San Fernando Tightens Lid on Public Drinking

Spurred by resident and merchant complaints of drinking at parks and outdoor mall areas, the San Fernando City Council approved a law that enables police to issue $50 citations for merely holding open alcoholic-beverage containers in public.

Previously, the San Fernando code mirrored Los Angeles city law, which states that simply possessing an open alcoholic-beverage container does not violate codes prohibiting drinking in public. Police must witness a person consuming the beverage before a citation can be issued.

San Fernando Police Chief Dominick J. Rivetti told the five-member City Council that officers often approach a group of loiterers in an alley or parking lot who are holding alcoholic beverages, but because of the officer’s presence, consumption is seldom witnessed.

“If you are holding an open container, there is only one thing you are going to do with it--drink it,” Rivetti said. “But as the law is written now, unless they take a drink we can’t issue a citation.”

Under the new law, unanimously approved by the City Council on Monday night, it will be illegal to possess open alcoholic-beverage containers in public parking lots, sidewalks, plazas and parks. Only restaurants and bars will be exempt.

The San Fernando open-container citation will be similar to a traffic ticket and payable at San Fernando Municipal Court, police said.

The law is in addition to the State Vehicle Code, which makes it illegal to possess an open alcoholic-beverage container in a vehicle while on a street or highway.

Rivetti told council members that the Police Department has been receiving increasing numbers of complaints from merchants in the San Fernando Mall area regarding bands of youths congregating and drinking in parking lots, leaving beer cans and liquor bottles behind.

Also, spectators during weekend cruise nights along San Fernando road were becoming bolder about drinking in public.

“This law says that we don’t want to see this type of behavior in our town,” Rivetti said. “Public drinking is a prelude to other problems.”

City Administrator Donald E. Penman said the law, which goes into effect in 30 days, also will apply to sports enthusiasts at parks who bring a six-pack of beer to drink after a game.

“At a time when drinking in public is taken too casually, this law is a step in the right direction for us,” Mayor Jess Margarito said.