A Crystal Clear Council Prediction

By Jorge Casuso

It doesn't take a crystal ball to tell that the City Council will pass an interim ordinance Tuesday night that allows fortune telling not only on the pier, but on the Third Street Promenade and Ocean Front Walk as well.

The council will pass the measure in order to clearly comply with a 1985 California Supreme Court ruling that held that fortune telling is a constitutionally protected activity and that it is illegal for a city to completely ban the art of divination.

Although the City allows fortune telling on the pier, it will play it safe by expanding the permissible locations to Ocean Front Walk and the popular Third Street Promenade.

"Given the constitutional protection accorded fortune telling, the City's ordinance is vulnerable to challenge," according to the staff report. In its ruling, the report said, the Supreme Court "invalidated an ordinance that was quite similar to Santa Monica's."

"Because space on the Pier is limited and because the City owns and controls the Pier, it is unlikely that a court would find the City's ordinance reasonable, particularly given its impact on constitutionally protected speech," the staff report said.

The city's ordinance defines fortune telling as "the business or art of astrology, palmistry, phrenology, life reading, fortune telling, cartomancy, clairvoyance, clairaudience, crystal gazing, mediumship, oriental mysteries, spirit photography, spiritwriting, spirit voices, spirit materialization, etherealization, numerology, physiognomy, psychometry, seership, prophecy, augury, divination, magic or necromancy."

The Supreme Court determined that fortune telling was protected speech.

"The act of telling fortunes goes beyond the mere proposal of a transaction," the court found. "It involves the passing of ideas and information - some valid, some questionable, some false - between the fortune teller and the client."

The court also responded to the argument that fortune telling should be accorded less protections because it does not concern the political process.

"First, it is impossible to say that fortunetellers impart no political message in their communications," the court found. "In their vision of the future there may be a view of society as they perceive it or may one day be. Such a communication conceivably could contain the spark of a political flame."

In addition, the court noted that fortune telling "may fire the imagination and stimulate discussion of the future."

In other action, the council is expected to prohibit the use of Chess Park and Muscle Beach between sunset and sunrise.

The council also is expected to amend the City's Utility Users Tax to clarify collection responsibilities in a highly competitive market. The amendments do not increase the rate or expand the existing tax base.