1 STAFF REPORT
DATE: January 30, 2024
TO: Justin Hess, City Manager
FROM: Joseph H. McDougall, City Attorney
BY: Ray Johal, Senior Assistant City Attorney
SUBJECT: Introduction of an Ordinance for the Prevention of Human Trafficking
RECOMMENDATION
1. Introduce AN ORDINANCE OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF BURBANK ESTABLISHING ARTICLE 17 . PREVENTION OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING IN CHAPTER 3 MORALS AND CONDUCT, TITLE 5 POLICE AND PUBLIC SAFETY OF THE BURBANK MUNICIPAL CODE (Attachment 1).
2. Provide direction on Ordinance implementation, including approaches for outreach and enforcement.
BACKGROUND
On October 11, 202 2, City Coun cil (Council) unanimously directed the City Attorney’s Office (CAO) to develop an ordinance aimed at preventing human trafficking in the City of Burbank. CAO reviewed existing State and local laws and legal remedies, developed an outreach and enforcement plan, and recommends introduction and adoption of the enclosed draft Ordinance. The Ordinance is an addition to Burbank Municipal Code at Title 5 Police and Public Safety, Chapter 3 Moral s and Conduct, and is designed to expand and strengthen the tools available to the City of Burbank to prevent and combat human trafficking.
DISCUSSION
Human trafficking, which includes both sex and labor trafficking, persists throughout the State of California. P erpetrators of human trafficking create a climate of fear to control victims and lure or coerce people into various forms of work, including domestic, factory, CITY ATTORNEY’S
OFFICE
2 farm, restaurant, and commercial sex. Because of under -reporting, under-identification, and human-trafficking perpetrators’ use of violence, stigmatization, and shame, accurate and uniform statistics are difficult to compile. In many instances , victimization goes undetected. As such, the State of California adopted a uniform human trafficking signage and training program designed to both raise awareness of human trafficking and provide access to resources for victims of human trafficking.
California Civil Code section 52.6 requires all designated businesses, locations, and facilities to post informational notices about the human trafficking hotline and additional resources in clear view of the public and employees, and to train employees in recognizing signs of human trafficking (Attachment 2). Section 52.6 also permits local jurisdictions to adopt ordinances that duplicate and supplement these human trafficking requirements. One such local ordinance was adopted in Los Angeles County Municipal Code, Title 13, Chapter 13.110.010 on November 17, 2020 (Attachment 3) . The Los Angeles County ordinance expands the list of businesses which must post human trafficking notices and imposes additional civil and criminal penalties for failing to comply.
ORDINANCE
The CAO reviewed the Los Angeles County ordinance and collaborated with the Burbank Police Department (BPD), Community Development Department (CDD), and the community-based Zonta Club of Burbank to identify key elements for Burbank's ordinance, including expanding the number of businesses that must post human trafficking notices in the workplace, establishing a compliance, inspection, and investigation process, and identifying the Building and Safety Division of CDD (Building and Safety) as the most appropriate outreach and enforcement body . The result is an ordinance largely patterned after the Los Angeles County ordinance, but with enforcement measures tailored to Burbank's business climate and available resources.
The Ordinance will increase awareness of the existence of human trafficking within the community of employers and employees, and within the community at large, by directly communicating the means of learning about and reporting the suspected existence of human trafficking, and by creating avenues for victims of human trafficking to seek help.
The Ordinance expands upon the list of businesses required to post under State law to include restaurants, community care facilities, skilled nursing facilities, gas stations, retail stores that sell food or household goods, shelters, primary reproductive/s exual health services providers, and garment manufacturing establishments. Additionally , the Ordinance addresses the importance of inspections and evidence gathering and sets forth enforcement actions and penalties to ensure compliance.
The Ordinance authorizes administrative citations and fines as penalt ies for failure to comply with signage and training requirements. This enforcement approach improves 3 compliance. The Ordinance authorizes misdemeanor criminal prosecution for businesses that are deemed a Public Nuisance for engaging in or allowing human trafficking to occur.
IMPLEMENTATION
The City's goal is to implement the Ordinance quickly with existing resources by partnering with Zonta for initial outreach and using the existing annual Business Tax renewal process to contact and track each business subject to the new Ordinance.
Outreach
The outreach plan calls for partnering with enforcement agencies, educating businesses, and collaborating with victim service providers, on an ongoing basis, to educate the community and increase the general awareness and understanding of human trafficking.
Outreach includes notifying businesses, locations, and facilities of the new Ordi nance requirements through a letter campaign using internal BPD reports, emails, notice and flyer attachments to annual Business and Tax renewal bills, and posting information on the City’s website. Three options exist for circulation of required signage and compliance declarations to businesses within the first year the Ordinance takes effect.
Option 1 - Provides an immediate outreach campaign following the effective date of the Ordinance to educate businesses and distribute documentation and is recommended by the CAO . The City will collaborate with volunteer community -based groups including Zonta. Volunteers will be utilized to prepare envelopes containing signage, compliance declarations, and informational flyers to be mailed to each qualifying business.
Compliance declarations will need to be reviewed by each business owner/agent, a box indicating compliance will need to be checked, and the declaration will be signed and returned to B uilding and Safety by a pr escribed deadline . Staff will then review the documents for compliance. An information packet containing signage, a declaration of compliance, and an information sheet w ill be provided to any new business applying for licensing within the City. One temporary staff member will be needed for at least two months to track declarations received by the City.
Option 2 - Combines an initial outreach effort with the next round of business permit renewals, which occurs at the beginning of the next fiscal year, on or around July 1. The upcoming cycle of renewals is limited to select businesses and would not reach the full list of businesses required to comply under the Ordinance. Zonta has agreed to provide community volunteers to prepare the human trafficking documents for mailing under any option chosen by Council. Without community volunteers, a temporary staff member will be needed for document preparation, mailing, and tracking.
Option 3 - Combines initial outreach in November 2024 when Business Tax renewal mailers are sent t o all qualifying local businesses. Human trafficking documentation will 4 be included in the Business Tax renewal letters. Temporary staff w ill be needed to track declarations received by the City.
Enforcement
Regardless of the choice for outreach, the CAO recommends voluntary compliance with reactive complaint-based enforcement. This requires businesses, locations, and facilities to annually verify compliance through an online or in-person compliance declaration when applying for a business license or submi tting a Business and Tax renewal form . Site inspections will be complaint-based and rely on collaboration with volunteer organizations and the public to report non -compliance to B uilding and Safety . Upon receipt of a complaint, Building and Safety will conduct an inspection, provide the required signage (Model Notice), and subsequently re-inspect for compliance. Should a business, location, or facility fail to submit a compliance declaration in a timely manner, Building and Safety will also conduct an in-person compliance check.
In the event of continued non-compliance, Code Enforcement will send a Notice of Violation letter. The Ordinance allows for an administrative fine after reasonable notice of noncompliance, an opportunity to correct the violation within 30 days, and verificat ion of noncompliance after 30 days. The fine for noncompliance is $500 for a first offense and $1,000 for each offense, thereafter, as already mandated by California Civil Code section
52.6. Other means of enforcement are available but will require the allocation of additional resources. Proactive enforcement by current City staff will require a compliance check at each qualifying business within the City, which Building and Safety estimates will require 3,111 staff hours and 778 weeks to complete for all businesses identified under the Ordinance.
To achieve timely and efficient compliance CAO recommends reactive rather than proactive enforcement . The enforcement plan may evolve as stakeholder s develop relationships and identify awareness and compliance issues throughout the City.
Additional costs and resources may be needed depending upon the type of enforcement the City uses to ensure compliance. With proactive enforcement, costs could include hiring additional staff and/or contracting with a vendor such as StreetPlus.
With reactive or complaint-based enforcement, the responsibility will require current staff to ensure compliance in conjunction with volunteer efforts from local partnership groups like Zonta. Costs will be limited to current staff hours. Staff will continue to monitor for compliance until 100% of qualifying business es have provided proof of compliance.
Thereafter, Zonta and other community -based organizations will conduct yearly compliance checks on qualifying businesses. Fines from enforcement could potentially offset some of the costs associated with administering and enforcing this Ordinance. 5 ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
This activity involves administrative and regulatory activity and has no potential for resulting in either a direct physical change in the environment, or a reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment, and as such, is not a “project” subject to the requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) 14 Cal.
Code Regs § 15378. In addition, because the human trafficking signage and training requirements are already a matter of State law, and the Ordinance simply creates a local administrative program to ensure compliance, it is seen with certainty that there is no possibility that the activity in question may have a significant effect on the environment, and therefore is not subject to the requirem ents of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) 14 Cal. Code Regs § 15061(b)(3).
FISCAL IMPACT
There will be City costs to provide outreach and enforce the new Ordinance. CDD will need additional funding for printing signage and compliance declarations, community outreach, training staff, and enforcement. It is estimated that a temporary staff member will be needed to track compliance declarations under any option chosen. There are 3,111 designated business that fall under the Ordinance within the City of Burbank. I t is estimated that the temporary staff member will be needed for at least two months. T his cost will be roughly $8,000 per month for a total of $16,000. CDD will re -evaluate the costs thereafter as it will depend on compliance of businesses in submitting declarations and the number of new businesses each year. Criminal prosecutions can be handled with existing resources of the CAO.
CONCLUSION
The Ordinance will increase awareness of human trafficking in the City and create accountability with in the business community. It will also promote notice posting compliance and training aimed at preventing human trafficking, as well as advance the general health, safety, and welfare of the most vulnerable members of the public.
Staff recommends that Council approve Option 1, as this will provide immediate outreach and enforcement on the prevention of human trafficking within the community.
ATTACHMENTS
Attachment 1 – Proposed Ordinance
Attachment 2 – California Civil Code Section 52.6
Attachment 3 – Los Angeles County Municipal Code, Title 13, Chapter 13.110.010