Fountain Valley : City Prosecutor May Get Wider Authority

People who violate certain city ordinances would face lighter penalties under a proposal by the city attorney.

The City Council this week gave preliminary approval to a plan providing City Atty. Alan R. Burns the authority to reduce some misdemeanors to infractions.

Violations that would be eligible for reduction include discharging a firearm, scavenging in public trash cans, public drunkenness, posting illegal signs and urinating in public.

This year to date, the city attorney has handled 53 such cases, which are punishable by fines of $500 to $1,000 and jail time of up to six months. Defendants are entitled to jury trials.

An infraction does not carry the penalty of serving jail time or the right to a jury trial.

Since January the city attorney, rather than the district attorney’s office, has become the sole prosecutor of code violations.

Burns said at Tuesday’s council meeting that, with a few exceptions, all city code violations are misdemeanors. Giving his office the discretion to reduce a charge to an infraction, he said, would create “a wider band of discretion to handle prosecutions.”

“We will still pursue misdemeanor convictions for those defendants whose conduct warrants the more serious penalties,” he said.

The ordinance will go before the council for a final vote June 20.