5.31.23 – Yahoo
“Maybe this will send a message that it is the city’s job to provide these basic and essential services without extra taxes and fees,” Ditkof wrote in his letter. Daniel Savala, executive director for the Del Paso Boulevard Partnership, said Ditkof might be a bit “misguided” in his hopes to disband the district.
The chairman of the Del Paso Boulevard Partnership resigned on Tuesday, criticizing city officials for what he said was a failure to provide basic public safety services for businesses and property owners in the North Sacramento neighborhood.
Howie Ditkof, now the former chairman of the special assessment district, said reported crimes directed at businesses and properties are the lowest priority when it comes to a response from the Sacramento Police Department.
He hopes his resignation will force the city of Sacramento to take notice and change the structure that prevents Del Paso Boulevard businesses from thriving.
“It’s a great neighborhood with really nice people,” Ditkof told The Sacramento Bee. “The police are doing the best they can. They’re incredibly underfunded in an area that’s been historically neglected.”
Delayed police response to burglar alarms
He explained in his resignation that a burglar alarm was triggered at his property about 2 a.m., which was followed by another triggered burglar alarm at 2:30 a.m. at a nearby auto collision repair business. Ditkof said the Police Department did not send any officers to respond to either alarm until one officer drove by at 5:30 a.m., three hours after the second alarm.
Two metals doors on Ditkof’s building were damaged — the deadbolts were bent and destroyed. He said he later learned that burglars shattered the glass on the front door at the auto collision business, opened the side roll-up door, moved and damaged several vehicles, parked a truck on the street and stole two trucks from the business. He said the burglars caused about $100,000 in damage.
“The thieves certainly knew that the Sacramento Police would not respond to business burglar alarms in any timely manner, and that they had plenty of time inside the collision center,” Ditkof wrote in his resignation letter.
Sgt. Zach Eaton, a spokesman for the Police Department, said they use a call priority system when responding to requests for help from police, including activated burglar alarms.
“Most of the time, our department receives more calls for service than officers available to respond,” Eaton said. “At times, the high volume causes unfortunate delays in officer response times.”
As of Tuesday, the Police Department had 769 allocated officer positions, 668 of those jobs were filled.
Eaton said officers work tirelessly to answer those calls for service “as quickly and safely as possible.” He said the Police Department, in recent weeks, had increased patrols in business districts along Del Paso Boulevard and Arden Way.
He said the Police Department recognizes the harmful impact property crimes, such as burglaries, have on businesses that owners and employees work so hard to build, and the department’s North Area Command Problem-Oriented Policing Team is investing considerable time in working with businesses.
“Our businesses have every right to be upset (about burglaries),” Eaton said. “Moving forward, we will continue evaluating our response strategies and working with our business communities to protect life and property while solving problems.”
But Ditkof said this weekend’s burglaries aren’t the only reason behind his resignation. He said other property and business owners in the area have experienced the same.
“Based on this and the recent experience of others in North Sacramento, it certainly appears that the city of Sacramento has decided not to provide the essential city service of police protection to business and property,” Ditkof wrote in his resignation letter.
City officials said on Tuesday that $5 million has been allocated from American Rescue Plan Act funds to North Sacramento as part of the city’s ongoing commitment to local neighborhoods. The city is currently operating a $2 million grants program to help North Sacramento businesses improve their buildings and spur new investment.
“The city has learned of Mr. Ditkof’s resignation and would like to thank him for his work on the Del Paso Boulevard Partnership,” Tim Swanson, a city spokesman, said in a written statement to The Bee. “While the partnership is an independent legal entity separate from the city, it shares in the city’s mission to protect and enhance the quality of life for residents and businesses.”
What is the Del Paso Boulevard Partnership
The Del Paso Boulevard Partnership is an advocacy group for businesses. The group main purpose is to partner with the city of Sacramento as a property and business improvement district, which was created as a financing mechanism where property owners enter into a special assessment district to improve their commercial areas.
The Del Paso district serves 313 properties with 158 property owners along Del Paso Boulevard between Railroad Drive and Lampasas Avenue, and along Arden Way between the Sacramento Northern Bike Trail and the railroad crossing along Swanson Station.
Ditkof said he would like to see the Del Paso district disbanded, because its existence allows the city to ignore the neighborhood by failing to provide basic levels of service. He said he pays annually about $3,000 — based on the size of his property — in taxes and fees to the improvement district for services that go beyond the essential services he said the city is supposed to provide.
He’s urging other business and property owners to also resign from the Del Paso Partnership board. That would leave only two city employees — Leslie Fritzsche, an economic investment manager, and police Lt. Ryan Bullard — on the partnership’s board.
“Maybe this will send a message that it is the city’s job to provide these basic and essential services without extra taxes and fees,” Ditkof wrote in his letter.
Daniel Savala, executive director for the Del Paso Boulevard Partnership, said Ditkof might be a bit “misguided” in his hopes to disband the district. But Savala said Ditkof is upset “for all the right reasons,” and maybe his resignation serves as a “tipping point” that creates dialogue between the city and the businesses about the needs of North Sacramento.
“It’s unfortunate for us to lose someone like him who has so much passion and dedication to improving this neighborhood,” Savala told The Bee. “But I understand his frustrations, and a lot of business owners do, too.”
Ditkof’s resignation came only a few weeks after four people, including two small children, were wounded in a shooting outside a Del Paso Boulevard liquor store. The Vida De Oro Foundation, a Sacramento community group, postponed its annual Sacramento Taco Festival on Del Paso Boulevard over safety concerns after the late-night shooting.
Savala said he doesn’t want to see other partnership board members resign, and he understands that police have to “triage” calls prioritizing violent crimes over burglaries. As the city enters another election cycle, Savala believes the top issue will be how neighborhoods get adequate law enforcement services from the city.
“There’s a complete disconnect from what we need in terms of law enforcement to what we get. Something has got to change,” Savala said. “We’re on the verge of vigilantism.”