Martin Bernstein, the former Historic Resources Board chair who received a notice of violation from the city for failing to take out a permit before renovating his historic downtown home, began work on the project more than a year prior to the city discovering the violation.

Bernstein, an architect who had spent more than a decade on the board that oversees historic renovations throughout the city, began to reconstruct the interior of his home at 617 High St., in October 2020, his sister Carol Bernstein told the Weekly.

Her account, which is supported by emails that Martin Bernstein's tenants had submitted to him in February 2021 relating to the construction noise, conflicts with the version of events that Bernstein laid out in an interview last week. When asked about the violation at that time, he had told the Weekly that he had been doing prep work in fall 2021 when his father passed away and when he was diagnosed with cancer — factors that prevented him from completing the applications that he was required to submit for the work he was performing on the building's interior.

Carol Bernstein said in an interview that her brother chose to work discreetly to avoid spending money on the needed permits.

The plan seemingly worked until January of this year, when building inspector Elisa Vargas, acting on information that the city has received, visited the property and saw the illegal work. According to the notice of violation that the city subsequently issued to Bernstein, the city "did not find the required approval and permits for this type of work." In addition, because the property is registered as a historic building, the project requires additional review and approval.

Bernstein, an architect who specializes in historic renovations, said he is in the process of acquiring the permits now and is working with the city to make sure all work complies with code.

— Gennady Sheyner

New program provides court-ordered treatment to severely mentally ill residents

Santa Clara County has kicked off a new program that allows families of severely mentally ill residents to petition the court for ordered treatment, the county announced on Wednesday.

Known as Laura's Law, the program also offers wraparound services to help keep severely mentally ill people more stable and off the streets.

Under Laura's Law, the court can temporarily order outpatient care for people with severe mental illness who may not believe they need treatment, have refused it in the past and are at risk without supervision. Prior to Laura's Law, families and loved ones of people with severe mental illness who are resistant to treatment had little ability to intervene outside of costly court-ordered conservatorship.

Individuals remain in the program until they can maintain their own treatment. Assisted outpatient treatment includes intensive individual and group clinical services, peer support, intensive case management, housing assistance, 24/7 clinical crisis support and medicine evaluation. It doesn't mandate medication or inpatient treatment, according to a county statement.

"Sometimes, though, there are folks who are too ill to know that they're ill and need help. Getting them the help they need and deserve is what this new effort is all about," county Supervisor Joe Simitian, who chairs the county's Health and Hospital Committee, said in the statement.

A complete list of eligibility criteria and who can petition for the program can be found at bhsd.sccgov.org.

— Sue Dremann

Police: Crescent Park home targeted by burglars for a second time

Palo Alto police on Tuesday night were looking for a person who broke into a home in the city's Crescent Park neighborhood in what appears to be the second burglary of the residence since November.

The incident occurred at about 8:43 p.m., according to a news release from the Police Department. Someone reportedly broke the glass of a rear door at a home in the first block of Crescent Drive and entered the house. The alarm company notified the police that a burglar alarm was sounding. Officers also received a call from the resident, a woman in her 70s, who was away from the home at the time.

The investigation indicated that the alarm sounded immediately and the person appeared to have been scared away from the home, according to police. The woman said the nothing had been stolen from the residence. She also reported that her husband was at home and sleeping during the break-in.

Police said the same home was burglarized at about 5 a.m. on Nov. 27. On that day, the woman's husband went downstairs and discovered that the glass at one of the locked rear doors had been shattered. Police subsequently found two sets of footprints in the upstairs hallway. Nothing had been apparently stolen in that incident either and police believe the burglars fled once they realized the home was occupied.

This is the second residential burglary to occur in Palo Alto in 2022, according to police. On Jan. 18, police arrested a man who they say entered a Southgate home in the 400 block of Sequoia Avenue and then fled after a resident chased him away with a bat. The man was apprehended shortly thereafter after a resident on Escobita Avenue reported that a man was hiding in her detached garage and that he had fled after stealing a bicycle. Police located the man, a 44-year-old Redwood City resident, with the bicycle and arrested him.;Anyone with information about Tuesday's burglary is asked to call the department's 24-hour dispatch center at 650-329-2413. Anonymous tips can be emailed to [email protected] or sent by text message or voicemail to 650-383-8984.

— Gennady Sheyner