Local Laws ’89

In 1989, fears and tragedies shaped new laws. Swept up in the horror over the killing of children on a Stockton schoolyard, Los Angeles and Compton mounted a campaign against assault guns. Acting on public fears of brush fires, the Los Angeles City Council banned wood shake roofs, and the county Board of Supervisors required roofs to be fire-retardant. Here is a sampling of laws passed by local legislative bodies in 1989.

Los Angeles

Assault guns--The sale and possession of semiautomatic weapons, such as AK-47 assault rifles, were outlawed. Violation of the ordinance can result in a six-month jail sentence and a $1,000 fine.

Graffiti--Property owners are now required to either remove graffiti themselves within 15 days of a city notice, or allow city workers to do it at no charge to the owner. Failure to do so could bring a misdemeanor citation, punishable by up to six months in jail and a fine of up to $1,000.

Drug sales--The city’s rent stabilization ordinance now requires landlords to launch eviction procedures against a tenant arrested on a charge of selling drugs. Landlords face up to $5,000 in legal costs if the city attorney is asked to handle the eviction. Los Angeles County has an identical law.

Earthquake safety--An emergency measure created an earthquake safety committee to check the soundness of public buildings, unreinforced multifamily residential buildings, bridges and overpasses. The committee also is expected to find a way to finance an estimated $200 million to $300 million in repairs.

Environment--The Department of Environmental Affairs was created to help the council and mayor by analyzing issues and making policy recommendations on environmental issues ranging from air quality to water pollution.

Hazardous chemicals--The Fire Department now has the authority to shut down businesses that do not provide a detailed list of dangerous materials stored on their premises. Under a state law that went into effect in January, 1988, companies that do not comply face fines of $5,000 for every day that their lists are not submitted.

Landmarks--The city now has the authority to withhold new building permits for five years on a site where a designated city landmark was demolished without proper permits. The city has the right to repair or fence in a landmark building if the owner has allowed it to suffer from repeated acts of vandalism, fire or severe deterioration. The cost of protection and repair will be assessed to the owner.

Family leave--Roughly 4,000 city clerical workers are guaranteed job security while they take leaves of absence of up to four months for childbirth, adoption or family illness. The measure also gives workers the flexibility to use accrued sick days to augment the leave--a clause intended to aid workers who cannot afford to remain on unpaid leave after four months.

Recycling--In a program to be phased in over the next three years, all households in the city will be required to put aluminum cans, newspapers, and glass and plastic bottles into separate containers for curbside collection. Homeowners will be provided with bins for the separated trash. Scavenging of bottles, cans and paper will be outlawed, with penalties still to be determined.

Taxes--Expected to bring more than $200 million a year to city coffers, this measure made four taxes permanent: a utility user’s tax, 10% of gas, water and electric bills; a business tax, levied on a sliding scale from 0.1% to 0.5% of gross receipts from all firms in the city; a hotel bed tax of 12 cents per room per night; and a sanitation equipment charge, costing each household in the city $1.50 a month.

Skid Row housing--A five-year ban has been imposed on the demolition of single-room-occupancy hotels on Skid Row. This law allows such hotels to be torn down in the downtown area outside Skid Row only if the owner constructs an equivalent number of equally affordable replacement units. A three-year moratorium--with a similar room-for-room replacement restriction--also was established on the demolition of such hotels elsewhere in the city. This measure, however, also allows a second exemption under which hotel owners can demolish their buildings if they pay the city a $25,000-per-unit fee for the construction of replacement housing.

Park rangers--Upgrades the authority of rangers in the city’s 300 parks, allowing them to issue misdemeanor citations for drinking alcoholic beverages and to make arrests. The new classification requires all rangers to receive 320 hours of peace officer training, including fire suppression, search and rescue and self-defense.

Relocation fee--Property owners who illegally convert garages or other structures into rental units must pay up to $5,000 to tenants who are forced out because of substandard conditions. The measure had already applied to landlords of legal dwellings, but, because of a loophole, the ordinance did not apply to property owners of illegally converted units.

Rent control--This ordinance limits how much landlords can raise rents when making capital improvements, makes it more difficult to evict tenants in order to undertake major rehabilitation, and eliminates a “substantial renovation” clause that allowed landlords to escape rent control altogether if they did work worth at least $15,000 to $17,000.

Shake roofs--Installation of any new wood roof is prohibited under this measure, which also bars using wood to repair more than 10% of an existing roof surface within a 12-month period.

Suspended students--Parents can be required to come to the school, and stay for 20 to 30 minutes, if their children are suspended for committing an obscene act, using profanity, disrupting class or defying school authorities. This new policy applies to suspensions requested by teachers. Teachers may suspend a student for two days, and a principal may suspend for up to five days. The new policy, dictated under a recent state law, requires approval of local school boards.

Taxis--Prompted by complaints about cabbies’ appearance, conduct and response to calls, the city approved a measure requiring taxi drivers to attend training programs and periodic refresher courses on promptness and courteous behavior. Also, a basic dress code was adopted outlawing tank tops, open-toed sandals and cut-off shorts. Cab companies and associations are assessed points for infractions by their drivers.

Toilets--The city now requires all newly installed toilets to be water-saving “ultra-low flush toilets.”

Trespassing--Designed to help rid the city’s 21 housing projects of drug dealers and gang members, this measure allows the arrest of any trespasser ejected from a housing project within the previous 30 days by the Housing Authority or city police. The measure carries a maximum six-month jail sentence and a $1,000 fine.

Los Angeles County

Discrimination--The county prohibits landlords from refusing housing to or evicting someone with AIDS, bars schools from denying admission or imposing different conditions on students because they have AIDS, prohibits businesses from refusing to serve someone with AIDS, and makes it illegal for an employer or labor union to restrict the hiring, promotion or training of people with AIDS. The city of Long Beach last year passed a similar measure.

Gangs--In an effort to get tough with gang members, the county passed a measure calling for maximum jail sentences for even minor offenses.

High-rises--Requires any building 75 feet or taller to display its address on the roof so that Fire Department aerial units can find the building in an emergency.

Parking fines--Meter violation penalties were increased across the county from $13 to $18, parking in a red zone went from $28 to $53, and parking illegally in a handicapped zone jumped from $53 to $103. Fines not paid within 44 days of the ticket’s issuance are doubled.

Salaries--Annual salary increases for Los Angeles County Sheriff Sherman Block to $157,641 and Los Angeles County Assessor John J. Lynch to $130,869, both 20% raises, will take effect in December, 1990.

Tax break--The provisions of Proposition 90--a ballot measure that won overwhelming support from California voters in November, 1988--went into effect. Proposition 90 offers tax relief to property owners over 55 who buy a house in Los Angeles County for the same price or less than a house they sell in another county.

Roofs--Fire-retardant roofs must be installed on all new buildings in unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County. Wooden roofs are still permitted, but must be treated with a fire retardant.

Burbank

Controlled growth--Burbank residents, angry over an increase in traffic, pollution and noise from increased development, overwhelmingly approved a controlled-growth ordinance in February. Measure 1 calls for the City Council to establish strict design standards that would force developers to tailor the size of apartment and condominium buildings to make them compatible with their surroundings. The design standards have not yet been established.

Compton

Gun sales--On Jan. 24, a week after five Stockton schoolchildren were gunned down, Compton became the first city in the state to ban the sale or possession of AK-47s and other semiautomatic assault weapons. Many cities in the state followed Compton’s lead in banning the weapons, and, months later, state legislators reached a compromise on the issue and adopted a ban that preempts the municipal ordinances. Compton is only 11 square miles but it is home to at least 36 gangs, has some of the county’s heaviest drug traffic, and typically has more than 80 murders a year.

Duarte

Cigarette sales--The Duarte City Council adopted an ordinance in November that bans businesses from installing cigarette machines in an area where they would be accessible to people under age 18. Restaurants, motels and other firms with tobacco-product vending machines have until April to remove the machines from public access.

Glendale

Growth control--The Glendale City Council, attempting to stem the city’s burgeoning population, adopted a growth-control ordinance in October limiting the height and size of all new apartment and condominium buildings. Midway through the public hearing process city planners discovered that the ordinance would have only a marginal impact on population growth, but would improve the city’s aesthetic appearance. Using the half-a-loaf theory, the council approved the ordinance and then began work on yet another ordinance--the third in four years--aimed at limiting population growth. The ordinance was the latest attempt in a three-year crusade to slow down the pace of development in the city.

Hermosa Beach

Leash law--Hermosa Beach residents voted to extend the city’s leash law to one of the most popular dog runs in the area, a railroad right of way the city bought for use as a public park. The passage came despite the efforts of the group WATCHDOG, an organization of pet owners.

Lynwood

Street renamed--During the celebration of Black History Month in February, the Lynwood City Council voted to rename a 3 1/2-mile section of Century Boulevard in honor of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. The street retains both names, however, along a nine-block strip where it serves as the boundary between Lynwood and South Gate. Officials of South Gate refused to approve a similar name change.

Monterey Park

Business signs--Ending a months-long debate with racial overtones, the Monterey Park City Council in January unanimously voted to compromise on the issue of how much of a business sign must be printed in English. Some people had complained about signs that were incomprehensible to those who understand only English. The council decided to require the use of slightly more English on such signs than was previously required. The ordinance, a revision of a 1986 city sign law, mandates that every business sign include an English explanation of the name or nature of the establishment.

Pomona

Drug dealing--The Pomona City Council adopted an ordinance in May that empowers the police chief to declare houses or apartment buildings where there is constant drug and gang activity to be nuisances, to evict the occupants and to board up the buildings for a year. Pomona officials say their approach is novel because, by giving such power to the police chief, the city avoids a lengthy court procedure.

Santa Clarita

Housing restrictions--The Santa Clarita City Council unanimously adopted a resolution in November declaring that the city has the right to reject proposed housing developments if those projects will overburden already crowded school districts in the area. The policy puts the 2-year-old city at odds with Los Angeles County Counsel De Witt W. Clinton, who has told county supervisors that they have no authority to turn down development proposals that might affect schools.