Tracy Mayor: 'Bus Homeless Out' To Stockton
TRACY (CBS13) — The mayor of Tracy says the solution to his city's homeless problem, is to bus the homeless to Stockton.
Mayor Robert Rickman announced the idea during a Tracy council meeting Tuesday night. Video posted to the City of Tracy's website shows Rickman proposing the plan.
"I mean, it just makes sense," Rickman said.
"What's something that we can do tomorrow?"
"I know they just built a nice big shelter in Stockton."
"If it's going to be 35 degrees, why don't we have a designated spot? They can come, get a ticket, and go to that shelter?"
"You know, get a bus ticket to some of these shelters, hey, laugh but it gets these people out of the cold."
Rickman stands by the mic'd up moment inside council chambers. He says San Joaquin County property tax dollars from Tracy homes helped pay for the Stockton shelters.
"All this money from our city, on our property tax, is getting shipped over to the county and put into the city of Stockton, it's not returning to our cities," Rickman said on Wednesday.
"I thought it was pathetic," Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs said.
Mayor, you are way out of your league. In terms of solutions, you might want to listen to homeless experts or members of your own https://t.co/90M9Yr1HAO can also work more closely with the county board you are running for. Instead of sending to Tracy, here's what we are doing https://t.co/griHVZJxyx pic.twitter.com/R948P3b9gu
— Michael Tubbs (@MichaelDTubbs) February 5, 2020
Tubbs is calling out Rickman, who voted against declaring a shelter emergency in Tracy in 2018. The declaration would have brought hundreds of thousands of state dollars to Tracy to build its own shelter.
"I'm hoping the mayor will listen to his councilmembers, listen to best practices, listen to logic, listen to the facts and come up with a real strategy to address the homelessness issue in Tracy," Tubbs said.
Tubbs says he's written a letter to Rickman, telling him not to bus homeless to Stockton, and offering guidance on other solutions.