CITY PANEL ENDORSES CRACKDOWN ON BEGGING.

Byline: Patrick McGreevy Daily News Staff Writer

Despite objections from the ACLU, a Los Angeles City Council panel Monday recommended a ban on aggressive panhandling that intimidates people who use sidewalks in Los Angeles.

The council's Public Safety Committee voted 2-1 to endorse the measure, with Councilman Nate Holden agreeing with civil liberties attorney Carol Sobel that the measure violates constitutional protections to free speech.

``This is unconstitutional,'' Holden said. ``It's garbage.''

Sobel, who is representing the American Civil Liberties Union, said the state constitution designates city sidewalks as public forums where speech is protected.

``(The ordinance) takes a certain kind of expressive conduct and makes it criminal,'' Sobel told the council panel, calling the measure ``repressive.''

She said some supporters of the measure want to drive poor people out of the city.

The ordinance proposed by Mayor Richard Riordan prohibits people from soliciting or asking for funds in an aggressive manner, which is described as including blocking the path of people or touching them without their permission.

``What we are talking about is a quality-of-life issue,'' said mayoral aide Bill Violante. ``You need something like this on the books to let law enforcement do something about it.''

Councilwoman Laura Chick, who chairs the committee, agreed that the ordinance will provide a valuable tool to the police to deal with extreme cases.

``We are not saying it's wrong to be poor and to ask for help from others,'' Chick said. ``This isn't about eliminating poor people from the right to ask for donations. It's saying there is a way to do it that doesn't make people feel unsafe.''

Los Angeles Police Department Cmdr. Dan Watson said the police will not use the measure to round up poor people but will respond to specific complaints and likely issue warnings at first.

``This is not something (in which) we're going to put together task forces and round up a whole bunch of people soliciting on freeway on-ramps,'' Watson said.

Councilman Mike Feuer said the measure will not likely be a panacea but voted for it, saying, ``there may, in some neighborhoods, be some incremental improvement from an ordinance that is narrowly drafted.''

The panhandling ordinance is one of several issues stirring up debate on free-speech rights.

On Monday, officials announced that U.S. District Judge John Davies has issued a preliminary injunction that continues to block the city from enforcing a ban on solicitation of charitable contributions at Los Angeles International Airport.

Davies' ruling, which was issued Friday, specifically questioned whether the city ordinance violates constitutional protections of free speech, said David Liberman, an attorney for groups that solicit funds at LAX.

At the same time, the council's Public Safety Committee grappled Monday with another issue involving the free flow of information when it heard a report on the city's plan to implement a version of Megan's Law, which requires the city to make public the names of persons convicted of child molestation and rape.

LAPD officials said they plan to make computer terminals available in every police station July 1 so that people can look at lists of registered sex offenders who live in their neighborhoods.

Anyone viewing the list will have to sign a form acknowledging that they cannot make copies of the list and disseminate it publicly.

However, Chick called for the form to go further in spelling out criminal penalties for misuse of the information.

Chick said she is concerned about incidents in other cities where the information has been posted on streets and used by picketers who have driven convicts out of neighborhoods.

``How do we warn people against using this information to become vigilantes and drive people out of communities?'' Chick asked.

In addition, Assistant City Attorney Byron Boeckman said he will likely write to the state attorney general for clarification of issues of concern, including what liability cities will have if they put out inaccurate lists provided by the state.

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PHOTO Laura Chick

Sees measure as helpful tool