Stephanie Patin Ladsous was able to move a memorial bench for her mother to a site on a bluff overlooking Huntington Beach near the intersection of Pacific Coast Highway and 14th Street. A plaque on the bench honors her mother. (Photo by Bill Alkofer, Contributing Photographer)

With the help of Vanessa Martinez, Stephanie Patin Ladsous was able to move a memorial bench for her mother to a site on a bluff overlooking Huntington Beach near the intersection of Pacific Coast Highway and 14th Street. (Photo by Bill Alkofer, Contributing Photographer)

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With the help of Vanessa Martinez, right, Stephanie Patin Ladsous was able to move a memorial bench for her mother to a site on a bluff overlooking Huntington Beach near the intersection of Pacific Coast Highway and 14th Street. (Photo by Bill Alkofer, Contributing Photographer)

With the help of Vanessa Martinez, Stephanie Patin Ladsous was able to move a memorial bench for her mother to a site on a bluff overlooking Huntington Beach near the intersection of Pacific Coast Highway and 14th Street. (Photo by Bill Alkofer, Contributing Photographer)

With the help of Vanessa Martinez, left, Stephanie Patin Ladsous was able to move a memorial bench for her mother to a site on a bluff overlooking Huntington Beach near the intersection of Pacific Coast Highway and 14th Street. (Photo by Bill Alkofer, Contributing Photographer)



It may have seemed innocuous – a memorial bench sitting in the shade outside a library building in Huntington Beach. But that chunk of gray concrete wound up the epicenter of controversy.

On the morning of Sept. 13, the bench – planted two months before – was yanked after complaints that it attracted homeless people.

Recently released emails show how its removal and eventual relocation evolved.

“Kim Kramer has an issue with the bench,” Denny Bacon, maintenance operations manager, wrote colleagues on Sept. 9.

“Apparently, he gets to decide where benches go,” Bacon added with sarcasm.

Well known to city officials as a neighborhood advocate, Kramer contacted Huntington Beach Police Chief Robert Handy about the bench after making several calls to dispatch. Kramer, who lives near the Main Street Branch Library, said the bench attracted homeless people.

The bench’s sponsor was not notified in advance of its removal.

Stephanie Patin Ladsous paid $2,700 for the bench in honor of her late mother. Much to her shock, Ladsous discovered its vacant slab when driving on Pecan Avenue by Triangle Park. “I thought it had been stolen,” she recalled.

In some ways, things worked out well for Ladsous. After an outcry on community Facebook pages, the city publicly apologized and refunded her money. Then it set up the bench on an oceanfront bluff – the coveted site Ladsous originally envisioned.

Still, Ladsous said, she experienced the sting of disappointment all over again upon seeing city emails.

“I felt lied to,” Ladsous said. “It sounds like they deliberately decided not to inform me in advance.”

In an email dated Sept. 10, David De La Torre, a public works department supervisor, wrote that he would be on vacation for a week starting the next day. “When I return, I will contact the owner of the bench to reach an agreement as to where we can relocate (it),” he wrote.

But transportation manager Bob Stachelski responded that city officials wanted to skip that step.

“I sat in a meeting with the police chief, city manager, mayor and Travis (Hopkins, temporary assistant city manager) and all believed the bench was being removed prior to meeting with the resident,” Stachelski emailed. “I believe that this is the preferred approach … We can deal with the donor afterward.”

De La Torre asserted that “all these claims about homeless” people drawn to the area because of the bench came from “Mr. Kramer alone (and) have not been substantiated.”

“Mr. Kramer claims he would prefer moving the bench to the other side of the building just so he doesn’t have to look at it, which doesn’t solve the homeless issue if there was one,” De La Torre added.

Kramer declined to be quoted for this article.

In a previous interview, Kramer said, “I suggested moving it to the front of the building, where transients already tend to congregate.”

He offered to donate $100 toward the $775 it would cost the city to relocate the bench, Kramer said.

Police records indicate that Kramer and two other people called the department a total of five times during the bench’s 10-week stint across the street from their homes. Also, one call about homeless people on that same side of the library was logged in June before the bench’s arrival, and another in late September after its removal.

Stephanie Beverage, director of library services for Huntington Beach Public Library, said librarians at the Main Street Branch have periodically called police about homeless people over the years. “But we did not have any issue with the bench specifically,” she said.

Resident Vanessa Martinez, who frequently butts heads with Kramer over downtown issues, obtained the emails in a public records request. The emails were verified by the Orange County Register.

Martinez said she views the bench incident as evidence that Kramer wields too much power in Huntington Beach. However, Hopkins denied that some residents enjoy more clout with the city than others.

“The bench needed to be moved – that was a city decision, not Kim Kramer’s,” Hopkins said. “We should have told the donor beforehand. There was a communications breakdown. We have apologized profusely for our mistake. We don’t want to treat anybody that way.”