SANTA MONICA : Petition Drive Demands Crackdown on Homeless

Weary of panhandlers at ATMs, drug dealers in the parks and millions of dollars in social service spending, Santa Monica neighborhood activists dumped 12,000 signatures in the city clerk’s office Tuesday, demanding a vote on a long list of get-tough homeless policies.

“We’ve always been a city with a heart,” said Jean Sedillos, a community activist and longtime opponent of the renters’ rights group that dominates local politics. “This injects a brain into the picture.”

The petition, which includes some measures similar to steps already taken by the City Council, is the latest sign that liberal Santa Monica’s long-tolerant attitude toward the homeless has begun to harden. It calls for a public vote on measures that would prohibit panhandlers from coming within three feet of the people they solicit, panhandling within 50 feet of automatic teller machines and verbally abusing those they ask for money.

The referendum would also cap or reduce spending for homeless services, close public parks at night and require new procedures to track the effectiveness of city programs.

Fueling the petition drive is concern among some residents that when it comes to the homeless, Santa Monica has been too permissive and too quick to spend money.

In the face of such sentiment, the City Council, long reluctant to crack down on the homeless, has recently passed homeless measures of it own.

The council has decided to shift more of the city’s homeless spending from emergency aid to long-term programs. Last week, it voted to require panhandlers to stay 80 feet away from ATMs--a tougher restriction than the petitioners are seeking. It it expected to take effect next month. Council members have also approved a nighttime park closure law, which will not be fully in force until a homeless shelter opens this fall.

After the petition was delivered, Councilman Ken Genser said some of the new proposals, such as the requirement that panhandlers stay at least three feet from people they are soliciting, might be unconstitutional or difficult to enforce. He dismissed them as politicking in advance of the city’s Nov. 8 council elections. “At best, it’s a feel-good thing. At worst, it’s a political trick,” he said.

Sedillos said petition circulators, including volunteers and paid signature gatherers, collected the signatures of 12,108 Santa Monica voters. The petition needs about 5,400 signatures to qualify for November’s general election ballot.

Organizers of the drive missed a deadline for turning in signatures, but they could still get the measure on the November ballot if the council approves it.

After a slow start, Sedillos said, signature gatherers had no trouble. But Ron Taylor, a formerly homeless man running for City Council, said petition organizers were being too pushy. In fact, he said, they were panhandling for signatures.

“They didn’t take ‘No’ for an answer,” he said. “Panhandling, whether you’re doing it for a signature or a quarter, is panhandling.”