San Mateo County leaders voice support for Prop 36

Before a Board of Supervisors vote scheduled for Tuesday, San Mateo County Supervisor Ray Mueller urged local leaders to join the growing coalition of elected officials, district attorney offices and law enforcement agencies across the state in supporting stronger penalties for retail theft and drug crimes via Prop 36.

The statewide ballot initiative would reform parts of Prop 47, a 2014 measure that classified theft crimes under $950 as misdemeanors with the aim of keeping low-level offenders out of crowded prisons.

“The county’s largest cities — Daly City, San Mateo and Redwood City — all have seen increases in retail thefts in the last several years,” Mueller said Monday at a press conference in Redwood City.

The small town of Colma in San Mateo County leads the Bay Area in the highest number of retail thefts.

On Tuesday, the county board will vote on a resolution, proposed by Mueller, voicing support for the measure.

Prop 36 would allow prosecutors to charge repeat offenders with a felony and increase punishments for drug dealing. But the proposal has also met with stiff opposition from criminal justice reform advocates and progressive lawmakers, and its passage in November is far from certain.

Large retailers, such as Walmart, Target and Home Depot, are among the prominent corporations that have contributed millions of dollars in favor of the ballot measure.

On Monday, San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe, San Mateo County Supervisor-elect Jackie Speier, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, Redwood City Mayor Jeff Gee and San Mateo Mayor Lisa Diaz-Nash appeared with Mueller in support of his resolution.

Speier, making her first public appearance as supervisor-elect in front of the county government building, said that while she supported Prop 47 as an important measure to address prison overpopulation, the prevalence of retail crimes across the state now calls for reform.

“I supported Proposition 47 and I support Proposition 36 because it is necessary and a common-sense
adjustment to our current law,” the former congresswoman said. “Under current law, you can repeatedly commit retail theft and continue to be charged with a misdemeanor.”

She said the bill was not about filling up prisons again, but holding retail-theft criminals accountable.

“As the robberies and organized crime syndicates get involved, it’s not about stealing a bottle of nail polish, but shelves of makeup that are resold online or at flea markets,” Speier said.

But in neighboring Santa Clara County, District Attorney Jeff Rosen opposed punitive responses to the retail theft and drug crisis. Meanwhile, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, a vocal Yes on 36 proxy, has been speaking on its behalf across Northern California, emphasizing the need to enact stricter measures against these crimes.

“In my city, in this county, and throughout California, there’s an ongoing crisis of homelessness. We all see the terrible human cost paid by those suffering on our streets,” Mahan said Monday.

As proponents of the ballot initiative spoke, a handful of activists opposing Prop 36 held signs to protest.

Among them was Nancy Goodband with the Coalition for a Safer San Mateo County, who said that the proposal would increase spending on prisons and not provide enough for drug treatment.

“I would support something like a mandate for fentanyl treatment. I don’t mind mandating people going into fentanyl treatment, but this does not do that,” Goodband said.

Speier acknowledges that the proposal would require increased public spending but noted that retail theft and the drug crisis are already imposing significant costs on the public.

“Doing it as a way of making a living drives up the cost for everyone else, causes a loss of jobs as stores close, loss of convenience to consumers, and sometimes even endangers lives,” Speier said.

Goodband also raised concern that the bill could disproportionately affect Black and Latino communities.

“I would like people to consider that in our county, Black people are nine times more likely to be arrested than white people,” she said. Data from Public Policy Institute of California affirms this insight.

Jim Lawrence, former Foster City mayor, said that Prop 36 is “well-intended” but the focus should address the underlying causes of retail theft and drug use.

“Think about the cost of gas when Proposition 47 was passed,” Lawrence said. “So the people really who are committing these crimes are facing unbelievable cost-of-living challenges…. Until we address those underlying root causes of things, society is not going to change. We’re only masking the problem.”