IN SELECTIVE TRAFFIC
ENFORCEMENT PROGRAM GRANT FUNDS FROM THE STATE OF
CALIFORNIA OFFICE OF TRAFFIC SAFETY TO THE
INTERGOVERNMENTAL GRANTS FUND
CONTACT: STEPHEN SPRENGEL, CHIEF OF POLICE
• Public Communications
From: Bryan Stone
To: CityClerk; James Light; Paige Kaluderovic; Scott Behrendt; Zein Obagi; Chadwick B. Castle; Brad Waller Subject: Consent Item H8 - File #26-1019 — OTS Selective Traffic Enforcement Program grant ($157,500) Date: Monday, August 31, 2026 11:29:50 AM
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Dear City Clerk,
Please add this comment to the record for Consent Calendar Item H8.
Thank you.
Bryan Stone
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Dear Mayor Light and Councilmembers,
I write as a resident about File #26-1019 on the September 1 consent calendar. The item accepts $157,500 from the State Office of Traffic Safety for Police overtime aimed at distracted and impaired driving.
Impaired driving that endangers others is a proper object of policing. A grant that pays the City to stop motorists without suspicion is not. Pull this item from consent.
Debate it. Reject the parts that treat every driver as a suspect.
The money is not free. It is tax money with conditions. STEP grants buy checkpoints, saturation patrols, and themed enforcement waves. They train the City to shape traffic work to what Sacramento will reimburse. When the grant ends, the overtime habit remains, or the City must reapply to keep the same pace. Outside money then sets local priorities. Stewardship includes saying no to a stipend that looks costless and is not.
Checkpoints invert the presumption. A free person may use a public road without proving innocence to a line of officers. Checkpoints detain the many to find the few.
Order does not require a gauntlet. It requires an officer to stop the driver who appears impaired, not everyone on that street that night.
The burden is not even. People who work late, drive older cars, or cannot spare the time pay more for the same stop. A parent delayed after a shift cannot treat a checkpoint as a civic exercise. Those with less margin to contest a ticket or a tow carry more of the cost.
Saturation and “distracted driving” waves raise the same objection. Overtime spent looking for phones and primary collision factors will find violations. It will also turn ordinary trips into encounters with the state. A city that already logs license plates should be slower to add contact with people who have given no cause. High-visibility enforcement can become theater: more stops, better grant reports, not fewer wrecks caused by the genuinely dangerous.
Safety does not require this bargain. Enforce drunk driving against the drunk. Educate.
Fix lighting and crossings. Do not take a state stipend to multiply stops of the unimpaired. Consent-calendar approval hides the choice. Residents deserve to hear why $157,500 of extra enforcement is worth the cost in liberty, fairness, and local control, not only why the grant requires no match.
Pull File #26-1019. Reject checkpoint-style operations funded by this award. Limit any remaining use to impaired drivers identified by particular facts, not by the fact that they drove on a grant night.
Respectfully,
Bryan
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Bryan Stone
310-592-3217
[email protected]
2511 Fisk Lane
Redondo Beach, CA 90278