Ventura, CA Public Conduct: Loitering Rules (2026)

10 Disorderly Conduct, targets loitering aimed at panhandling inside places that serve food or drink for on-site consumption. Subsection A makes it unlawful for anyone who "loafs or loiters" about such an establishment, whether a customer, employee, or a "frequenter, habitue, vagrant or idle person," to beg, solicit, or importune a patron, customer, or visitor to buy food or drink for the person doing the asking. The same subsection bars entering or remaining on the premises for that purpose at all, so a person can be cited even before any specific patron is approached.

Subsection B extends liability to the business itself: any owner, manager, or person who otherwise controls the establishment who permits or allows this conduct to occur is separately in violation. 020 sets the default citywide penalty for a code misdemeanor at a fine of not more than $1,000, imprisonment for not more than six months, or both, unless the code provides otherwise for that section. 100), it is narrower than the citywide panhandling rules: it applies only inside establishments that sell food or drink for consumption on the premises, not on open sidewalks or in parking lots generally.

The section dates to the 1971 code (former § 6136) and remains in force alongside Ventura's later solicitation and sit-lie ordinances as a business-specific tool police and code enforcement can use when a complaint originates from inside a dining or drinking establishment.