March 31, 2004
New Parks Exclusion Ordinance Approved By City Council
Revised Procedures Go Into Effect In Thirty Days
This morning, the City Council unanimously approved a re-write of the City Code governing parks exclusions, with much of the brief commentary from members focused on the concerns over constitutionality and overbreadth which prompted recent re-writes of the proposal.
"It is absolutely essential that our parks and public places [be] where free speech and all constitutional rights can be exerised," said Commissioner Jim Francesconi. "It is also essential [they] be safe places for our families."
Stating that the new ordinance allows for both, Francesconi added, "There is no alternative but to do both." He said that while he believe that free speech and other constitutionally-protected activitives "will be guaranteed" by the new ordinance, "we'll make it better" if any problems in this regard crop up in the future.
"We will always continue to be vigilant," he concluded.
"I think it's important that parks be a safe place," said Commissioner Randy Leonard (who began by saying he'd be repeating what "my friend b!X" pointed out could not be heard last week due to microphone troubles), "but it's also important that we have tolerance ... for people who use the parks who may look different."
He also expressed concern that exclusions not be used to squelch controversial speech. "It's very concerned that we focus on that," he said. "Allow for divergence in political speech, and how [people] express themselves."
Reiterating the issues he raised in previous discussions of the ordinance, Commissioner Dan Saltzman said, "We've done a good job trying to overcome the conerns." Saying that he had considered the "weakest link" to be the sheeer numbers of people originally granted the authority to issue exclusions, Saltzman said he appreciated that the new version "narrows the list a little bit" and required supervisory approval for some exclusions.
Saltzman also repeated earlier calls for proper training in the use of exclusions, and added that while the new version "should go a long way" in addressing many of the issues, he still has conerns that what he saw as the "weakest link" might need to be visited again in the future, especially if the courts once again find problems with the ordinance.
Calling it a "basic human dynamic" that "someone having power over someone else" is something that can be abused, Saltzman nonetheless conceded that "we do need to have [the] kind of tool" that parks exclusions provide.
"I do appreciate Parks continuing to work on this," said Commissioner Erik Sten. He added that they had "made progress" on concerns such as those over the range of people permitted to issue exclusions.
Saying he continues to have some concerns over such issues of possible overbreadth, Sten said that it's "better to get this in place" and that he trusted that "Parks is going to review this."
Sten also expressed a preference for "laws that are as narrowly written as possible" but did not believe the ordinance would be abused, and referenced the importance of the review process that the ordinance puts into place, under which Parks will report back to Council in a year.
"The best news out of this particular ordinance," said Mayor Vera Katz, "is tha the public is looking for the police to do the training."
All five members of the Council voted to approved the new ordinance. Since an earlier (possible) intention to make it an "emergency" ordinance did not go forward, the new Code will go into effect in 30 days.
"I'm going to get regular reports on who is being excluded," Francesconi offered after the vote. "I'm not going to wait a year."
Comments (1)
The One True b!X on 31 Mar 2004
FWIW, I didn't put that bit about Leonard mentioning me in there for name-dropping purposes. I just found it surreal and amusing.