Huntington Beach City Council clarifies city law on belongings left in public
The fact that being homeless is not a crime weighed heavy in the minds of several members of the Huntington Beach City Council Tuesday night as they decided to ease existing punishments related to the storage of personal property in public spaces.
While making the language around personal property violations more precise, the council voted 6-1 to stop using misdemeanors as an option as punishment for such violations. Councilman Erik Peterson was the lone dissenting vote.
Councilwoman Natalie Moser introduced a motion to start treating the storage of personal property in public spaces as an infraction instead of a misdemeanor.
“Our intent should always be to help people along that path forward, and not add more barriers,” Moser said. “I’m concerned that the potential of the misdemeanor would create more challenges for somebody that’s already experiencing homelessness and make it harder for them to get back on track. Ultimately, an arrest record creates more barriers to gaining employment, to gaining housing. In my mind, the consequence here is the removal of the items by not following the rules.”
Regulations prior to Tuesday were overly broad, City Manager Oliver Chi said during a report, and failed to outline specific ways to enforce them. He noted that the city opened the homeless navigation center in December, and it currently houses 46 guests.
Mobile cart is intended to be useful and provide dignity for homeless population.
“With the shelter in place, we have engaged several operations in the community,” Chi said. “We’ve gone out and approached folks who are homeless and offered help. Those that wanted help, we placed them into the shelter or referred them to other services. Those that haven’t wanted help, we’ve asked them to move out of our public spaces so we can return those spaces to their intended use, for the general public to enjoy.”
Still, the amendment to the Huntington Beach Municipal Code limits the police department’s ability to impound personal items left on public property.
The city must provide 24-hour advance notice to impound any property stored on public land. The two exceptions to the 24-hour rule are if public health and safety are at risk or if the property was left in a public space (i.e., a park) after the closure of that public space. The city must protect and store any property impounded for 90 days and must return it to its owner upon request.
“Some of the call-in comments tonight have to do with the discretionary removal of some of this property,” interim Police Chief Julian Harvey said. “What the language of this draft ordinance does is that it removes a lot of that discretion ... I appreciate the specificity.”
Peterson said he dissented because he believes punishing the violation as a misdemeanor should be on the table.
“I think we should leave it up to the law enforcement,” Peterson said. “They’re the ones that are dealing with this. None of you are.”
Main Street closure extended through Labor Day
In a move largely intended to continue support of outdoor dining downtown, the City Council also voted 6-1 to extend closure of the second block of Main Street to vehicular traffic through at least Labor Day. Peterson again was the “no” vote.
The agenda item’s approval also allows city staff to engage an urban design firm as well as create an ad hoc Downtown Urban Design Study Committee. The committee would include Mayor Kim Carr, Mayor Pro Tem Tito Ortiz and one additional member of the council. Councilman Dan Kalmick volunteered to be the third member.
“I think that we should keep Main Street closed until such time that the restaurants have 100% indoor dining capacity allowed again,” Councilman Mike Posey said. “In the meantime, I think it’s incumbent upon us to engage the consultant and come up with these parklets or whatever they’re called. If we’re going to continue to have outdoor dining and eventually have Main Street reopen again, we have to have a plan in place to do that. Right now, we don’t have that.”
Peterson said he thinks things need to get back to normal before money is spent on a study.
All the latest on Orange County from Orange County.
Get our free TimesOC newsletter.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Daily Pilot.
