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County, <br />ORANGE COUNTY PUBLIC LAW LIBRARY <br />515 NORTH FLOWER STREET <br />SANTA ANA, CALIFORNIA 92703-2354 <br />(714) 338-6790 • FAX (714) 338-6814 <br />WWW.00PLL.ORG JUDGE CRAIG L. GRIFFIN, PRESIDENT <br />rFCJ JUDGE JULIAN W. BAILEY <br />?0I7 26 AM, il= „/ JUDGE JACKI C. BROWN <br />MARYRUTH STORER JUDGE WILLIAM CLASPER <br />DIRECTOR DAVID HESSELTINE, ESQ. <br />CITY OF Sf5&"M ANA PROFESSOR LINDA KAWAGUCHI <br />CLERK OF i'Irli JUDGE GLENN R. SALTER <br />September 22, 2017 <br />TO: The Honorable Board of Supervisors, County of Orange <br />The Honorable Mayor and Members of the Council, City of Santa Ana <br />Chair, Orange County Civic Center Authority <br />As President of the Board of Trustees of the Orange County Public Law Library, I <br />write to inform you of our Board's concerns about the conditions in the Civic Center and <br />the impact the actions of some members of the homeless community have had upon <br />our ability to carry out the Law Library's mission to provide access to legal information <br />to all residents of the County. <br />In the period from June 17, 2017 to August 31, 2017, the following incidents <br />occurred at the Law Library: <br />• 17 incidents of apparent drug use inside the restrooms (abandoned syringes) <br />• 9 incidents of serious unsanitary conditions inside the restrooms (blood on walls, <br />inches of water on the floor, etc.) <br />2 incidents of public urination on carpet <br />• 4 exterior window walls broken during closed hours <br />A screaming man pounded on an interior glass wall, harassed custodian and tried <br />to hit the security guard; he then challenged a county worker and patron to fight <br />one on one before eventually leaving the building (while staff was still waiting for <br />law enforcement to arrive) <br />s A screaming woman refused to leave the restroom so that it could be cleaned, <br />was extremely verbally abusive to staff and the guard, spat on the guard and <br />threatened to hit him <br />• Multiple instances of urination/defecation in both hardscape and landscaping <br />around the exterior of the building, creating pedestrian hazards and odor that <br />entered interior areas of the building <br />The Law Library is the closest public building to the encampment on the Plaza of <br />the Flags, and the individuals camping there and elsewhere in the Civic Center cannot <br />have all their sanitation needs met at the Law Library. Our restrooms are small and <br />designed per Building Code requirements to provide for the expected normal number of <br />library visitors using our legal materials, not for the hundreds of individuals camping <br />