Valleywide : Residents’ Groups Get Answers on Scofflaws

An attorney in the Los Angeles city attorney’s office will act as an ombudsman who will field public complaints about zoning scofflaws, City Atty. James Hahn said after meeting with San Fernando Valley homeowner activists Friday.

Richard A. Schmidt, a deputy city attorney who heads the city attorney’s Van Nuys criminal division, will serve as the main contact person for Valley homeowner leaders who want to alert the office to businesses that stay open too late, people who build fences too high and other zoning violations.

Sherman Oaks activist Richard Close, who attended the meeting, said Hahn seemed responsive to community leaders’ concerns and that Hahn’s office needs to do a better job of enforcing zoning laws.

“We think the rules are on the books to improve the Valley’s quality of life,” Close said. “We need the enforcement.”

Hahn called the meeting after receiving a letter last week from the presidents of eight Valley homeowner organizations. Close said the group discussed several ways in which enforcement could be speeded up or improved. Among them were passing laws that would take away the driver’s licenses of people convicted of graffiti vandalism and having the city attorney’s office pursue civil--in addition to criminal--litigation against zoning scofflaws.