L.A. County supervisors move to ban ‘threatening’ parkgoers for a month or more

Faced with an uptick in complaints from Los Angeles County park employees about assaults and harassment, the Board of Supervisors unanimously approved an ordinance Tuesday allowing staff to temporarily ban unruly people from the county’s green spaces.

The code change authorizes certain county officials to hand out “exclusion orders� to people exhibiting “dangerous or threatening behavior,� barring them from county parks for a set period of time. According to the ordinance, a person could potentially be barred from one or more of the county’s over 80 parks at one time.

The ordinance broadly defines who could be subject to an exclusion order, authorizing officials to temporarily ban anyone who fails “to comply with applicable laws, rules, and regulations.� The ban could last for one month or more, depending on the severity of the offense.

A spokesperson for the Department of Parks and Recreation said in a statement that “executive management staff� would be the ones issuing and approving the citations.

“The Park Safety ordinance is a proactive measure to deter negative behavior and actions that compromise safety to ensure everyone feels safe and respected while enjoying our beautiful L.A. County Parks,� department director Norma García-González said in a statement, noting the department had experienced 288 “incidents� last year.

The ordinance, passed without discussion, was supported by SEIU 721, the labor union that represents 1,600 parks department employees.

Union President David Green said his members had felt increasingly unsafe going to work, with some reporting regular harassment on the job. He said a handful had been threatened with baseball bats.

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Green said a union survey conducted this fall found that roughly 40% of parks employees had been threatened, harassed or physically attacked while at work. Half of those said it happened at least three times.

“The status quo is our workers are being harassed and assaulted and spit upon,� he said, adding he believed a worsening mental health crisis had exacerbated the issue.

Roughly a dozen parks employees spoke Tuesday, sharing recent experiences of harassment and threats on the job. Carissa Perez, a recreation services supervisor, said that in February she’d been locking up at Sunshine Park in La Puente around 9 p.m. when a man followed her into the park building and hid beside a soda machine.

“He looked at me and I felt that he was going to attack me. I ran to my car, I locked myself in and cried,� she told the board, as her colleagues waved “keep our parks safe� signs behind her.

Stephanie Rodriguez, a member of the Park Equity Alliance, a coalition that advocates for equitable access to green spaces in Los Angeles, said she was concerned that the exclusion orders would fall disproportionately on disenfranchised Angelenos with nowhere else to go.

“Many people experiencing homelessness use parks as a safe haven,� she said.

Other cities and states have created similar rules, citing an increase in disruptive behavior. Oregon is in the process of changing the rules in its state parks so that anyone endangering visitors or staff could be temporarily barred. The California cities of Montclair and Roseville also have rules that allow staff to temporarily bar people who harass staff or visitors.

Green said the union had worked to ensure there was a process in place for people to challenge their exclusion order.

Under the ordinance, people temporarily banned from the park must be provided a written notice and have the opportunity to appeal the order. The county said it will keep a database of who has been excluded from which park.

A person violating the order could be charged with a misdemeanor.

The ordinance takes effect in one month.