L.A.’s Dolphins Prove You <i> Can </i> Come Home Again

A lot of people have been asking Los Angeles County lifeguards about the many dorsal fins recently sighted off Westside beaches.

But relax, swimmers, surfers and kayakers.

Those fins don’t belong to famished Great Whites, but large schools of dolphins returning to Santa Monica Bay after an absence of many years.

“We’re seeing many dolphins out here, 15 to 20 at a time,” said lifeguard Lt. Ira Gruber. “They’re coming back because the water is cleaner. We’re seeing them cruising back and forth, and when the surf’s up, you can see them riding the waves.”

Water quality has improved with the diversion of storm drain runoff to the Hyperion sewage treatment plant in El Segundo.

But the return of Flipper has startled a few beach-goers. Some lifeguards say they have received reports of a few gung-ho motorboaters taking potshots at the friendly creatures, mistaking them for sharks. (A key distinction: Dolphins propel themselves through the water with an up-and-down motion so their fins bob along the surface; sharks swim more steadily so their fins remain above water.)

“These dolphins are doing no harm and it’s important to give them some space--it’s their ocean,” Gruber said.

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IF THE SUIT FITS . . .: Two years after the Santa Monica City Council fired City Atty. Bob Myers for defying council orders to draft tougher homeless policies, he was back last week on the City Hall lawn talking to homeless people about possible legal action against the city.

When he left the job, Myers said he wouldn’t sue the city over the homeless policies that cost him his job. But that was two years ago, he said Thursday, and there’s nothing wrong with giving legal advice about ordinances passed since then.

Myers and other members of the National Lawyers Guild talked to about 40 homeless people who complained they would have no place to sleep when the city closes the parks at night this month. The new city shelter doesn’t have enough room and has too many rules, they said.

James Lafferty, executive director of the guild’s Los Angeles chapter, asked what they would do for a place to sleep.

“Go to L.A.,” one man said.

“You going to let them run you out of town?” Lafferty challenged.

The lawyers discussed legal options after meeting with the homeless people, but Myers declined to comment on any plans.

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NOT THE USUAL SUSPECT: Santa Monica police last week collared a man suspected of burglarizing a jewelry store.

His age? 71.

Santa Monica Police Lt. Gregory Slaughter said Rudolph Ponce was booked on suspicion of burglary Thursday after officers and security guards responded to a silent alarm at Bubar’s Jewelers and found him in the store.

“He was in the process of rifling through things,” Slaughter said, adding that the front door had been pried open. Ponce, Slaughter said, “had a crowbar and a hammer.”

Although it is unusual to have a man in his 70s facing burglary charges, it isn’t unheard of.

“It’s the times,” said Sgt. Frank Fabrega. “We encounter all ages.”