Port Hueneme Municipal Code Ch. 6 Disorderly Conduct

(a) In Private. No person shall be in any private house or on any private premises in the City in a state of drunkenness or intoxication to the annoyance of any other person.

(b) In Public Areas. No person shall consume any malt, spirituous or vinous liquor containing more than one-half of one percent of alcohol by volume, while such person is upon any public street, alleyway, sidewalk or parkway within the City.

Editor's note— Ord. No. 725, § 2, adopted March 6, 2017, repealed § 3502, which pertained to profanity.

It shall be unlawful for any person to deal, play, carry on, open or conduct any game or contest played with cards, dice, or any other device, for money, checks, credit or thing of value; nor shall any person bet at any of said prohibited games. This section shall not be deemed or construed as prohibiting any act made unlawful by any section of the Penal Code of the State, including, but not limited to, Sections 320, 320a, 330, and 337a thereof.

(a) Definitions. For purpose of this Chapter, the following terms shall have the following definitions:

"Curfew hours" means the time between 10:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. of the following day.

"Emergency" means an unforeseen combination of circumstances or the resulting state that calls for immediate action. The term includes, but is not limited to, a fire, a natural disaster or automobile accident, or any situation requiring immediate action to prevent serious bodily injury or loss of life.

"Establishment" means any privately owned place of business operated for a profit to which the public is invited, including, but not limited to, any place of amusement or entertainment.

"Guardian" means:

(A) A person who, under court order, is the guardian of the person of a minor; or

(B) A public or private agency with whom a minor has been placed by a court.

"Minor"

means any person under eighteen (18) years of age.

"Operator" means any individual, firm, association, partnership or corporation operating, managing or conducting any establishment. The term includes the members or partners of an association or partnership and the officers of a corporation.

"Parent" means a person who is:

(A) A natural parent, adoptive parent, or stepparent of another person; or

(B) At least eighteen (18) years of age and authorized by a parent or guardian to have the care and custody of a minor.

"Public place" means any place to which the public or a substantial group of the public has access and includes, but is not limited to, streets, highways and the common areas of schools, hospitals, apartment houses, office buildings, transport facilities and shops.

"Remain" means to:

(A) Linger or stay; or

(B) Fail to leave premises when requested to do so by a police officer or the owner, operator or other person in control of the premises.

"Serious bodily injury" means bodily injury that creates a substantial risk of death or that causes death, serious permanent disfigurement or protracted loss or impairment of the function of any bodily member or organ.

(b) Offenses. An offense as described below is a violation of the Port Hueneme Municipal Code.

(1) A minor commits an offense if he or she remains in any public place or on the premises of any establishment within the City during curfew hours.

(2) A parent or guardian of a minor commits an offense if he or she knowingly permits, or by insufficient control allows, the minor to remain in any public place or on the premises of any establishment within the City during curfew hours.

(3) The owner, operator or any employee of an establishment commits an offense if he or she knowingly allows a minor to remain upon the premises of the establishment during curfew hours.

(c) Defenses.

(1) It is a defense to prosecution under subsection (b)(1) of this section that the minor was:

(A) Accompanied by the minor's parent or guardian;

(B) On an errand at the direction of the minor's parent or guardian, without any detour or stop;

(C) In a motor vehicle involved in interstate travel;

(D) Engaged in an employment activity, or going to or returning home from an employment activity, without any detour or stop;

(E) Involved in an emergency;

(F) On the sidewalk abutting the minor's residence or abutting the residence of a next-door neighbor if the neighbor did not complain to the Police Department about the minor's presence;

(G) Attending an official school, religious or other recreational activity supervised by adults and sponsored by the City of Port Hueneme, a civic organization or another similar entity that takes responsibility for the minor, or going to or returning home from, without any detour or stop, an official school, religious or other recreational activity supervised by adults and sponsored by the City of Port Hueneme, a civic organization or another similar entity that takes responsibility for the minor;

(H) Exercising First Amendment rights protected by the United States Constitution, such as the free exercise of religion, freedom of speech and the right of assembly; or

(I) Emancipated pursuant to law.

(2) It is a defense to prosecution under subsection (b)(3) of this section that the owner, operator or employee of an establishment promptly notified the Police Department that a minor was present on the premises of the establishment during curfew hours and refused to leave.

(d) Enforcement. Before taking any enforcement action under this section, a police officer shall ask the apparent offender's age and reason for being in the public place or establishment. The officer shall not issue a citation or make an arrest under this section unless the officer reasonably believes that an offense has occurred and that, based on any response and other circumstances, no defense in subsection (c)(1)(C) of this section is present.

(e) Penalties. A person who violates a provision of this Chapter is guilty of a misdemeanor and each day or part of a day during which the violation is committed, continued or permitted shall be a separate offense.

(Ord. 686 § 2, 2008; Ord. 615 § 2, 1997)

No person shall injure, destroy or remove any ornament, improvement, building or structure in any public park or street of the City.

No person shall make to the Police Department or Fire Department of the City any false, misleading or unfounded report for the purpose of interfering with the operation of the Police or Fire Department or with the intention of misleading any member of either of said departments.

No person shall shoot, fire or discharge any pistol, rifle, gun or other firearm, or any pistol, rifle or gun operated by compressed air, or a spring device, including, but not limited to, B.B. or pellet guns, not necessary in self-defense, or in performance of an official duty within the City.

(a) Prohibitions—Waiters, Waitresses, Entertainers. Every person is guilty of a misdemeanor who, while acting as a waiter, waitress or entertainer in an establishment which serves food, beverages, or food and beverages, including, but not limited to, alcoholic beverages for consumption on the premises of such establishment:

(1) Exposes his or her genitals, pubic hair, buttocks, natal cleft, perineum, anal region or pubic hair region; or

(2) Exposes any device, costume or covering which gives the appearance of or simulates the genitals, pubic hair, buttocks, natal cleft, perineum, anal region or pubic hair region; or

(3) Exposes any portion of the female breast at or below the areola thereof.

(b) Employment or Payment Not Necessary for Offense. A person shall be deemed to be a waiter, waitress or entertainer if such person acts in that capacity without regard to whether such person is paid any compensation by the management of the establishment in which the activity is performed.

(c) Prohibitions—Public Performance. Every person is guilty of a misdemeanor who, while participating in any live act, demonstration or exhibition in any public place, place open to the public, or place open to public view:

(1) Exposes his or her genitals, pubic hair, buttocks, natal cleft, perineum, anal region or pubic hair region; or

(2) Exposes any device, costume or covering which gives the appearance of or simulates the genitals, pubic hair, buttocks, natal cleft, perineum, anal region or pubic hair region; or

(3) Exposes any portion of the female breast at or below the areola thereof.

(d) Counseling or Assisting. Every person is guilty of a misdemeanor who causes, permits, procures, counsels or assists any person to expose or simulate exposure as prohibited in this Chapter.

(e) Exemption of Theatrical Establishments. The provisions of this Chapter shall not apply to a theatre, concert hall or similar establishment which is primarily devoted to theatrical performances.

It shall be unlawful for any person to possess or sell, within the City, any blow guns. For purposes of this section, "Blow-Gun" means any rigid tubular material, whether lined or unlined, designed to propel a missile or projectile through and out of the tube with a force likely to produce bodily injury when air pressure is exerted into the tube.

Notwithstanding any other provisions of this Code, it shall be unlawful for any person to make, cause, or permit any loud or unusual noise to emanate from any activity taking place on real property owned or occupied by such person, which has the effect of disturbing the peace and quiet of the neighborhood, or which directly causes an unreasonable interference with the use, enjoyment and/or possession of any real property owned or occupied by any other person. This section may be enforced under the provisions of Section 3445 of this Code at the enforcement officer's discretion.

No person shall play, use, or operate or permit to be played, used or operated any radio, receiving set, T.V. set, musical instrument, phonograph, jukebox or other machine or device for producing or reproducing sound in a manner which disturbs the peace and quiet of any residentially zoned neighborhood.

No person shall play, use, operate or permit to be played, used or operated any radio, receiving set, T.V. set, musical instrument, phonograph, jukebox or other machine or device for producing or reproducing sound between the hours of 10:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. on property located in any residential zone and when clearly the same is audible at a distance of fifty (50) feet or more from the building, structure, property or vehicle where the sound is produced. This section may be enforced under the provisions of Section 3445 of this Code at the enforcement officer's discretion.

Every person, other than a police or peace officer in the performance of his duty, who discharges any gun or pistol, however powered, in the City, including without limitation thereby firearms, air rifles, BB guns, and pneumatic arms of all types, but excluding toy weapons incapable of harming either persons or property, such as water pistols and pop guns, is guilty of a misdemeanor.

Every person who displays, exhibits or points a replica of a deadly weapon in a rude, angry or threatening manner or who displays, exhibits or points a replica of a deadly weapon in a fight or quarrel or who displays, exhibits or points a replica of a deadly weapon at another person to coerce or frighten said person or to compel or attempt to compel said person to adopt a particular course of conduct or who in any manner unlawfully uses a replica of a deadly weapon in the course of any violation of law is guilty of an infraction. A replica of a deadly weapon shall include, but not be limited to, a toy weapon that appears to be a deadly weapon.

No person shall inhale, breathe, drink or use in any manner any product or substance which contains on organic solvent, or inorganic solvent with the intent of becoming intoxicated, elated, dazed, paralyzed or irrational, or of distorting or disturbing the eyesight, thinking process, balance or coordinating, or of affecting the central nervous system.

No person shall sell, furnish, give or cause to be sold, furnished or given any product or substance containing an organic solvent or inorganic solvent to any person for the purpose of inducing or aiding the latter to inhale, breathe, drink or use such product or substance in violation of this Chapter.

The term "organic solvent" or "inorganic solvent" includes, but shall not be limited to, amyl acetate, trichloroethylene, acetone or other chemically related compounds used to manufacture products commonly referred to as "glue," "adhesive cement," "mucilage," or "dope."

The provisions of this Chapter shall not apply to any person who inhales, breathes, drinks or otherwise uses an organic solvent or inorganic solvent product or substance pursuant to the direction or prescription of any doctor, physician, surgeon, dentist or other person authorized by law to so direct and prescribe the use of an organic solvent or inorganic solvent product or substance.

When any loud or unruly assemblage occurs or is held, and the City's police officers are required to respond to the scene in response to citizen complaints and the senior police officer at the scene determines that there is a threat to the public peace, health, safety or general welfare, then that senior police officer shall notify the owner of the property and/or the person in charge of the property where the assemblage exists, and/or the person responsible for the said assemblage, that such person or persons, or in the case of a minor, the parents and/or guardians of such minor, will be held personally liable for the cost of providing additional police personnel on special security assignment over and above the normal services provided by the Police Department in response to such assemblage. Such person or persons shall be given a first warning, in the form of notification by the said senior police officer as above described, that the first police response as above described, shall be deemed to be the normal police services provided. The police personnel necessarily utilized after such first warning to control the threat to the public peace, health, safety or general welfare shall be deemed to be on special security assignment over and above the normal services provided and the owner of the property and/or the person in charge of the property where such assemblage occurs, and/or the person responsible for such assemblage, shall be personally responsible for the cost of such special security assignment in an amount determined upon a cost accounting basis by the City. The cost of such special security assignment shall include damage to City property and/or injuries to City personnel.

(a) It shall be unlawful and subject to punishment in accordance with subsection (h) of this section, for any person utilizing or riding on any skateboard, roller skates, bicycle, roller blades or any similar device to ride or move about in or on a public or private property when the same property has been designated and posted as a no skateboard, roller skating, roller blading, bicycling or similar activity area, provided, however, nothing in this chapter shall be construed or deemed to negate any right granted to bicycle riders by the California Vehicle Code.

(b) No person shall use a skateboard, roller blades, roller skates, bicycle or similar device in a manner which creates a nuisance as defined in subsection (d) of this section.

(c) No person shall place a ramp or foreign matter, including but not limited to wax, grease or other lubricant, friction reducing agent or other physical aid which enhances or enables skate-boarding, bicycling or roller skating performance, on any sidewalk, step, handrail, bench, wall or other improvement on public property, other than their own property, without the consent of the owner.

(d) For the purposes of this chapter the following words shall have the meanings ascribed:

"Business district" shall be defined as designated in Section 235 of the California State Vehicle Code.

"Private property" shall mean any property held by private interests which is used primarily for business, commercial, office space, business park, religious, multifamily or recreational purposes. This shall also include a parking facility for these private property areas.

"Public property" shall mean any property owned or maintained by the city of Port Hueneme, any public agency or public school district, and any public utility within the geographic boundaries of the City of Port Hueneme.

"Roller skates" or "roller blades" shall mean any footwear, or device which may be attached to the foot or footwear, to which wheels are attached, including wheels that are "in-line" and where such wheels may be used to aid the wearer in moving or propulsion.

"Skateboard" shall mean a board of any material, which has wheels attached to it and which is propelled or moved by human, gravitational or mechanical power, and to which there is not fixed any device or mechanism to turn or control the wheels.

"Nuisance" is defined as any activity which is injurious to health, or is indecent or offensive to the senses, or the obstruction to the free use of property, so as to interfere with the comfortable enjoyment of life or property, or unlawfully obstructs the free passage or use, in the customary manner of any public park, square, street or highway.

"Bicycle" is defined in the California Vehicle Code under Section 231 as a device upon which any person may ride, propelled exclusively by human power through a belt, chain or gears, and having one or more wheels.

(e) Owners of private property may designate their property as a no skateboarding, roller blading, roller skating or bicycling area. The owner may then post his or her property in conformance with subsection (g) of this section.

(f) City Council or its designee may designate any public roadway, sidewalk, parking lot or other public property as a no skateboarding, roller blading, roller skating or bicycling area by the posting of appropriate signage in accordance with subsection (g) of this section.

(g) Prior to the enforcement of prohibition on skateboard, roller skating, roller blading, bicycling or similar activity as listed in this section the area so designated shall be posted with signs which provide substantially as follows:

Skateboarding, roller skating, roller blading, bicycling or similar activity is prohibited by Port Hueneme Municipal Code Section 3520. Any violation is punishable by a fine of $50.00 for the first offense. Port Hueneme Police Department 986-6530.

The sign may contain only those items which the agency or property owner wishes to prohibit. For example, if there is no desire to limit bicycling, the posting would not contain the word "bicycling."

Such prohibition shall apply to the property or areas so designated once the property or area has been posted with signs in plain view at all entrances to the property or area. Signs so posted at the entrances to the property or area, shall comply with California Vehicle Section 22658a(1). These signs will be a minimum of seventeen (17) inches by twenty-two (22) inches with lettering not less than one inch in height. Public sidewalks or other surfaced areas may be painted with this warning in lieu of the forgoing signage requirement. It shall be the responsibility of the property owner or tenant(s) to post and maintain all signs prohibiting skateboarding, roller blading, roller skating or bicycling.

(h) Any violation of this chapter is deemed an infraction, punishable by a fine of fifty dollars ($50.00).

(i) Any device designated, intended and used solely for the transportation of infants, handicapped or incapacitated persons, devices designed, intended and used for the transportation of merchandise to and from the place of purchase and other wheeled devices, when being used for either of these purposes shall be exempted from this section. Police officers who are performing duties in their official capacity are exempt from this section. Furthermore, the City Council may, by resolution, suspend the enforcement provisions of this section to accommodate special events when so requested by the organizer.

(j) If any subsection, subdivision, sentence, clause, phrase or portion of this section is for any reason held to be invalid or unconstitutional by the decision of any court of competent jurisdiction, this decision shall not affect the validity of the remaining portions of this section. The City Council hereby declares that it would have adopted this section, and each subdivision, sentence, clause, phrase, or portion thereof, irrespective of the fact that any one or more subsections, subdivisions, sentences, clauses, phrases or portions thereof be declared invalid or unconstitutional.

(k) The Mayor is authorized to execute this section on behalf of the City and the City Clerk shall attest to his signature and shall certify to the passage and adoption of this section and shall cause the same or summary thereof to be published and posted in the manner required by law.

(Ord. 612, 1997)