Judges Decline Santa Ana’s Invitation to Meet : Government: Officials asked jurists to hear their frustrations in trying to get local ordinances enforced. Fear of prejudicing future court cases is cited in denial.

To city officials, it seemed like a fair request.

Hoping to increase court penalties against those who frequently break the city’s ordinances, especially those aimed at improving neighborhoods, the officials last fall asked for a meeting with Municipal Court judges.

But the request to meet with the 13 central district judges has been denied because it could compromise the judges’ impartiality in future court cases, a court official said last week.

City Councilman Robert L. Richardson said he has been pushing for the meeting since last fall in an attempt to explain to the judges some of the code-enforcement problems facing the city.

City officials have felt frustrated by previous court decisions that have thwarted their ability to regulate issues ranging from residential overcrowding and homelessness to too many yard sales that violate city codes.

For example, when police conducted a sweep through the Civic Center in 1990 and arrested more than 60 homeless people, a municipal judge threw out all the charges, many of which were for jaywalking and littering.

City officials also complain privately that they have been admonished by the Municipal Court not to prosecute zoning cases involving yard sales because they are not considered serious crimes.

Faced with neighborhood deterioration that residents have blamed on the city’s exploding population, crowded apartments, increasing homelessness and noisy pushcart vendors, city officials last year developed a strategy to remove the hurdles that they believed hampered their code-enforcement efforts.

As part of that, the city is defending its ordinance that would limit to five the number of people who could live in an average one-bedroom apartment. The case, brought by resident Ascencion Briseno, was decided in the city’s favor in Superior Court. Briseno has appealed to the 4th District Court of Appeal.

Another part of the city’s strategy was the anticipated meeting with the judges.

Instead, the court’s executive officer, Robert B. Kuhel, proposed that city officials meet with the presiding judge to discuss whether a meeting with the entire judicial panel was appropriate.

But the counteroffer has not completely satisfied Richardson, who maintains that Municipal Court judges are elected officials who should be responsive to the needs of the community.

“They can certainly meet with us,” Richardson said. “They don’t have to nod in agreement; they don’t have to shake their heads from left to right, but they are elected officials, and they should extend the courtesy to at least sit down and talk to us.”

But Kuhel explained that any discussions that go beyond the basic law--even if they are not about specific cases--border on becoming “evidentiary” hearings.

“We do want to understand what their difficulties are, but we don’t want to know too much that we enter into a (judicial) conflict.”

Richardson raised the Municipal Court issue recently during a brief speech before the Washington Square Neighborhood Assn.

Referring to a Municipal Court candidate who had just addressed the group, Richardson urged the homeowners to ask candidates their positions on the issues that are important to Santa Ana, and also to find out if they live in the Municipal Court district which includes Villa Park, Tustin, Santa Ana, Orange, and nearby unincorporated areas.

If they do not live in the district or in Santa Ana, Richardson said in a later interview, “How do they know what’s going on?”

But Kuhel said judges are supposed to decide cases on facts presented in court.

The court administrator said the law requires judges to live in the county, but not in the district. Of the 13 judges, four live in the district, and two of them are Santa Ana residents, Kuhel said. Of the two court commissioners who also hear cases, two live in the Central District, he added.

The presiding judge, who is up for reelection, lives in Laguna Niguel, according to records filed with the county registrar of voters.