Councilwoman Catherine Alvarez protesting outside the home of former Councilman Rick Rodriguez last year, prior to being elected.

DOWNEY - Looking to avoid the protests they faced at their front doorsteps last year, the Downey City Council voted Tuesday to place a buffer zone between picketers and their targeted residences.

Protestors wishing to target a specific individual within their private residence will now have to stay 300 feet from the structure (not the property line). This follows several other municipalities that have taken similar action, including Los Angeles, Carlsbad, Huntington Beach, Santa Monica, Long Beach, Riverside City and County, and San Diego County.

This isn’t the first time that the council has attempted to tackle the issue.

The council first entertained action against residential picketing last year, after a group of individuals armed with bullhorns and seeking more rent control, took to the homes of then council members Blanca Pacheco, Claudia M. Frometa, Sean Ashton, Rick Rodriguez, and Alex Saab.

Specifically, both Frometa and Pacheco were concerned with the impact that the protests were having on their neighbors and – in the case of Frometa and Saab – their young children, as demonstrations, although nonviolent, were oftentimes aggressive, amplified, and profane.

Those initial discussions failed to get off the ground, however, as Saab and Ashton both were reluctant to infringe on the first amendment rights of the demonstrators.

It was a different story this time around, however, as the move to establish a residential buffer zone passed on a 3-1 vote, with Ashton absent.

Frometa said that the city was “not aiming to silence anyone.”

“With this ordinance, we want to safeguard both groups,” said Frometa. “We want to ensure that the targeted picketing that occurs within our community does not force residents to become captive audiences to unwanted speech within their own homes.”

Protestors are still liable to other laws and regulations, such as traffic and noise. A demonstrator who violated the buffer zone could also be subject to a private legal action by the targeted individual.

The sole objector to the ordinance was Councilwoman Catherine Alvarez, who took part in the aforementioned protests before winning her seat on the council.

The councilwoman – who is currently facing a potential recall in part for her involvement in the home protests – defended her actions, saying that “these protests started when constituents felt like they weren’t being heard.”

“They said the council didn’t listen to them, so they went to our houses and protested. I was one of them. I was here constantly asking for something; it didn’t happen,” said Alvarez. “They were protesting about housing affordably, and moratoriums and evictions. The group that did this was mainly the Downey Tenants Union, and other groups in our city. Specifically, they wanted us to create an eviction moratorium prior to the holidays…Protestors had legitimate reasons to protest; as a result of what those protests did, Downey is now getting better for tenants; none of the surrounding cities have focused on affordable housing and rental assistance like we have.”

Alvarez founded the Downey Tenants Union.

She added that a buffer zone would limit the effectiveness of anyone to protest, even her current opposition.

“We are likely the ones to be targeted, so why should any of us have the right to move protests away down the streets to our neighbor’s house,” said Alvarez. “It doesn’t make any sense and it could expose us to a lawsuit from our neighbors.”

“I just can’t really understand why are we doing this, because it would take away the privilege to people who’s recalling me at my apartment – which they already did – and silence [them]. It goes for both ways; it doesn’t matter if it goes against me or goes against other colleagues. That is the First Amendment of everyone: to speak, to be heard.”

Members of the recall effort denied having picketed at Alvarez’s home.

Members of the audience reflected an obvious and unsurprising split, with the usual pro-council crowd / recall effort in favor of the action, and the usual council critics – some of whom participated in the protests in question – vehemently opposed.

One of those speakers, former Planning Commissioner and husband to the mayor Nolveris Frometa, painted a picture from the inside of one of the picketed homes.

“When they came to protest at my house, [Mayor Frometa] was not here; she was not in our home,” he said, gesturing towards Alvarez and Rodolpho Cortez, a known protestor who was in the audience that night. “It was my children and I. I got to see their faces. Their terrorized [faces].”

“The four times they visited our house, it was to terrorize not only just us, but our neighbors. Our neighbors were terrorized just as much. The Saabs? Those kids were terrorized. They do not want, and he does not want any protesting in front of his house.”

He added that he supported the expression of free speech.

“[I] 100% support protesting, our rights. Absolutely; that’s what makes America great,” said Nolveris. “…But one thing this country does have is laws, restrictions, that we can set boundaries to find a middle ground.”

Downey cracks down on home protests