Last week’s column was about the assault on the business community’s signs and the city’s efforts to raise its income from fines, a whopping 25 percent over the previous years. Yes, I did write 25 percent. It equals about $2.4 million in new fines that the city has budgeted for this year and brings the total to more than $11 million in fines.
Of course, the city had to hire more enforcement officers to begin the inspecting process for all of City Hall’s codes. I don’t know what they are costing us, but it seems to me that our new city employees will now have to justify their salaries and benefits packages by fining business owners for taking advantage of a little thing called promotion.
There are people who don’t see this latest assault on the life of a business owner as a big issue. They don’t recognize that the infringement of the local government on the operations of a business can and does have an adverse effect on the daily workings of the business itself, and that the infringement can be harmful to the health of the city as a whole.
So to make it easier for someone who doesn’t have a business, I reviewed the municipal code to find where the city might infringe on what seems to be part of the ordinary life of someone who lives in Santa Monica.
Luckily, I found a fantastic example and a great new revenue source for the city. It appears that all the bicycle users of the city might be in for a rude surprise. There is a law on the books that requires a bicycle operator to have a license. The code reads: (a) Any person desiring to operate or use a bicycle upon any of the streets of the city shall apply therefore to the City Clerk or bicycle retailer (authorized agent)... The City Clerk or authorized agent shall issue the license requested upon payment by the applicant of the fee herein required.
Operating a bicycle without a license is an infraction and you can be fined up to $250, and possibly it can be a misdemeanor, with the fine up to $1,000, and a period of up to six months in jail.
This is a perfect example of how City Hall can arbitrarily infringe on someone’s rights, and it is a fiscal winner for the city. We have many, many bike owners and users, (each tourist who rents a bike needs a license) and we can anticipate that they will be riding along the bike path, the roadways and streets. Those paths and roads need to be maintained, and the bik-ers need to carry their weight.
I think we need two new enforcement officers, and they must be paid a “living wage,” say $48,000 a year, which is $96,000 in wages, plus a 20 percent tax burden of $19,200 to the city. That means two new people cost $115,200. And at $250 per fine, they would pay for themselves in only 461 fines. That means each officer has to find and fine 230 bikes without licenses. That can’t be that hard in this city. Once they are over the 230 break-even point, per officer, then they are making money for City Hall.
And for those people who don’t have a bike but feed the homeless, we have a code for you. Because the homeless issue should never be left out of any discussion involving the city, I’ve found a code that would preclude the dropping off of those “doggie bags” for the homeless, providing them food outside of restaurants and food establishments, and require the locking of waste bins to prevent dumpster diving.
This code, if enforced, would preclude the general public and the restaurants from distributing any further foodstuffs in such a manner as to provide sustenance to the lost souls who inhabit the Promenade.
This crucial piece of legislation, properly enforced by the police department, will provide a substantial source of income to the city and have a chilling effect, in a constitutionally permissible manner, upon the number of homeless people here.
The SMMC section in question reads: “No person shall, in the area described in Section 3.36.150 of this code, do any of the following: Feed any pigeon, or any other bird or animal upon any public street, sidewalk, mall or way.” Section 3.36.150 defines the Promenade. All humans are considered animals by every reputable scientific publication. Thus, if the police department would enforce the above law with all the vigor of the parking ticket officers, we could be out of the hole in no time. The fine for feeding pigeons and people is not less than $5 and no more than $25.
Let no good deed go unpunished, and we could be in a surplus budget by the end of the summer thanks to the signage fees, the bike fees and the “doggie bag” user convenience fee.
The point of this is that the government has the tools to do what needs to be done. It just lacks the political willpower. I don’t expect the police department to begin ticketing bicycle owners who aren’t registered — it’s a waste of resources. I also don’t expect that a good deed like giving someone the take-home portion of my pizza is going to cost me a fine.
But if the City Council was motivated to actually do something constructive around here, besides rip up good roads and not fix the bad ones, it certainly has the tools and the power to get it done, and to stop harassing small businesses right out of town. (David Pisarra is a partner in the law firm of Pisarra & Grist, he (310) 664-9969 or by e-mail at He welcomes your comments and questions).
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 13, 2004. Read the original PDF.