City Hall battlers mull class action

Deirdre Newman

Two persistent City Hall critics -- one up close and one who has

taken refuge in Las Vegas -- continue to push the city to change the

way it enacts and publicizes ordinances.

Neither is interested in the arcane workings of city and state

government code for his own sake. Each has ulterior motives.

Sid Soffer fled the Newport-Mesa area in 1995 after failing to

show up for a sentencing date after being convicted of building code

violations at several of his properties. Igal Israel is fighting the

city after it sued his parents based on code violations at their

property, which houses his business, Bengal Industries Development

Group Inc., on Newport Boulevard. Soffer is counseling Israel on his

family’s fight against the city.

Both contend they can’t be prosecuted if the city’s laws are

invalid because of the way they are enacted or publicized. Soffer is

threatening a class-action lawsuit involving everyone affected by

what he considers the city’s willful disregard of the state

government code.

“I’m going to drag everyone else in Costa Mesa that’s been screwed

around by laws that aren’t laws,” said Soffer, whose many businesses

in the city included a state house on Newport Boulevard.

The city has thus far acquiesced to one change both men have been

hammering away at regarding how laws are publicized. The state

government code says a summary of proposed and approved laws must be

published. The city had only been publicizing a descriptive title of

the laws, not a summary.

As of March, the city started including a description of the laws

along with the title. This addition was because of Soffer’s

critiques, deputy city clerk Julie Folcik said.

“I’m not saying we’re starting a summary per se,” Folcik said. “We

just felt it would be better for us to add a little more

information.”

Soffer still isn’t sure if the city’s effort to provide more

information is enough.

“Whether or not the summary is adequate, that’s another story,”

Soffer said.

While the two continue to lambaste city officials, Israel’s

parents’ case -- which he is handling -- is set to go to trial on

Nov. 16. Last week, he was offered a plea bargain by Deputy City

Atty. Marianne Milligan, he said. He refused.

“What am I pleading guilty to?” Israel asked. “I didn’t do

anything wrong. Their laws aren’t valid. And if they’re not valid,

what am I in violation of?”

At the Oct. 4 City Council meeting, Israel posted his telephone

number on the monitors in the council chambers and asked people who

had experienced similar issues with the city to contact him. He

received about four calls from that posting, he said.

He is determined to continue his fight in public view while his

parents’ case wends its way through the courts, he added.

“I’m just holding [city officials] accountable for their actions,”

Israel said. “They need to do things the way the government code

says, and they don’t. They dance around it. They think they’re above

the law, and they’re not.”