City looks to clean up behavior in restrooms
CITY HALL – Transients caught using public restrooms for taking baths, washing clothes and sleeping may soon face fines or possible jail time.
The City Council approved the initial wording for an ordinance Tuesday night that would allow the city to establish rules to promote “cleanliness, safety and accessibility to all for the restrooms’ intended purpose.”
The ordinance is in answer to a series of resident and merchant complaints that city-operated restrooms often are dominated by transients.
Violators of the law could be fined $250 or charged with a misdemeanor, which carries a $1,000 penalty or six months in jail.
A city staff report said that because the restrooms are being inappropriately used, parents are reluctant to use them or allow their children to use them. They said the restrooms are being monopolized by a few individuals and become unsanitary as a result of the misuse.
Libraries in Santa Monica already forbid bathing, shaving or washing hair in public restrooms, and the new ordinance could be modeled in the same vein, said “This (ordinance) deals purely with behavior, not with poverty or status,” said Councilman Kevin McKeown. “It’s about their intended use.”
Councilman Ken Genser was also in support.
“People have to abide by certain rules,” Genser said. “I don’t think this is anything Draconian.”
But some members of the public spoke against the ordinance.
“Are we going to have bathroom monitors,” said resident Christine Schanis. “Are we going to ask the homeless to sit in the back of the bus, too?”
“This policy is not flushed out,” argued resident Jerry Rubin. “We will have to pay the police more to monitor the bathrooms, which takes away from other things we can be doing (with taxpayer money).”
Public restrooms in Santa Monica have been the subject of regulation from City Hall before. For years, Santa Monicans have complained that public restrooms in parks and downtown are commandeered by vagrants and the mentally ill.
Councilman Bob Holbrook said there was an uproar some years back when the council outlawed people from using a restroom marked for the opposite sex. The idea was to crack down on male drug dealers seeking safe space in female restrooms, but some women were upset that an emergency bathroom option was taken away.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 10, 2005. Read the original PDF.