By David Swedelson, Partner, SwedelsonGottlieb, Community Association Attorneys
The LA Times reports that the Los Angeles City Council has adopted a new system that allows police officers to issue citations for minor “quality of life” crimes that would typically be resolved with a warning. Read the article here.
According to the article, “a pilot program, called Administrative Citation Enforcement, gives the Los Angeles Police Department and the Department of Animal Services a new enforcement tool that bypasses the court system. It allows city officials to impose fines for offenses such as urinating in public, having dogs off leashes or dumping garbage in public streets.”
Who said you can’t trust lawyers? You can certainly trust SwedelsonGottlieb, as we are actively opposing proposed new legislation that would make us more money, AB 1738. This bill concerning internal dispute resolution (IDR) in common interest developments (Civil Code Sections 5900-5920) was recently passed by the the California State Assembly and the Senate unopposed. It’s clear that the legislators do not understand the implications of what may happen if this legislation is signed into law by the Governor. If signed into law, this new law will most certainly make more work for us community association attorneys, as owners will be bringing their attorneys to IDR meetings, and many boards will opt to do the same. 
We deal with a lot of view obstruction disputes. We are able to resolve most of these disputes, as they are subject to CC&Rs which set out what view is protected. And the CC&Rs and the Civil Code provide that the prevailing party is entitled to collect their attorneys’ fees. That usually convinces most people that the fight is not worth the cost. 
It is an old problem. Many California community associations cannot motivate their owners to participate or even vote at association elections. We have had clients that have been unable to obtain a quorum for director elections for more than 20 years. Even my own association recently reported a failure to achieve a quorum and decided not even to bother holding a second meeting, knowing that the chances of obtaining a quorum was remote.
I was alerted to a proposed smoking ban in apartments and condominiums by the City Council in Culver City, California. 
We often get calls from Board members and managers asking us to help them with noise problems. Usually, the complaints involve hard surface flooring, loud stereos or TVs, prolonged or loud dog barking, or a tenant who plays a musical instrument for several hours a day, especially on the weekend or in the evenings. 
Robin Williams is dead. We lost a great talent, a very funny man. As one commentator wrote, the world is a lot less funny today.
New legislation amending two of the transfer disclosure sections of the Davis-Stirling Act, Sections 4528 and 4530, will be effective January 1, 2015. 
An article in the LA Times last week reported that Los Angeles City auditors revealed that the bureau charged with fixing and maintaining Los Angeles’ streets is plagued with problems that include failing to collect or spend hundreds of millions of dollars, keeping shoddy records and neglecting to address the most heavily trafficked roads first.