New ordinance will be a 24/7 City-wide No Sit-No Lie ordinance.
At the very end of a rather bland City council meeting Council member Deb Hodgkin proposed something that is going to effect everyone in Aberdeen. It turns out the brand new enforcement area for their No Sit-No Lie ordinance is not big enough, people are just setting up outside of the specified boundary. So, in order for the police to be able to do their jobs and arrest people for the crimes they are so clearly committing, crimes not being reported to the police, they need a city-wide no-sit no-lie ordinance to be in effect 24/7. As it stands now it only covers the downtown area shown here during the hours of 6am to 11pm. After some discussion they took a vote and the motion passed 7-4. Below we break down the meeting’s highlights.
Council report on the unhoused (54:30 – 56:45)
- The City is monitoring the enforcement for the “few” unhoused left in the City. Despite advocates and activists stating that people are not gone they are simply in hiding for the time being. Council member Pieracinni said in her report, “Police are offering them shelter at the Union Gospel Mission and Women’s Shelter”. Yet, reports from the streets are that police are telling people to “move to a different city” or face arrest.
- The City is looking into involvement in a “village or shelter”, something they have talked about and debated for years. Also, they will be looking at the City of Lacey’s safe parking model soon to see if they can “bring back ideas” for the rest of the council to consider, another thing they have done before to no avail. Its as though some on the council want to solve things and some just want to destroy the poor.
- The next City council meeting will include Senator Jeff Wilson and Rep Jim Walsh, so the City can update them on what has been going on with the unhoused. This should be good.
- Workshop next Thursday, 8/27/24 at 6pm to go over zoning code.
Public Comment on the unhoused (1:39:00 – 1:50:00)
- A police worker commented that everyone’s jobs are harder now becuase of the City clearing the camp, proposes a parking lot with security fence where people can camp each night and dog kennels to store their things….Maybe calls addicts animals? Says people need the motivation of enforcement but also a place to stay.
- Two separate DHR workers comment that the Union Gospel Mission and Friendship House Women’s shelter are not accessible to many people because of stairs. Life-time bans for single infraction also make it hard to stay engaged in shelter programming. Both debunked many of the claims from the council and citizens alike that people are choosing to remain unsheltered.
For The Good of the Order (1:54:07 – 2:04:44)
- Deb Hodgkin comments about the newly formed group of unhoused and their new living location, behind a local methadone clinic where the weekly needle exchange is held. Says she is getting daily calls and texts about it. Proposes a 24/7 City-wide No Sit No Lie ordinance, “until we are able to get control of these issues”.
- Liz Ellis recommends that citizens call in actual crimes to the police instead of just expanding the ordinance.
- Kacey Ann Morrison comments at how close this “problem area” is to the High School.
- Doug Orr comments that the City could go so far as to review the methadone clinics license to be in that spot.
- Hodgkin and Morrison comment that the police need all the tools in their tool belt in order to do their job, Prato agrees.
- A reminder is given that their own legal council presented just last meeting about NOT enforcing this ordinance city-wide because of the knock-on effects that it would have on things like parks.
- Roll Call Vote on 24/7 city-wide No-Sit No-Lie ordinance:
Ellis – No
Gakin – Yes
Hodkin – Yes
Lawrence – Yes
Maki – Yes
Morrison – Yes
Pieracinni – No
Prato – No
Sidor – Yes
Swor – No
Taylor – Yes
Motion passes 7-4.
So with that the City of Aberdeen will be moving to expand this ordinance, which bans sitting or lying down on public sidewalks, to cover the whole city and apply 24/7. As we said: if they can’t have their concentration camp for the poor, then they will turn this entire city into an open air prison. And it hasn’t even been one month. All of this in the name of making the city “more desirable to live in”. Wow, thanks y’all, not being able to sit down anywhere without being a paying customer, awesome. That’s great for your tourism agenda. Apparently, they have not heard of or do not care about the “curb cut effect”, whereby making public accommodations (like adding wheelchair accessible curb cuts) for disabled people actually improved the lives of many other people in society as well. They are doing the opposite, by trying to discriminate against a certain group of people, they are making life for everyone harder. After that whole meeting, about how local aid workers who are actually on the streets trying to engage with these people are saying the opposite of what the City is hearing or wants to hear, that everything the City is doing is worsening an already bad situation, they proceed to wrap things up with a vote to make it all so much worse, and a nod to continuing with this agenda until they have things just the way they want.