SOUTH GATE : Ex-Candidate Files Suit Over Citations

While campaigning at the Tweedy Mile Street Fair for a congressional seat in June, Charles Green and three of his supporters were rounded up by a city employee and ticketed for violating South Gate’s Municipal Code.

The offense? Distributing pamphlets without a permit.

“So much for the First Amendment,” Green said.

Now Green, a member of the Democratic National Committee, has filed a lawsuit against the city, claiming the code violates free-speech provisions in the state and U.S. constitutions. The suit, filed in Norwalk Superior Court, seeks $1 million in damages.

Five days after the June 4 incident, Green received a letter from South Gate City Manager Todd Argow apologizing for the citations, which were issued by a temporary employee in the code enforcement bureau. In the letter, Argow told Green the citations were canceled and expunged from city records.

It was as if Green and his supporters--who were cited under sections of the South Gate Municipal Code requiring city-approved licenses for handbill distributors and door-to-door peddlers--were never ticketed in the first place.

But that’s not how it appeared to Green, a veteran of civil rights marches in the 1960s. “They treated me without dignity,” Green said.

South Gate City Atty. Arnold Alvarez-Glasman, who maintained that the city’s code complies with the Constitution, said the city had hoped that Argow’s letter would quickly resolve the conflict.

Green lost the 33rd Congressional District Democratic primary to incumbent Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Los Angeles).