By GABRIELLA BOCK | Reporter
Newly re-elected LA City Attorney Mike Feuer made a rare appearance at last Thursday’s Pacific Palisades Community Council meeting to discuss social issues, criminal reform and provide answers to the evening’s pressing questions.
Standing in front of the council, Feuer opened by emphasizing the importance of his office’s pivot towards neighborhood action and commended those in attendance for their commitment to keeping an active role in their community.
Feuer’s key talking points focused on crime prevention and homelessness, on which the city attorney is leading the way with his “smart justice” strategy to reduce incarceration and recidivism rates.
“I want to take the time to recruit you [to our Neighborhood Justice Program],” Feuer said. “It’s something that my office is proud of, namely because it was designed to transform people’s lives while leaving the community much better off.”
Launched in early 2015, Feuer’s Neighborhood Justice Program offers low-level offenders––with a special aim at young adults––an alternative to a life-changing criminal conviction. Through mediation and community service, offenders are given the opportunity to learn personal accountability for their crimes.
“The program takes volunteers from neighborhoods where crimes occur and we train them on principals of restorative justice,” he explained. “The volunteers become a panel, who then engage the offender in a discussion on why they committed the crime and on how that crime has affected the community.”
After the mediation session, the community then assigns the offender an obligation such as tutoring children or lecturing high school students on the dangers of alcoholism.
And since a nonviolent misdemeanor could cause a university to revoke a scholarship or prevent one’s ability to rent an apartment or gain employment, the program serves as a way to thwart future crime and homelessness.
In its first year, over two-thirds of the program’s participants were aged between 18-39 and had reported household incomes of $20,000 or less. Over 90 percent successfully completed the obligations given by their program panelists and only two percent reoffended––a large leap from the 50-60 percent of convicted criminal offenders who are likely to be rearrested within three years of release.
To alleviate the city’s growing homeless population, Feuer has expanded programs to reduce criminal convictions in return of rehabilitative compliance and is even leading an effort to transform dilapidated motels into permanent supportive housing.
In a rare move at the community council, his presentation was streamed live through the council’s Facebook page where his remarks are now archived.
He was asked whether the city could take action to block a court-approved Palisadian-Post sign at its Village offices by way of a civil nuisance suit. He said his office has never taken such action against a business sign, reserving such suits for problems such as drug dens.
“You’ll see me stepping out of the role of traditional city attorney,” he continued. “You don’t run for office just to be in office––something that you’ll never hear me say is ‘That’s not my job.’”
Feuer will be re-inaugurated Thursday, June 29 at 12 p.m.
This page is available to subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access.
