Community Council Members Decry Delay on Code Enforcement Ordinance

Pacific Palisades Community Council members on Oct. 13 criticized Los Angeles City Council's inaction on streamlining municipal code enforcement. Of primary concern was the lack of keeping tabs on building codes resulting in a negative impact on quality of life in the local community.

"We suffer from lack of enforcement in the Palisades," said PPCC Vice Chairwoman Haldis Toppel, who cited a recently constructed, code-violating three-story guesthouse as well as walls and fences built too high which create a traffic safety concern. "The public loses confidence in our government and it pits neighbor against neighbor, as opposed to letting the city enforce its laws and maintain peace among neighbors."

The L.A. City Council's Budget and Finance Committee is considering legislation sponsored by aimed at encouraging stricter code enforcement by establishing a broader authority for various city inspectors and officials to impose fines for violations. Koretz's proposed ordinance seeks to establish a pilot program administered by the Los Angeles Police Department.

"Last year in January, ... City Attorney Carmen Trutanich and council member Paul Koretz ... drafted a new ordinance which decriminalizes minor violations and allows inspectors in the field to issue tickets similar to parking tickets," Toppel said. "This Administrative Code Enforcement, ACE, system is designed to be self funding through the collection of fines and not a burden on the taxpayers."

Toppel explained the Budget and Finance Committee is handling this issue because the idea is to establish a fund based on fine collection to cover the cost of city inspectors and personnel who do the actual code enforcement.

But at the Oct. 3 committee meeting District 11 Councilman Bill Rosendahl, who represents Pacific Palisades, moved to delay a vote on the issue, preventing a full city council vote that would have taken place Oct. 5. Instead of approving a resolution to move the matter to the full council, Budget and Finance Committee members voted 4-1 to extend the review period 30 days.

PPCC member George Wolfberg, who attended the Oct. 3 committee meeting, noted the influence on Rosendahl's position of District 11 constituents from Venice. One example provided by Wolfberg and Toppel was the significant number of garages in Venice that have been illegally converted into living quarters.

"Councilman Rosendahl is very sensitive to the social impact," Toppel said. "It stands to reason that he listens to the constituents in that area."

Rosendahl chided the city attorney's office for "sloppy staff work" that resulted in a report on the ordinance making it to committee members less than two hours before the Oct. 3 meeting. This was the councilman's main reason for favoring more time to consider the issue, he said.

"That kind of sloppy, half-baked work is unacceptable to me," Rosendahl said. "I'm for code enforcement, but I'm not going to do something out of rhetoric. I'm going to do it out of facts and information ... I'm a policymaker, and I don't do things half-assed."

Christopher Koontz, a spokesman for Councilman Koretz, said "Councilman Rosendahl and council member Englander, although previously supportive, didn't support it moving forward. So we're having to go back and do further work, and they want us to hold meetings with apartment owners and housing advocates."

Rosendahl countered "absolutely not—it wasn't properly presented for me as a policymaker to make a good decision."

He also cited a lack of answers from the city attorney and Koretz on questions regarding the proposed ordinance's impact on the city's oversize fence law, the specific codes the police would be asked to enforce under the pilot program and how the city attorney's office will interact with departments that have code enforcement responsibilities.

"All we're trying to do is a pilot project that starts with the LAPD," said Koontz. "It will over time move out to other agencies, but this isn't designed to be some fence witch-hunt."

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