ANAHEIM : Council OKs Limits on Beggars, Vendors

The City Council approved three controversial ordinances Tuesday that will severely restrict begging and street vending.

One ordinance on begging will ban “aggressive” panhandling, which the ordinance defines as threatening bodily harm, blocking a person’s path, interfering with traffic, or continuing to pester someone who has said no. It passed, 4-1, with Councilman Fred Hunter voting against it.

The ordinance also forbids beggars from washing car windshields without permission and from contacting someone entering or leaving a car. Violators will be fined $100 for a first offense, $200 for a second within a year and $500 for additional offenses.

A second ordinance bans anyone from standing on a curb or in the street to beg from passing cars. It passed, 3-2, with Hunter and Councilman Bob D. Simpson opposed.

The ordinance on vendors toughens an existing city statute by requiring vendors to move their trucks every 10 minutes instead of every hour, close by 8 p.m. instead of 9 p.m., and limit the size of their unloaded trucks to 6,000 pounds. The ordinance also increases the city’s annual licensing fee to $325 from $175 per truck. Violators will be fined $37 for each violation.

The ordinances take effect Dec. 2.

Several residents had demanded that the council restrict or even ban street vending and begging, saying the practices bring blight and crime to the city.

The vendors, who sell a variety of items including groceries, cigarettes, clothing and furniture from the back of parked trucks and vans, said they will challenge the new ordinance in court and denied that their businesses cause blight.

“We’re ready to adhere to whatever the council is going to dish out to us, but we still have to support our families,” said vendor Pedro Vasquez. He said the 10-minute time limit will force vendors out of business.

But Mayor Tom Daly said the ordinance is a good compromise because it allows the vendors to operate while addressing some of the residents’ complaints and “maintaining the integrity of our neighborhoods.”

The vendors successfully sued the city after it enacted an ordinance in September, 1992, that banned selling in residential neighborhoods.

Councilman Frank Feldhaus and Maggie Gonzalez, an Anaheim resident and retired nurse, gained national media attention in July when they made a proposal that would have required beggars to obtain city business licenses.

But City Atty. Jack L. White told the council that such an ordinance would have been found unconstitutional in court. Federal courts have ruled that cities can regulate, but not ban, begging because it is protected by the First Amendment’s free speech clause.

“This ordinance addresses the sometimes ugly and intimidating side of panhandling,” Daly said. “There’s a constitutional right to panhandle, but there is no constitutional right to intimidate someone into contributing.”