Counties Ordinances

Public interest lawyers Thursday sued five cities in three Southern California counties, challenging the constitutionality of municipal ordinances that prohibit the homeless from camping on public property. "Making homelessness a crime cannot eliminate the problem of homelessness," said attorney Harry Simon of the Legal Aid Society of Orange County. "These ordinances are not a magic wand that will prevent people who lack housing from living on the streets."

Animal control officers will have the right during administrative hearings to decide whether a dog is dangerous or vicious, under an ordinance approved by Los Angeles County supervisors Tuesday. Under current law, only a judge can declare a dog dangerous. The Department of Animal Care & Control says the changes to the county code will save legal costs and make it easier to protect the public from dogs that have the potential to attack people. A "vicious" dog is one that has been trained to fight or that severely injures or kills a person without provocation.

"Puppy mills" are the factory farms of dog breeding ? big and, all too often, neglectful and cruel. Female dogs are frequently overbred in back-to-back heat cycles to the point that their bones break and their teeth fall out. Hundreds, even thousands, of breeding dogs and puppies can end up crammed into filthy cages, according to animal welfare advocates, who have made numerous undercover videos of some of the worst abusers across the country. But like factory farms, puppy mills are perfectly legal.

"Puppy mills" are the factory farms of dog breeding ? big and, all too often, neglectful and cruel. Female dogs are frequently overbred in back-to-back heat cycles to the point that their bones break and their teeth fall out. Hundreds, even thousands, of breeding dogs and puppies can end up crammed into filthy cages, according to animal welfare advocates, who have made numerous undercover videos of some of the worst abusers across the country. But like factory farms, puppy mills are perfectly legal.

Tightening the restrictions on drug paraphernalia outlets, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors on Monday took action to severely limit the locations where such businesses may operate. By a unanimous vote, the supervisors approved an ordinance establishing a series of site restrictions designed to prevent drug paraphernalia businesses from concentrating in any particular area in the unincorporated regions of the county.

Planning a party anytime soon? Be forewarned that you may wind up paying for more than food, drinks and cleaning bills. Some cities in Orange County have begun billing the hosts of loud parties for the cost of sending the police to quiet things down. Party-givers are given only one chance; on the second go-round, the hosts are slapped with fines that can be as high as $1,000. The highest so far is $855.59. Police in cities with party ordinances unanimously agree that the program is a success.

I can't believe it. After two statewide elections in which voters turned down government regulation forcing smoking/no smoking sections on privately owned businesses, the Orange County Board of Supervisors is considering a law that would force this ill-conceived concept on us. Aren't the supervisors supposed to pay attention to the voters? Don't they know county residents have voted against this proposal twice in two years? The government has no business prohibiting private employers and employees from smoking in their own offices--or their conference rooms!

Individuals working for a living should not have to raise a family in poverty. This simple yet profound principle has been a mantra for the Ventura County Living Wage Coalition and has caught fire throughout the county.

Animal control officers will have the right during administrative hearings to decide whether a dog is dangerous or vicious, under an ordinance approved by Los Angeles County supervisors Tuesday. Under current law, only a judge can declare a dog dangerous. The Department of Animal Care & Control says the changes to the county code will save legal costs and make it easier to protect the public from dogs that have the potential to attack people. A "vicious" dog is one that has been trained to fight or that severely injures or kills a person without provocation.

Saying that it was not a move intended to "punish" gays, the San Diego City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to adopt a city ordinance that will regulate bathhouses in an attempt to stop the spread of AIDS. The city ordinance is identical to the one passed last month by the County Board of Supervisors. By passing an ordinance of its own, San Diego will also pass responsibility for regulating bathhouses inside the city limits to the county's Department of Health Services.

With deaths from illegal drag racing mounting, the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday made it a misdemeanor to even watch preparations for the street races in unincorporated Los Angeles County. Under the law, which was approved unanimously and takes effect in 30 days, spectators may be fined as much as $500 and sentenced to as long as six months in jail. The ordinance was modeled on similar bans passed in Los Angeles and Ontario a year ago.

Minutes after a divided Ventura County Board of Supervisors approved a minimum-wage ordinance Tuesday, the man who led the yearlong fight to get it passed stood before jubilant supporters and vowed to take the movement to city halls across the county. "This is step one," said Marcos Vargas, head of the Ventura County Living Wage Coalition, made up of 42 faith, community and environmental groups. "We should relish this. But next, we're on to Oxnard, Ventura and Santa Barbara."

Individuals working for a living should not have to raise a family in poverty. This simple yet profound principle has been a mantra for the Ventura County Living Wage Coalition and has caught fire throughout the county.

County supervisors will consider today whether to remedy an embarrassing oversight: An ordinance requiring swimming pool fences was accidentally deleted from county statute books. Allan Metz, chief of code enforcement, said the pool safety requirement was inadvertently deleted by a county employee more than a year ago. The missing section was discovered during a recent legal review, Metz said.

For Raul Ovidio Paez and fellow day laborers gathered Friday outside a building supply store on West Slauson Avenue, the issue seemed obvious: Why should police chase down job-seekers when there is serious crime to respond to? "We're just looking for jobs; we're not committing any crimes," Paez, a 30-year-old native of El Salvador, said as he and others waited for chamba (work) from passing motorists outside the HomeBase store in Ladera Heights.

A federal judge cast strong doubt Monday on the constitutionality of an ordinance barring day laborers from soliciting work from passing motorists in unincorporated parts of Los Angeles County. U.S. District Judge George H. King told a lawyer for the county that the ordinance's language is vague and overly broad, and he expressed concern that the county law is having a chilling effect on workers' 1st Amendment rights.

County officials Tuesday proposed a stringent law that would impose criminal penalties on both public officeholders and donors who violate new rules about gift giving. The draft ordinance drew immediate praise from political reform activist Shirley Grindle, who called it "the greatest single step to clean up government."

A car's place is in the driveway, the garage or--if it is broken down--in the junkyard. That was the message delivered last week by county planning officials, as they recommended approval of an ordinance that would prohibit drivers from parking cars in their front yards and reinforce an earlier law that bans homeowners from keeping old junkers on their properties. The proposed ordinance won unanimous approval Thursday from the Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission.

It is one of the great paradoxes here: On a Sunday afternoon you can gamble away the mortgage and drink yourself silly. But you can't buy a new car. It comes as a shock to new residents pouring in from California, where you can go see legendary Southland car huckster Cal Worthington as late as midnight Sunday and drive off with a new set of wheels. But for as long as anyone can remember, Las Vegas' new-car dealers have been closed on Sundays. It's a tradition that may become law.

The question for the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences in choosing a host city for its annual Grammy Awards show has always been simple: New York or Los Angeles? But now, as the Santa Monica-based academy prepares its first Latin Grammy Awards show for next September, the question involves a different pair of cities: Miami or Los Angeles? And the answer hinges on an issue more complex than the usual war of ego and dollars.