By: Lydia Crawley
The Parsons Advocate
The Parsons Parks and Recreation Commission may soon get some much needed support in the form of a new City Ordinance on camping within the City limits. The City of Parsons Council discussed plans to place a new ordinance on the next agenda that would outlaw camping in the City except in designated campgrounds and trailer parks or by special permit.
The move comes a midst issues the Parks and Rec Board has had with homeless and vagrants in City Parks, some of whom have harassed patrons and groups using the pavilions and some who have brought mattresses and other paraphernalia into the parks and pavilions. There had been questions about what authority the Park Board and the City had to deal with the problem.
Council Member and Park Board Member Tim Turner brought copies of City Ordinances referencing the Park Board and its outlined authority to the July 1st meeting. Turner asserted that the Park Board had the authority to deal with the problem.
“If you look at 1.49A about halfway down, you will see use and benefit of the park,” Turner said. “We have the power to restrict and prevent vagrants, mitigants, beggars, tramps, prostitutes or disorderly persons thereof. So we have, in City Ordinance, the ability to control those situations. Its there in black and white for everyone to read.”
Turner further read from the Ordinances that the Board had the authority to utilize the Police, Courts and City Attorney to further deal with the issue, if necessary. Turner said that the board was powered to make rules to enable them to deal with the problem and utilize any legal means necessary.
“If you look at B, In order to accomplish the foregoing purposes, the said Board shall be empowered to make or propagate such rules as may be necessary or incidental thereof to enforce the same by appropriate proceedings in any proper tribunal of the State, County, District or Municipality and utilize the City’s Police Staff. The City Attorney shall be the official counsel for said Board and shall advise it on all legal matters,” Turner said.
Turner said the Board could work independently of the City Council on the matter. The Board did not need the approval of the Council to make any rules pertaining to the issue.
“So we have the right to make rules.” Turner said. “We do not have to come to the Board or the Council to have those rules approved. It says we have the ability to makes those rules. Everybody understands that. I just read that from policy.”
Keplinger said that while the Ordinance might establish that the Board could have the authority, there is nothing to enforce. Keplinger said that without a detailed statement of punishments, there is nothing for him and his officers to enforce.
“I look at this and I’ve read this,” Keplinger said. “It says City Code Enforcement Officer will enforce all rules and regulations established and I understand that City Police Staff, but there’s no enforcement ordination. There’s nothing to enforce. There’s no way to enforce the rules based upon this. There are no guidelines.”
Turner maintained that the part about vagrants in the park gave the police the authority to enforce the rules. Turner stated he felt the ordinance was enough to give the Police Department and the Board the authority to remove the individuals from the park. Keplinger said that without detailed guidelines outlining what the punishments were for the infractions, there was nothing his department could enforce. Prior to the meeting, a draft copy of a camping ordinance had been distributed to council.
“If you look at each ordinance, at the end of each ordinance, if it is subject to citation it will lay it out what that citation is,” Keplinger said. “I will refer you to the draft ordinance that I would highly recommend that we adopt. If you look at the last section penalty for violation. Violation for any procedure or provision of this article is a misdemeanor. Any person violating any of the provisions, upon conviction, be punished by a fine of not more than or imprisonment of not more than. So it gives you a guideline. It tells you what you can and can’t do.”
Keplinger said the proposed camping ordinance takes away any language that would force law enforcement to have to try to establish a motivation as to why someone is camping. In the Parks and Rec ordinance, it references “vagrants, mitigants, beggars, tramps, prostitutes and disorderly persons” explicitly in the text. The draft City ordinance would eliminate the need for such motivations, Keplinger said.
“It doesn’t require us to try and determine is someone is a vagabond, a medicant, a tramp – I almost think I’m in a Cher song in Gypsys, Tramps and Thieves, a little bit – we don’t have to determine what their motivation was, just that they’re not allowed to do it,” Keplinger said.
City of Parsons Council Member Melissa Jones said she suggested that the Ordinance be adopted. She felt the measure would support what was already in place. While the Park Board already had their own set of rules that would remain in effect and remain unaffected by the new measure, the proposed ordinance would cover the whole of the City, including the Parks, and supply the much needed guidelines for enforcement needed by the Police Department.
“This takes care of the Park Board, this takes care of the Police Department, this takes care of ANY area in Parsons,” Jones said.
Keplinger agreed that the draft Ordinance would support what was already in place by the Parks Board.
“What this does is it doesn’t take away from this, at all,” Keplinger said. “But what it does do, is it supports it. It gives me an enforcement authority to support the Park Board to support this, to support the rules.”
Keplinger read the following from the proposed ordinance:
“If you look at this, it says, It should be unlawful for any person to occupy camp, occupy camp facilities for the purposes of habitation…or camp paraphernalia in any park or structure or any improvement or structure, any street, ally or sidewalk, easement or right of way…any creek bed, riverfront property or beneath bridge abutments…or any publicly owned and operated parking lots or area improved or unimproved. It should be unlawful for any person to occupy a vehicle for the purpose of camping while the vehicle is parked in the following self same areas,” Keplinger said.
“Then it says that we can give permission for that,” Keplinger said. “That if somebody is going to be camping. That if they come to us, we can open that up. So its not absolute, thou shalt not.”
The proposed ordinance also covers unlawful storage of personal property, Keplinger said. The City has had problems in the past of people leaving personal property unlawfully in public bathrooms such as book bags, bags, etc, The draft ordinance allows for removal of such items, according to Keplinger.
Enforcement of the proposed ordinance would be designated to the Code Enforcement Officer or Police Officer, Keplinger said upon notification of a potential violation. The proposed ordinance would not apply to camping within designated areas such as designated campgrounds or trailer parks.
The draft ordinance will be placed on the next agenda of the City of Parsons Council for consideration.
