Santa_Monica_News Council Updates Feeding Ordinance

Council Updates Feeding Ordinance

By Oliver Lukacs
Staff Writer

Feb. 11 -- Responding to charges in a failed lawsuit filed by homeless advocates that the City’s new food distribution laws were legally vague, the City Council, while “under no legal compunction” to do so, voted 5 to 2 on Tuesday to “clarify” the ordinance.

The move comes after the National Lawyers Guild last year challenged the constitutionality of the law, which effectively obligated all food distributors to apply for a Community Events Permit for gatherings of more than 150 people, under threat of a maximum penalty of six months in jail or $1,000 in fines, or both.

The council approved an amendment that clarifies that food distributors who don’t exceed the 150-person limit do not need authorization if they are handing out food on City streets as long as they don’t “interfere with the free flow of pedestrian or vehicular traffic.” A second amendment puts distributors on notice of their legal responsibilities.

Originally passed with the intention of forcing food providers to either relocate outside of Santa Monica or link their feeding programs to the City’s social safety net, the laws are apparently failing to fulfill their function, according to the staff report.

“Since the ordinance was adopted, one group, which conducted regularly-scheduled feedings in City parks, has moved indoors. Other groups have opted to split their distributions into smaller groups so that their activities do not involve 150 people and therefore do not require a Community Events Permit.

“Indeed, to date, no event permit applications have been submitted for the activity of distributing free food to the needy…. large, regularly-scheduled, private food distributions continue.”

The laws requires food distributors to obtain permits every 90 days from City and the Los Angeles County Department of Health that are restricted to three per group or individual, with an events permit needed for gatherings of more than 150 people.

Both County and City permits, which providers are required to show at every location where they serve food, would be free to non-profit food programs. However, they would only be good for 48 hours and could take more than a week to obtain from the County, which scrutinizes every application.