[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
It was explained last night that enforcement of this policy has been going on
since July of '91 when the sort of speech MPRB wished to regulate was
recognized by park officials or complained of by others; of course this has been
spotty over the years (not explained last night, but alluded to by some
commissioners in describing their own campaign activities),
"Spotty" is a huge understatement. It's unlikely that any candidate has ever
pulled a permit to talk and hand out literature in the parks, yet most city
candidates have done it at one point or another. There are probably only a
handful of times since 1991 that anyone has complained and had that complaint
followed up with the recreation center director or other staff asking the
"offending" individual to cease. Likely none of those complaints resulted in
the staff actually telling the offending individual that they needed to get a
FREE permit first.
My reading of the regulations handed out last night is that anything remotely
resembling an individual standing in the parks handing something out for
non-commercial purposes required a permit, but that such a permit was free.
It darn well better be, otherwise paying to get a permit to exercise first
amendment rights sounds suspiciously like a "poll tax" which most of us know
is unconstitutional.
Then there is the question of near-secret requirements for permits limiting
constitutionally protected activity. Even if the permit is legal, having it
be secret for all practical purposes is problematic. It's the whole prior
restraint / chilling effect argument.
Paul Hokeness March 28 memo (included in last night's materials) instructing
supervisors and center directors on how to handle politics at recreation
centers contains a statement that is wrong. It says:
"Campaign materials cannot be posted or distributed in the park or
recreation center."
Yet Section 3.c. of the "Regulations Governing Constitutionally-Protected
Expression on Park Property" says this:
"Section 3. Uses Requiring a Permit Under These Regulations
...
c. Sale or Distribution of Printed Material. The sale, distribution
or circulation of any leaflets, handbills, notices, pamphlets, books,
documents or papers of any kind, and the solicitation of signatures on a
petition."
Clearly then, campaign leaflets may be DISTRIBUTED in the park if one has a
permit. Such faulty information being passed from management to staff only
makes it that much harder for a candidate for office to exercise his or her
rights -- and makes the Park Board more vulnerable to lawsuits.
Commissioner Walt Dziedzic asked if handing out his business card would be
legal. The above paragraph sure makes it look like he requires a permit to
me, since business cards are "papers of any kind."
It appears that, according to the same regulations, any individual, for
campaign purposes or otherwise, may stand in the park and talk to people in
any legal manner (no yelling "fire" in the theater, remember) WITHOUT a
permit. It's the handing out of paper that requires the permit. The
constitutionality of that regulation is questionable, in my mind.
Citizens, Park Board commissioners and staff should all be thanking Jason
Stone for bringing up this issue -- before the Park Board did something so
wrong in their ignorance that we had multi-million dollar lawsuits paid for by
taxpayers and people going to jail. It's time the Park Board get this mess
straightened out. The regulations need to be checked by competent
constitutional legal advice (which excludes Brian Rice's law firm, since they
consulted on the mess we currently have), and once clear and correct, they
need to be widely publicized, uniformly enforced, staff educated and permits
(if any) made easy to obtain. The alternative is a big expensive lawsuit just
waiting to happen -- especially now that the Park Board can be legitimately
said to be on notice of their failings.
--
Chris Johnson
Fulton
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