SANTA MONICA : Panhandling Petition in the Works--Again

Once again, supporters of get-tough homeless policies plan to seek signatures at a shopping center near you.

Citizens for Safe Parks and Streets is circulating another petition calling for panhandling restrictions and other measures that were contained in a petition that the group recently qualified for the ballot.

But the signatures qualified at the last minute and the City Council voted to study the issue for a month, leaving no time to put the issue up for a vote in November. The first petition did not receive enough signatures to trigger a special election.

The petition organizers blame a technicality for the problems with the first petition drive, so they’re going to try again to get the signatures of 15%of Santa Monica voters, or about 8,100, needed for a special election to be held on the measure in early 1995.

The petition’s sponsors include longtime opponents of the renters’ rights group that dominates local politics. “It’s just so irritating that the council majority would ignore (the earlier petition),” Jean Sedillos of Citizens for Safe Parks and Streets said shortly after filing the new petition Thursday at Santa Monica City Hall.

The new petition, like the old one, would close city parks at night and ban camping in the parks. It also calls for a review of homeless services and would require the council to give police enough money to enforce these and other public safety measures. It would ban panhandling of people at bus stops, in their cars, at outdoor restaurants, within 80 feet of an automated teller machine or waiting in line for a movie.

The council has already approved many of the measures, including closing the parks and restricting panhandling, but organizers say the petition would ensure that the measures are enforced.

They acknowledge, however, that it’s no coincidence the petition drive is coming as the city prepares for an election involving three of the seven City Council seats. People who circulate the petition will also campaign for candidates who support it, Sedillos said.

All that could change if the City Council decides to adopt the provisions of the first petition at a meeting Sept. 7. In that case, the citizens’ group will drop its plans to gather signatures. “If they do adopt it, it’s not because they believe in it, it’s because they want it to go away,” Sedillos said.