Never again will somebody like Sean Hitchcock be able to illegally ravage Long Beach’s delicate wetlands areas without facing punitive remedies from the city. Thanks to regulations recently approved by the City Council, the next time somebody like Hitchcock disregards law, animal and plant habitat and human life, he could face a fine of $1,000 a day.

Of course, it only took Hitchcock parts of  two days to do his damage.

For somebody like Sean Hitchcock—who owes a nice chunk of the multi-million-dollar success of his 2H Construction company to fat contracts with local government agencies—that’s … uhh … surprising. For one thing, it’s less than the penalty he paid this time–$6,229.85.

That doesn’t appear to trouble Craig Beck, who heads Long Beach’s Development Services department and Redevelopment Agency—and who had warned Hitchcock that his plans to put soccer fields on his coastal area property violated zoning law. If anything, he seems concerned that the new regulation will be perceived as too extreme.

“I don’t want to make it sound as though we’re going to be heavy-handed with this new tool,” he says. “We just got it. We’re going to be using it gingerly.”

Part of Beck’s anxiety may be because the new penalty—called an administrative citation—is part of an expansion of code enforcement powers for building inspectors and animal control officers. He’s apparently concerned that small businesses and pet owners will fear sudden and large fines. The new citation capability was not prompted by Hitchcock, who on March 19 and 20 tore through land that had been used as wetlands habitat and capped poisonous toxins from an old city dump. But Beck acknowledges that, had the new rule been in effect then, it could have applied to Hitchcock.

“Let’s say the city manager went out and said, ‘stop work,’ and let’s assume Mr. Hitchcock did not comply with our stop-work order and continued,” Beck says. “We could write him a citation. The citation is similar to you or I getting a traffic ticket. But the way we see it, we wouldn’t issue the citation immediately. We’d ask him to correct the situation. This citation is only for people who blatantly ignore the situation or those most egregious in what they are doing.

“Certainly, this scenario is in the hypothetical, but that’s how we see this rolling out. Depending on how it works, we may have to get a little more aggressive.”

Despite a long career as a successful contractor and much experience with Long Beach regulations, Hitchcock acquired no city permit before launching his massive earthmoving work last spring. According to the Development Services department, Hitchcock has subsequently paid $12,459.70 in permit fees—double the $6,229.85 it would have cost him—which was the standard penalty until the new rules were put in place by the city council in September.

The council’s enthusiasm for punishing Hitchcock has obviously diminished quite a bit since its March 24 meeting, when members of the panel seemed to be trying to out-outrage one another.

A sampling:

Patrick O’Donnell, 4^th district: “Going forward, how do we make sure this does not occur again… It’s pretty obvious there’s a lot of anger out there… How does the city act to fight construction we find errant?”

Rae Gabelich, 8^th district: “Developers know what they’re doing. This particular entity is not new to Long Beach. What’s the adage: ‘Do it and ask for forgiveness later’? That’s not good enough. They are destroying an environment like this. If this type of activity happens again, maybe we look to some kind of a fine or some kind of restitution that has to be made.”

Gerrie Schipske, 5^th district: “I echo the comments of my colleagues. [Speaking to Gabelich] The phrase is ‘It’s easier to get forgiveness than permission.’ But in this case, I don’t think you’re going to get either.”

Suja Lowenthal, 2^nd district: “It’s no different than when somebody moves into a historic district and paints their house a different color from the traditional palate … There are no words for this. I think this is just blatant disregard. No one is in business in that capacity and not know what it takes. To even amend your home you have to get a permit. I find it more than egregious. It’s completely disrespectful and total disregard, not just to the city and residents of the city but also to areas we hope to preserve for open space. I’m more than mystified by this. I hope we will all be in support of penalties to the maximum level.”

Gary DeLong, 3^rd district: “Councilwoman Lowenthal’s analogy is a good one. In this case, they bulldozed half the house rather than change the paint before stopping… Would like to be sure there is something in writing on city letterhead, what you can do or can’t do, so there is no confusion in the future, no excuse to say, ‘I didn’t know.’”

Mayor Bob Foster: “Make sure that not only Coastal Commission remedies but any other remedies that may be available to the city for either restoration or to assess the damages we have to recover.”

In spite of all this indignation, however, nobody appears to have pursued the most-logical response to Hitchcock’s blatant violation of city codes: legal prosecution. In California, every violation of any law is at least a misdemeanor; if a law does not specific a punishment for its violation, the violation falls into the category of a misdemeanor. In Long Beach, virtually any violation of the Municipal Code can be prosecuted as a misdemeanor under Section 1.31 of the Code.

So?

“The only thing I know about this event is what I read in the paper,” says Tom Reeves, Long Beach’s elected city prosecutor. “I don’t know what investigation occurred or what the results were. In other words, no one presented me with any official report or documents.

“When this first occurred I contacted planning [the planning department’ and asked if it was proceeding. They said Coastal [the California Coastal Commission] had jurisdiction. That was my understanding when this first broke. Since then, nobody has brought anything to this office.”

Tags: -1, 000, 2H Construction, City Prosecutor Tom Reeves, Craig Beck, gary delong, Gerrie Schipske, Long Beach City Council, Los Cerritos Wetlands, Mayor Bob Foster, patrick o'donnell, rae gabelich, Sean Hitchcock, suja lowenthal