Displaying items by tag: panhandling

Akron City Council has voted to repeal the city's panhandling law after the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio filed suit against the ordinance last week.

The city released a statement saying the ordinance was "no longer the preferred means of advancing the City's interests in promoting the public peace, safety, health and welfare" of citizens.

The ACLU said the panhandling laws "single out speech asking for help" and that previous court rulings have upheld that.

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(City of Akron - Press Release) – Akron City Council voted tonight to repeal Section 135.10 of the Code of Ordinances of the City of Akron entitled "Unlawful panhandling and fraudulent solicitation."

Council convened a special meeting with the Law Department on April 18, 2016 regarding the existing ordinance and recent developments in constitutional law. The legislation to repeal Section 135.10 was submitted by the Law Department and offered by Mayor Horrigan and Council as a whole to address recent United States Supreme Court jurisprudence which differs from the case law existing at the time the ordinance was amended in 2006.

Upon careful consideration, City Council voted to repeal Section 135.10 in its entirety because, it was "no longer the preferred means of advancing the City's interests in promoting the public peace, safety, health and welfare" of its citizens.

Akron City Council President Marilyn Keith stated "Akron is a generous and caring community. City Council continues to be committed to addressing poverty and homelessness and finding the best solutions for those in need."

A threat of possible legal action brought Akron City Council to a special meeting on Monday, over the constitutionality of the city's pandhandling laws.

City council member at large Jeff Fusco would only say the city will look at the issue, brought up in a letter to the city by the ACLU of Ohio...

"It's gonna take a little bit of time obviously to review that," Fusco tells WAKR.net, "and to go out and seek what's best in terms of the city of Akron moving forward."

Attorney Joseph Mead in Akron wrote the letter for the ACLU of Ohio, which says the city's had time to review it already.

"We sent them a letter outlining all of the legal cases that I could find for years and years back in January," Mead tells WAKR.net, "and so, they've had a while to look at this, and I think they need to move quickly or we're going to ask a court to decide."

Mead says a number of courts have struck down similar pandhandling laws elsewhere on first amendment grounds.