The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 48

LONG BEACH Also serving Bcllflower, Ccrritos, Compton, Hawaiian Gardens, Lakewood, Lynwood, Paramount and Signal Hill Sunday, September 6, 1987 HL Part IX Port Acts to Evict Boaters From Marina About 90 Owners Forced to Move, Pay High Mooring Fees or Face Confiscation' of Craft Vyse. "We realize that it is -a difficult proposition for the boat owners." Vyse acknowledged what the boat owners have been saying since July, when they were first told they would have to leave-that few slips are available in the region for odd-sized or dilapidated boats like many that remain at Our Marina. In the last six weeks, about 40 of the original 130 boats found slips elsewhere, owners estimate. "The folks with houseboats are in even more of a predicament. Many marinas allow no live-aboards," Vyse said.

City officials have not yet decided whether to actually evict about 30 remaining live-aboard boat owners and their families in mid-September or whether to begin to confiscate boats, he said. But he said the stiff mooring fees will be imposed at that point. John Farish of Newport Beach, an attorney for a hastily formed boat owners association, said he will go to court this week to try to block the removal of boats and implementation of the high fees. Farish also is scheduled to appeal Tuesday to the City Council. He said he will ask the city to stop eviction proceedings and to grant relocation benefits to boat owners.

Farish said he will tell the council that "some of these people don't have any options other than to sit there until they find another slip or find a buyer for their boat." However, jurisdiction over Our Marina is held not by the City Council, but by the semi-autonomous city Harbor Commission, which has rejected the boat owners' proposals. The city attorney has told the council that it cannot order that commission to do anything. Given a Year to Vacate David Hauser, president of the Harbor Commission, said the commission spent $14.4 million, for the marina and 72 surrounding acres last year and is determined to clear the site as soon as possible. Hauser said the commission allowed marina operator William Melamed of Los Angeles more than a year to empty the facility so boat owners would have time to relocate. Instead, the operator continued to rent slips through June.

Melamed's attorney has said the port verbally agreed to allow the marina to stay open until construction was imminent. Caught in that debate are the boat owners themselves. And some reacted frantically last week after being served with the eviction notices. "Why doesn't the city of Long Beach have a little feeling," said Sonny Palfin, 51, a salesman for a used-boat yard that operated at the marina until it closed recently. Palfin's $65,000 investment in his sleek, 50-foot "motor yacht" will be threatened by the $210-a-day mooring fee, but he said he can find no other slip.

Palfin and his wife, Jacqueline, 42, had planned to move to the Sacramento Delta Please see EVICT, Page 4 marina, located on an inner channel of the Port of Long Beach, was served Wednesday. It is the first step in legal proceedings that both the city and the boat owners-many of whom live aboard their vessels-say could be lengthy. "This is an on-going process. It's a problem that may take some time to resolve," said Deputy City Atty. Thomas A.

boat within view of into Our Marina in Harbor. He moved soon to make way Battle Plan in Compton Takes Aim at Gangs By WILLIAM NOTTINGHAM, Times Staff Writer COMPTON-After being confronted by angry citizens complaining that not enough has been done to stop gang violence, City Council members unveiled a "get-tougher policy" last week designed to put more police on the street with a broader mandate to crack down. "We have declared war on gangs," Mayor Walter R. Tucker announced, reading from a statement at a hastily called press conference on Wednesday. At a council meeting the night before, Tucker explained, about 50 citizens "expressed a growing fear and concern that the gang problem is getting out of hand.

Many of them seem to believe that the Compton Police Department and this City Council are too soft on crime. I assure you that this is not the case." "To prove it, council members quickly huddled with police and emerged with an 11 -point plan for attacking a complex problem that has frustrated residents and officials for years. 36 Street Gangs At least 36 identifiable street gangs operate within the city's 10-square-mile limits. The rate of criminal assaults is on the rise. With four months to go in 1987, the number of murders stands just four short of last year's 61.

Police say at least 34 of the year's 57 murders are gang -related. "I've had maybe as high as 100 calls a week from citizens complaining about gang narcotics sales," Councilman Floyd A. James said. "They complain about them gang members being on their front lawns even, running through their yards." After a "very serious talk" with police officials, James said, the council's blunt directive to the department is now, "Clean our city up, get rid of the crooks." Among other things, police will: Triple, from five to 15, the number of officers assigned full-time to the department's gang detail. Put all of the department's 137 sworn officers, "regardless of rank or assignment," on the street for various patrols.

Enforce curfew and loitering laws "to the fullest extent." Shift the efforts of the drug enforcement task force to concentrate on gang narcotics trafficking. Stop and question known gang members as they walk or drive through the city. Deploy the department's new patrol helicopter. AH Police Involved "The entire department will be involved in this," Police Cmdr. Terry Ebert said.

Charles Norman, a local Community Youth Gang Services worker, applauded the council's stand, but said the community needs to become involved as well as the police. "The people in the community have got to erupt. They've got to walk block by block" to take back gang territories, Norman said. James said the council also plans to hold a community conference on Sept. 12 to examine the gang problem.

And it will look for ways to enlist civic groups and even Gov. George Deukmejian in the stepped-up police campaign. By "speaking with one voice," James said, the city can "deliver a message to gangs that we will not turn our city over to them." Councilman Robert L. Adams said gang activity in Compton has "proliferated" in part because the community continues to suffer from high unemployment. Even when jobs are available, gang members find they can make more money by committing crime than by working legitimately, Adams said.

Please see COMPTON, Page 4 ByDARYLKELLEY, Times Staff Writer LONG BEACH-Eager to build a shipping terminal, the city Harbor Department has served about 90 boat owners at the ramshackle Our Marina with notice to leave by Sept. 15 or face eviction, confiscation of boats and mooring fees of $210 a day. The city says it was left with a marina full of old boats with no place to go in July, because an independent marina operator failed to live up to a 1986 agreement to clear the docks so construction could begin this summer. The notice to leave the storm-battered James Smith lives aboard his 45-foot the Henry Ford Bridge in Long Beach La Mirada May Seek Vicious-Dog Law With Teeth By BETTIN A BOX ALL, Times Staff Writer LA MIRADA This city is preparing to clamp down on biting dogs. Roused by the recent wave of publicity over pit bull attacks, the city administration has drawn up an ordinance that would make it easier to take action against dogs that attack people or other animals.

Now without a vicious-dog law of its own, La Mirada has relied on state and county regulations to deal with biting canines. But those "laws are really in the dog owners' favor unnecessarily," said Tom Robinson, community resources manager. "They're placing a higher value on dog owners' property rights than on community public safety." Under the proposed ordinance, a La Mirada dog would have to bite only once to set in motion a hearing process to determine if it was vicious, and if so, what should be done to prevent the animal from further venting its hostility on mankind. The city could, for instance, order the owner to keep the animal confined, muz-Please see DOGS, Page 8 ft South Gate Mayor Turns Off on Utility RICK CORRALES Los Angeles Times February but will have to move out for a commercial shipping terminal. since 1937, said she is considering launching a recall movement against some council members who supported the city's effort to form its own utility.

"They are dropping the Edison idea but you never know what they'll try next. I don't trust them," Guastavino said. Need for Money Officials had contended that by going into the electricity business, South Gate could raise money to replace about $1.2 million in lost federal revenue-sharing funds. The money would pay for such city services as police protection and recreational activities. Officials claim that the city could run the system more cheaply and pass some of the savings on.

to the customers. The council voted 3 to 0 last June to take over Edison operations by Jan. 1, 1988. Gonzalez announced he was giving up on -the idea at a meeting of the industrial committee of the South Gate Chamber of Commerce where a debate on the issue was scheduled to take place among citizens, city officials and Edison. There was no debate.

There was no need for it, Gonzalez said. "I plan to make a motion at the next meeting that we forget it. I still think it was a good idea but the people have spoken and I will listen," said Gonzalez in an interview. Gonzalez said he believes he will have the unanimous support of his four colleagues. Two of them, Councilmen John Sheehy and Del Snavely agreed in interviews that the idea should be discarded.

"I was against it all along because the people were not adequately notified," Snavely said. "The people should have been allowed to vote on it," he added. "In view of the situation, abandoning it is the only reasonable thing to do," Sheehy said. During earlier votes on the issue, Sheehy and Snavely had abstained. However, Councilman Herb Cranton, who favored the plan along with Gonzalez and Councilman Bill DeWitt, said he will not, make a decision until he receives the results of a city survey that is being sent to all the city's 25,000 households and businesses.

It asks if they want the city to pursue the takeover. "I will wait until it the survey comes back. I will act then. I will do the will of the people," Cranton said. DeWitt was on vacation and could not be Please see POWER, Page 3 By LEE HARRIS, Times Staff Writer SOUTH GATE-When Lillie J.

Guas-tavino and 5,000 other residents thought the idea of the city running its own utility was a bad one, they said so. And City Hall listened. "I listen to the will of the people," said Mayor Henry C. Gonzalez, announcing Tuesday that he is abandoning a proposal for the city to buy Southern California Edison system here. Score one for the people.

Gonzalez said he will ask his four council colleagues to entertain a motion to vote down the plan at the next regular meeting Sept. 14. Last month, the council postponed for 30 days its vote on beginning condemnation proceedings against Edison after a majority of more than 800 people who attended a public hearing on the issue voiced disapproval. Citizens also used the mail with a little help from Edison to let the City Council know where they stood. About 5,000 residents sent stamped post cards that Edison had provided to City Hall opposing the proposal.

Many, like Guastavino, phoned and met personally with council members to express their opposition. Guastavino, 75, who has lived in the city Zones "There are always a lot of questions about insurance and what would happen if somebody took a swing at someone in a wheelchair. It's the old double standard," Stoney said. "But it's a heck of an idea." The idea was first embraced by Capitola, a beachfront town near Santa Cruz. Since 1979, a small part-time force of wheelchair-bound employees has patrolled that city's streets as a self-described Quad Squad.

The name is derived from quadriplegic, although none of the squad's members are paralyzed from the neck down. No disabled parking officer has ever been injured on the job, said Capitola Police Capt. Thomas Hanna. The city has found the highly motivated $8-an-hour employees to be more efficient and less expensive than full-time parking officers, Hanna said. "It's one of those things where people were skeptical at the outset, but now everybody claims it was their idea," Hanna said.

"Able-bodied people keep thinking of all the obstacles," he said. "But we found that Please see DISABLED, Page 2 LB. Group Wants More Ticketing of Violators in Handicapped to Police Own Parking Areas y. wr A Disabled Ask By ARYL KELLEY, Times Staff Writer LONG BEACH-The middle-aged woman sprang on two good legs from her car, looked Audrey Paul in the face and told the wheelchair-bound woman to go elsewhere for a parking spot. "She said she'd only be in the blue handicapped zone for a minute, and that she would not move her car.

Then she. ignored me," said Paul, 55. The recent incident at a downtown supermarket infuriated Paul. She parked in a corner of the lot, maneuvered into her wheelchair and to a telephone to call police. It all took perhaps 15 minutes.

"By then the woman was gone. I thought about how we had to stop this one way or another," Paul said. One possible solution was proposed last week by the city's Citizens Advisory Commission on the Handicapped, of which Paul is a member. It asked the City Council to consider an unusual program in which police-trained disabled volunteers could issue tickets to drivers who illegally park in blue zones reserved for the physically disabled. "This is a very important Issue to us These drivers are taking away part of our rights," said Millree Mellie, an advisory commission member.

The proposal was received by the City Council without public comment In an interview, Mayor Ernie Kell expressed little interest. Authorized by '84 State Law "I think we need to leave that to the Police Department. There could be a lot of hard feelings if the handicapped start giving out $53 tickets. There could be a backlash," he said. Councilman Evan Anderson Braude, however, said he would ask the city staff to research the issue.

If adopted, the program would be the second of its kind in California, and the first adopted since a 1984 state law authorized cities and counties to set up platoons of disabled citizens' patrols to write parking tickets. All recent proposals "have been thoroughly shot down," said Richard Stoney, president of the California Assn. of the Physically Handicapped. RICK CORRALES Lot Angelet Tlmei Audrey Paul, left, and friend Millree Mellie go through their apartment complex with Audrey's dog, Chance, following. Paul is member of Long Beach Citizens Advisory Commission on the Handicapped, which seeks tougher program against people who illegally park cars in zones for handicapped drivers..