BUENA PARK : Police Calls Can Cost Party-Givers

People holding loud parties can now be fined if police are called, under an ordinance given final approval this week.

Hosts can be charged $39 per hour for police services. The law takes effect only if police are called twice to the same party. Residents are guaranteed one warning.

Although Councilman Arthur Brown cast a supporting vote Monday, he later asked for an amendment to the ordinance giving people two warnings before a fine is levied. That also had been sought by Councilwoman Rhonda J. McCune.

City Atty. James Markman told the council that he would look into ways of including the amendment and possibly would return with it to the council within 30 days, before the new law takes effect.

McCune has strongly objected to the ordinance since it was introduced, going so far as to call it “Gestapo tactics.”

“We have so few freedoms left . . . now it is getting down to what can we do in our own homes,” she said. “If a party is out of control, we have laws to control it. . . . That is what we pay our police for.”

McCune said she is worried that besides taking away basic rights, the ordinance could create abuses because it gives responding officers the ability to decide whether they want to fine someone.

Councilman Donald L. Bone disagreed. “Now we have an additional tool by which to get their attention,” he said of the people who refuse to stop a disruptive party.