It’s deja ‘view’ all over again in Costa Mesa

Deirdre Newman

Once again, city leaders find themselves embroiled in a full-scale

war over code violations with a local business owner, who has

declared all the city’s laws to be invalid.

This time, though, the business owner isn’t the legendary Sid

Soffer, the cantankerous Costa Mesa business owner-turned-fugitive,

who has been making the same argument and battling the same war for

years.

The owner is Igal Israel, whose parents are facing criminal

charges in connection with their Newport Boulevard property.

In February, Deputy City Atty. Marianne Milligan filed the

criminal complaint regarding the property at 2280 Newport Blvd

against Benjamin and Shoshana Israel. The Israels’ son, Igal, who

owns the business on the property, is handling the case and is making

the claims against the city’s laws.

Wednesday, Milligan added two additional charges to the complaint

in Orange County Superior Court. Igal Israel said he has already

complied with one of the violations and is making an effort to comply

with some of the other ones that he doesn’t consider bogus.

Wednesday, he filed a request to dismiss the charges against him

because he believes the laws of Costa Mesa are not valid.

He has also made this argument numerous times at City Council

meetings.

“At first, I thought I was the bad guy, but I’m not,” said Igal

Israel, who owns Bengal Industries Development Group Inc., a general

contracting company. “It’s about the ways the laws are enacted. I

keep harping to the city, telling them the ways they enact laws are

incorrect.”

Soffer, the local restaurateur who fled to Las Vegas in 1995 after

failing to show up for his sentencing date, is counseling the Israel

family in their fight against the city. Soffer was convicted over

building code violations at several of his properties.

“He called me,” Soffer said of Igal Israel. “We have mutual

friends. His position is the law is void. It’s my position that he is

taking.”

The code enforcement department has been working on the Israels’

case since 2000, Milligan said. The department issued three civil

citations and still did not get full compliance, Milligan said. So

after trying herself to work things out with Igal Israel, Milligan

said she felt compelled to file the criminal complaint.

“[The city’s Assistant Development Services Director] and myself

have personally gone out to the property and met with him to try and

explain in detail what needs to be done,” Milligan said.

The complaints vary from storage of vehicles in the public right

of way to outdoor storage of materials, which are prohibited by city

codes.

In his request for dismissal, Israel laid out his case that Costa

Mesa’s laws are invalid. His main argument is that the city doesn’t

follow the section of the California Government Code that spells out

the required procedure for enacting laws.

At the beginning of each City Council meeting, the council passes

a motion to read each ordinance and resolution by title only. This is

not acceptable legally, Igal Israel contends, because the council

needs to do this before each individual ordinance and resolution if

it wants to read them by title only. Otherwise, it needs to read the

entire ordinance before it is enacted, the request for dismissal

states. Igal Israel also believes the city does not give the required

amount of information when it publishes ordinances in local

newspapers, letting residents know what laws the council will be

considering.

“Codes are not laws; ordinances are laws,” Igal Israel said. “The

only thing [the city] can enforce is an ordinance, and laws aren’t

enforceable if they’re not enacted in the proper manner set forth by

the state government code.”

If the laws are not valid, then the court has no jurisdiction over

them, his argument follows.

Israel also contends that the city did not follow the proper

procedure in filing a criminal complaint against him, because it

failed to provide him with an administrative hearing, a public

hearing before the City Council to determine the validity of

violations and the compliance that is necessary.

Milligan said Igal Israel is misinterpreting the city’s law that

deals with administrative hearings. An administrative hearing is just

one option that can be taken, either by itself or along with other

alternatives like filing a criminal complaint, Milligan said. Since

the city had already been through the civil citation process with

Israel without satisfactory compliance, its typical next step is

filing a criminal complaint, Milligan said.

In response to Igal Israel’s numerous accusations at City Council

meetings, Acting City Atty. Tom Wood said the city is in its legal

authority to enact ordinances the way it does.

Mayor Gary Monahan agrees.

“I feel pretty comfortable that the judge is not going to throw

out the municipal code of Costa Mesa and half of the state of

California,” Monahan said.

Igal Israel is scheduled to be back in court on July 23.