Seal Beach will no longer allow people to stake out spots in Eisenhower Park hours in advance of Chamber of Commerce concerts.
The City Council on Monday, July 9, unanimously directed City Manager Jill Ingram to implement a new policy that will prohibit placing personal property in the public park to reserve space before 4 p.m. on concert days.
Last year, Old Town area residents covered the park with chairs, blankets, ice chests, etc., for as much as 12 hours prior to performances of the free Seal Beach Summer Concert series. The practice left the park inaccessible for an entire day.
Once last year, someone piled the chairs into a stack in apparent protest against the stake outs.
According to District 1 Councilwoman Ellery Deaton, the vandals stacked the chairs while others cheered them on and would have set the property on fire if the police had not arrived.
Deaton and Mayor Michael Levitt asked to have the matter put on the council agenda. The concerts take place in Deaton’s district.
Deaton suggested making 4 p.m. the time when people could come to the park. She said if chairs or blankets were placed in the park before then, a city intern would go to the park at 3:30 p.m., and move the items to the city’s lost and found.
Levitt wasn’t sure it was a good idea to have interns remove the property. He asked what would happen if an intern started to remove chairs and an ice chest, only to be confronted by the owner of those items. Levitt, a former policeman, thought that might be putting the interns in harm’s way.
District 4 Councilman Gary Miller suggested having police volunteers remove any stake out property. The volunteers wear uniforms.
Esther Kenyon, of the Chamber of Commerce, said it was important to put out signs on Tuesday evening to warn the public about the rules.
District 3 Councilman Gordon Shanks suggested having the signs out during the six weeks the concerts are taking place. He said it would take time to educate the public about the new rules.
City Manager Jill Ingram suggested that she and staff work out a process for removing unattended property from the park prior to concerts.
Deaton moved allow seating in the park from 4 p.m. onward. The council agreed by a vote of 5-0.
