Committee to Study Fines for Trashy Scavengers

The City Council on Wednesday night decided to tackle the problem of scavengers who spread household trash on streets while foraging for recyclables.

The council approved the formation of a committee to study drafting an ordinance that would impose fines on inconsiderate hunters of cans, bottles and other recyclables.

The council authorized Councilman Robert F. Dinsen to convene a committee of representatives of the Midway City Sanitary District and the Garden Grove Sanitary District, which provide trash collection in Garden Grove.

Dinsen had sought an ordinance imposing penalties on scavengers, but the remainder of the council expressed skepticism about enforcement.

“I hate to see us spend money on hiring people to follow (scavengers) around,” said Councilman J. Tilman Williams.

Dinsen said he proposed the ordinance after residents in western Garden Grove, who are served by the Midway City Sanitary District, complained that scavengers were indiscriminately tossing unwanted trash on curbs and lawns.

“I’ve been getting calls from people complaining because scavengers come by and actually cut open the bags to get to the trash,” Dinsen said. “It’s really been a nuisance.”

Dinsen said the council would consider either drafting its own ordinance, with specific fines and penalties, or adopting one similar to that passed in 1985 in Orange.

The Orange ordinance sparked controversy a few months after it was adopted when a disabled man was ticketed for scavenging in trash bins for food and faced a $500 fine.

Alfonso Vasquez, then 59, of Anaheim, had been left unable to work by an auto accident and was forced to rummage for food for his diabetic wife and five children. He was cited by a pair of Orange policemen who found him looking for boxes “and maybe some tomatoes or cans of food” behind an Alpha Beta market on a Saturday morning in September, 1985.

With most of his welfare check eaten up by $600 rental payments, Vasquez, who could not have paid the $500 fine, feared he would be imprisoned for the first time in his life.

But Vasquez was spared by then-Municipal Judge Bobby D. Youngblood, who called the ticket and the ordinance “ludicrous” and reduced the fine to 10 cents.

Dinsen said any ordinance passed in Garden Grove would instruct police officers or other enforcement agents to warn scavengers on their first offense, and ticket them on subsequent offenses.

“It’s just like an ordinance that says you can’t park in a red zone,” Dinsen said. “The city of Garden Grove doesn’t consider that a high priority. Police officers usually have better things to do than see who’s parking in a red zone.”

The ordinance would likely be enforced by zoning agents, Dinsen said.

“My idea is to have an ordinance which will give us a handle to take care of those that create problems,” Dinsen said.