Code Enforcement Officer Dave Paquette stated that memorial crosses are allowed in public areas, but only for short amounts of time.  Memorials are specifically exempted from the City sign ordinance under Chapter 17.60.080.

The crosses which memorialize the specific babies killed each week in Bakersfield are taken down every week, and are much smaller than the other crosses in the Bakersfield area which have been allowed to remain in the public area for months after the deaths occurred.  In addition, the crosses outside the abortion center have always been attended while memorial crosses in other parts of town are usually unattended.

Please join us at the Bakersfield City Council meeting on Wednesday October 7 at 5 to let the Council know that you stand with us as we seek to keep posting crosses outside the abortion center.

Compare photos of local memorial crosses (ours and others)…

As we have done for the past several months, we visited the Bakersfield City Council on September 9, sharing our concerns about how new parking restrictions impact our ministry activities and possible new efforts to interfere with our First Amendment rights . After we spoke, Councilmember Jacquie Sullivan spoke of her intention to send the issue to a committee.

As you listen to this video and realize what has happened over the past few weeks (with Sullivan claiming on September 23 that the Council would not be able to consider the issue, crosses being confiscated on September 30 and 40 Days for Life signs being called "illegal" on October 2), please consider joining us at the next City Council meeting , Wednesday, October 7, to make the Council aware that this is not only a concern of a few individuals.

(The video of the September 9 Council meeting just became available this week; the video of the September 23 Council meeting is not yet available.)

Meanwhile, God continues to work in many ways through the 40 Days for Life prayer vigil, saving lives and helping women.

Tim and Terri Palmquist spoke during the public comment time, encouraging the Council members to pray during the 40 Days for Life.  Tim emphasized that abortion not only kills our community’s children but also brings serious harm on women in our community, giving the example of a woman whose post-abortion anguish caused her to jump to her death off the high bridge at the 58-99 interchange.

When Sullivan began to speak, it was clear that something had changed. "Most of us on the Council agree with you and with what you are doing with 40 Days for Life," she said, "but we have to stay with our existing parking policy."

City Manager Alan Tandy had been absent at the last meeting, when Sullivan had expressed her determination to send the matter to a committee.  Tandy had previously gone on the record at a Council meeting stating that the parking issue would not be reconsidered.  The courage Sullivan expressed outside of Tandy’s presence suddenly melted on Wednesday night.

This appears to be another instance of the ongoing problem with the Bakersfield City Council acting as if they work for the City Manager instead of understanding that he works for them.

Councilman David Couch (who has been supportive of our position) was absent on Wednesday, so there may still be hope for a policy reversal.  Couch has shown that he keenly understands the fact that the City Manager’s position that there has been a "consistent parking policy" regarding situations like this is untrue.

Please plan to join us at the next City Council meetings, October 7 and October 21, to encourage the Council to follow through with establishing a committee to review this situation.  "Like the widow seeking justice in Jesus’ parable, we are going to keep coming back until justice is done," Tim Palmquist commented.

If you cannot attend the meeting, it is available for viewing or listening online. If you wish to send an e-mail message to Council members, please let me know and I will send you the addresses of some of the Council members.

View Larger Map

Moments earlier, City Attorney Ginny Gennaro had told me, "this is not a controversial situation. I have only received one e-mail from a Council member about it." She was responding to my comment that in controversial situations, the City should study the situation more carefully before granting one party’s request for a parking restriction.

Early last Saturday morning, a Bakersfield City crew snuck in to install 30 minute parking signs outside the abortion center at 25th and H when we weren’t watching. The parking signs are apparently intended to interfere with our ministry activities, especially the Traveling Life Center RV. Now City officials like Raul Rojas want to convince people that it is too late to change anything because the signs have already been installed. Rojas told me that even if we submit a detailed study to prove that the 30 minute zone is not needed, he will not change his mind.

While leading Bakersfield City staff members like Rojas and Gennaro clearly oppose our efforts, most of the City Council members have expressed agreement with our concerns. However, the Council members have been convinced by the staff that there is nothing they can do about the situation. Of course, nothing could be further from the truth. The City staff works for the Council, not vice-versa.

In my various contacts with Bakersfield City staff members and Council members, it has become clear that Bakersfield has no written policy governing how they handle requests for parking restrictions. Instead, they are guided by an unwritten policy which assumes that business owners know best what parking restrictions are appropriate on public streets adjacent to their businesses.

A business like Family Planning Associates, however, which has full control over its own parking lots, should not be able to exercise sole control over the parking on the public streets near their property. Parking restrictions should be based upon the needs of the public, not just the needs of business owners.  A new, written, policy on timed parking which emphasizes the importance of considering the interests of the public may be necessary.

Council member Sue Benham, who apparently opposes our efforts, indicated that "longstanding city policy… is to accommodate timed parking to businesses" when a property owner submits a request and pays a fee, and City staff detects "no safety issues or inconsistencies."  I pointed out some safety issues (such as more children crossing the street) and inconsistencies (such as the fact that FPA tells its clients they need to allow at least two hours) to Gennaro and Rojas (I had previously explained these issues to the City’s Traffic Engineer Ryan Starbuck), but neither seemed to consider them to be significant.

We have the names of over 700 people who have come to this area to pray over the past 9 months. Each of these people are members of the public who have a right to use the public streets. Most of these people needed to park in this area for more than 30 minutes at a time as they participated in prayer vigils.

If you are one of these people who has participated in prayer vigils in the past, or if you intend to participate in prayer vigils in the future, the City Council needs to hear your voice. They need to understand that their decision does not just affect "Tim and Terri Palmquist and their RV," but that hundreds of their constituents are concerned about this.

The next City Council meeting is coming up on Wednesday evening, June 10. At that meeting, we hope to present the Council with a petition bearing hundreds of signatures of people asking the Council to remove these parking restrictions. We also hope that many people will come to the Council meeting to speak out against these parking restrictions. Please print out a petition (available in English and bilingual versions) and gather signatures this Sunday at church or at other locations where you meet people who may be concerned about this situation.

And if you are willing to speak to the Council during the public comment time at Wednesday’s meeting, please call us at 706-2229 so that we can coordinate the speakers to obtain the maximum impact.

• Petition in English
• Bilingual (English-Spanish) petition

Please return all signed petitions to us by 5 pm on Wednesday, June 10.

More details on this situation were provided in a previous entry , but the essential point which the Council needs to understand is that decisions regarding parking on public streets should be based upon the interest of the public, not just the interest of one party.  But City staff members told me yesterday that there has not been a public outcry against these parking restrictions, so they don’t believe that this seriously impacts the public.

If you have participated in any prayer vigils in the past, or if you intend to participate in any prayer vigils in the future, chances are that you will need to park in this area for more than 30 minutes at a time.  If so, the Council needs to know that you are a member of the public who is impacted by this decision.

The Council needs to understand that it is not just a few individuals who are concerned about this parking situation, so we need your help to print out this petition , seeking signatures from friends at church (or anywhere else you come into contact with people who have participated in prayer vigils or who may be interested in doing so in the future).

Please print out this petition , collect signatures, and get the signed copies back to us no later than 5 pm on Wednesday, June  10.   We also need people who are willing to speak to the Council during the public comment time.  If you are interested in speaking, please call us at 706-2229 for details.

Print out the petition in English.

Print out a bilingual (English/Spanish) petition.

I am writing to ask that you not allow the restricted parking signs in front of the family planning clinic per their request.  I am an avid supporter of Life Savers Ministries … my son was saved from abortion through that ministry. You may on occasion find me outside the clinic on abortion days and I also put my money where my mouth is and support them financially.

Posting parking restrictions is of no benefit to any business on that block, especially family planning.  Their abortion procedure requires at least 3 hours on Mondays and Tuesdays and the rest of the week their parking lot is practically empty.  The mechanic shop on the opposite corner needs all day parking for their employees on that street 5 days per week.  The Dr’s offices next door to family planning can certainly take longer than 2 hours if you have been to the Dr. lately and the fourth business on the block is Life Savers Ministries.

…We offer young women alternative perspectives on abortion and alternatives to killing their child.  We encourage and offer services that make them able to manage even in a crisis.  Family Planning does not even discuss alternatives or offer pre-abortion counseling.  You simply make an appointment and have it done!  …

Please do not allow the parking restrictions in front of the abortion chamber.  Please do not allow our rights to be taken away and please do not allow yourself to be deceived by family planning.

If you wish to discuss this any further, feel free to contact me…

Apparently FPA staff became upset at the effectiveness of the new Traveling Life Center at helping women decide not to abort their babies, so Aimee, the FPA manager (a relative of FPA owner Bud Feldkamp), contacted the City requesting the parking changes.  The City has no obligation to comply with FPA’s request, but according to City engineer Ryan Starbuck, the City tends to grant the requests of business owners in situations like this, assuming that they know their own parking needs best.

We explained to Ryan that this restriction does not even fit with FPA’s own "business" needs, because they tell their own "customers" that they will need to be there for at least two hours.  In addition, FPA’s own employees often park in this area all day long.  But it appears that FPA is willing to sacrifice their own use of this parking area if it gets our RV off the street.

After talking to Ryan, he seemed willing to seek a compromise.  He also recommended that we express our concerns to the City Council.

The new signs also would prohibit parking between 1 am and 4 am.  Ryan said that this is a standard part of these signs.  However, other 30 minute parking signs currently erected nearby do not include this restriction.  Could the early morning restrictions be intended to interfere with our 24 hour prayer vigils during 40 Days for Life campaigns?  Regardless of the intention, our experience tells us that when it comes to enforcement, the signs may likely provide an opportunity for the police to create problems for the vigils.

When we told the City employees about our conversation with Ryan Starbuck, they decided to take the signs off of the poles until this situation is resolved, leaving the empty poles standing.  However, they said that they will be back soon to re-install the signs.

Please consider taking the time today to call the Bakersfield City Council member who represents your area (to maximize impact and because of the urgency of this situation, phone calls are preferred).  If you need help determining which Council member represents you, please contact us and we will help.  If you live outside the city limits or in another community, please consider calling Mayor Harvey Hall .

E-mail messages to Sue Benham may also be helpful.  Benham represents the part of the City where FPA (and our LifeHouse) is located.  Her e-mail address is sbenham@sbcglobal.net .  Of course, please be courteous and respectful in all of your contacts with the Council members and Mayor.  If you receive a response from any City representatives, please let us know what was said.

The essential point of your contact should be to emphasize that decisions about public parking should be based upon the interest of the public, not just the interest of adjacent businesses (who have full control over their own private parking lots). If you have participated in any prayer vigils or ministry activities here, emphasize that this will impact you personally.  In any case, it will impact the lives of mothers and their babies, thousands of whom have been saved throughout the 25 year history of LifeSavers Ministries.  If you need additional suggestions on what to say, we would be happy to help.

We can also provide you with much more detail on the background of this situation and how it will likely impact various aspects of this ongoing ministry.

If this situation escalates, we may find it necessary to mobilize a group of people to attend the next City Council meeting, which is scheduled for the evening of Wednesday, June 10.  If you would be interested in being a part of this, please let us know.

Of course, we will strive to continue the ministry regardless of any restrictions imposed upon us.  However, these restrictions have a negative impact on our ability to reach pregnant women who are about to abort their babies.  Our experience has shown us the further away our pregnancy help resources are from the abortion chamber, the less likely women are to allow us to help them.  Even a few steps makes a big difference.  This can be the difference between life and death for a baby, and the difference between a lifetime of regret and a lifetime of gratitude for a mother.

Please call your City Council member and/or Mayor Harvey Hall today and express your concerns.  We can provide much more detail upon request, so please don’t hesitate to contact us .

Additional contact information:

• Bakersfield Mayor Harvey Hall
• Council member Irma Carson (Ward 1, southeast and south-central Bakersfield)
• Council member Sue Benham (Ward 2, central Bakersfield, north Stockdale)
• Council member Ken Weir (Ward 3, northeast Bakersfield)
• Council member David Couch (Ward 4, northwest Bakersfield, north Seven Oaks)
• Council member Harold Hanson (Ward 5, southwest Bakersfield, west Laurelglen)
• Council member Jacquie Sullivan (Ward 6, east Laurelglen, Silver Creek, and points south)
• Council member Zack Scrivner (Ward 7, south Bakersfield, Valley Plaza, Greenfield)
• Ryan Starbuck, Traffic Engineer: phone 326-3995, fax 852-2118, e-mail rstarbuc@bakersfieldcity.us
• LifeSavers Ministries 661-323-2229

Our experience would lead us to hope for positive responses from Couch, Hanson, and Sullivan, but to be prepared for negative responses from Carson and Benham.  (However, we hope that all will be contacted.)

We have appreciated important advice we have received on this situation and other aspects of the Traveling Life Center ministry startup from Chris Slattery, who runs Expectant Mother Care, New York City’s oldest and largest network of crisis pregnancy centers, along with the EMC/Frontline ministry, which consists of several RVs which provide onsite pregnancy help outside abortion centers. For years Chris has prevailed in the face of government persecution, including attacks by the New York State Attorney General.

Chris tells us that hundreds of babies are saved every month through the EMC/Frontline ministry! We look forward to seeing what God will do here through the Traveling Life Center!

• View a letter sent to the City from one of our supporters regarding this issue