Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/category/regions/north-county/stanton/)
South Orange County cities are watching their law enforcement costs soar by more than 20 percent over the last four years largely due to salary and benefit increases authorized by county supervisors.
Some city officials say marijuana, unlike other sales tax revenue streams, has at least been a stable source of cash.
City officials could end their relationship with a longtime animal control provider. Activists want council members to hold off on their decision – which could impact thousands of the city’s shelter animals and strays — until an ongoing period of political turmoil at City Hall dies down.
Stanton will sell the property at Cerritos and Flower avenues, currently a free public parking lot, to the nonprofit for $210,000, according to a city staff report. The fair market value of the land is $570,000, the report said.
Stanton City Council members are expected to vote Dec. 10 on extending a temporary ban on establishing new massage parlors for a year. Editors’ Note: This dispatch is part of the Voice of OC Youth Media program, working with student journalists to cover public policy issues across Orange County. If you would like to submit your own student media project related to Orange County civics or if you have any response to this work, contact Digital Editor Sonya Quick at squick@voiceofoc.org. The moratorium was deemed necessary early this year because of illegal activity occurring in parlors, including human trafficking, prostitution, having unlicensed technicians and personnel, and unsanitary conditions, according to a city staff report.
The ban was first put into place on Jan.
New taxes on marijuana businesses and an increase to hotel guest taxes were both passing by a wide margin.
Stanton residents will have a chance to vote on a marijuana tax Nov. 5 which, if approved, would lay the framework for marijuana-related businesses to come into the city.
Stanton City Council members voted unanimously earlier this week to move toward legalizing marijuana businesses in the city.
The nearly 7,000 people officially homeless n Orange County should be a wake up call to the County and all 34 cities to start building affordable and permanent supportive housing, in addition to shelters, according to experts in the field.
One of OC’s next homeless shelters could be headed for the affluent south county suburbs, the judge warns after citing a lack of progress by elected officials to create a mental health shelter.