COSTA MESA : Councilman Is Found to Be in Violation of the City’s Zoning Code

City Councilman Peter F. Buffa must obtain a business license and a home occupation permit from the city before he can continue to work out of his home, the head of the city’s Finance Department has ruled.

Buffa, who is seeking a third council term in next month’s election, was found to be in violation of the city’s zoning code because he had failed to secure the license and permit.

City Atty. Thomas Kathe, who received the decision from finance director Susan Temple last week, said he agrees with the ruling on the business license but believes Buffa is in “a gray area” insofar as obtaining the permit required to run a business out of a home.

Kathe said the permit is not defined in the city’s zoning code and, therefore, Buffa cannot be held accountable for not having one. “The code needs to be clarified,” he said.

Buffa, who has contended all along that he does not work out of his home, said that he uses his home as the corporate address for Petrone Productions, a television production consulting business he owns. He said the actual cutting and editing of videotapes is performed in an office in Irvine.

Nonetheless, Buffa said he will apply for a business license if Kathe advises him to do so.

“But first I’m going to get a more definitive reading on this,” he said. “I’m sitting with two different opinions from two different departments. But it’s all part of ‘silly season.’ They don’t call it ‘silly season’ for nothing.”

Buffa claims that former City Councilman Orville Amburgey, a political foe, brought the matter to the council’s attention at last week’s meeting to make him look bad during election time.

But Amburgey said during the public hearing that he thought it was important that the council be aware that Buffa was working out of his home and did not have a business license.

“He should apply for a business license just like anybody else in the city who is doing business,” Amburgey told the council.