06/18/2002 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of 6/18/2002 3} Thanks to Lisa Thomas for the employee appreciation picnic. She did an excellent job! 4) The United States Supreme Court decision in the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society of New York versus the Village of Stratton is an important decision affecting municipalities across the cour-try. It was an 8 to 1 decision by the court which held that provisions of an ordinance of the Village of Stratton, Ohio, which required individuals to obtain permits before going door to door and canvassing within the Village of Stratton was unconstitutional and violative of the First Amendment as applied to religious, proselytizing, anonymous political speech and the distribution of handbills. In its opinion, the court suggested that, had the ordinance's provisions been directed only to commercial activities, it might have been sufficiently tailored to meet the village's interests in protecting the privacy of its residents and preverning fraud. The court also suggested that ordinances which authorize the posting of no solicitation signs on private property. would constitute an adequate remedy for these government concerns. In addition, the court suggested that ordinances which limited door-to-door fundraising activities might well be constitutional. How does this affect North Olmsted's Chapter 721 of the Business Regulation Code which regulates the activities of peddlers, solicitors, canvassers and transient vendors? Preliminarily, it is his opinion that our local ordinance is not affected deleteriously by this Stratton opinion. With respect to the issues of religious proselytizing, such as the Jehovah's Witnesses going door-to-door, and anonymous political speech, our ordinance specifically exempts such categories of canvassers from the definition and thus from the registration requirements of the ordinance. With respect to the distribution of handbills issue, our ordinance is silent. Presumably, a person could still enter onto private property and distribute a handbill by placing it on private property in the City of North Olmsted. That would probably address, at least preliminarily, the concerns that the Supreme Court had in the Stratton ordinance.. In addition, our ordinance provides for residents to post "No Peddlers, Solicitors or Canvassers Allowed" signs and provides a penalty to peddlers, solicitors and canvassers who violate that privacy notice posted in accordance with the ordinance. Again, this is something that the Supreme Court suggested might be one of the remedies far addressing the privacy interests of residents and the fear of fraud. He will keep on top of this subject and, if other cases come down on it or if there is any consensus among experts that there are constitutional flaws in ordinance schemes such as we have, then he will certainly let the Mayor and Council know about it. But for the time being, he does not see any Legal reason to change Chapter 721 as a result of the Stratton decision. 5) There are a number of legal issues presently being researched in the Law Department at the request of members of Council or the administration, including the following: legal questions concerning the proposed tattoo parlor ordinance; issues regarding the coordination of the city's animal vaccination ordinances with the County Board of Health regulations; the appropriateness of having a dog leash ordinance for the city which would affect all owners of pets, not just owners of vicious animals; questions regarding the model lighting ordinance; legal issues regarding crosswalks and whether or not those should be included and to what extent in the city's traffic control file ordinances; issues regarding animal nuisance activities of the city; legal issues regarding the possible establishment of a mayor's court; the necessity of having performance bonds for equipment contracts involving city contracts and special damage provisions in city contracts-whether or not we could have both; what length of terms of contracts may the ,, 4 „ ~ , ,~,