Mayor Kirk Caldwell on Friday signed into law a bill allowing the city to summarily remove tents and other objects deemed "sidewalk nuisances."
But members of (de)Occupy Honolulu say they will challenge the new law, just as they are taking the city to court over the existing stored-property ordinance that allows the city to remove items left on city property if they have been "tagged" 24 hours in advance.
Council members Ikaika Anderson, Ann Kobayashi and Ernie Martin said they introduced Bill 7 (2013) to address complaints raised by people throughout the island who have grown weary of tents and other objects blocking their path along city sidewalks.
Caldwell, in signing the new bill, said the measure ensures "that we keep our public spaces open and available for everyone in our community. … No one person has a right to take over part of public space, whether it be a business, a private citizen or anyone else."
He added, "It’s a matter of public safety and improving the quality of life in the most beautiful place in the world."
The mayor said it upsets him that seniors have to walk into the street to avoid tents that block the sidewalk or that pedestrians have tripped on tent poles.
The law cannot be enforced until the city enacts a set of rules, a process that is expected to be completed by June 30. A public hearing will be held.
The new law would replace the stored-property ordinance that has been place since early 2012. Caldwell said it costs the city about $15,000 each time the city tags items and needs to come back the next day.
The city would be authorized to take measures "to prevent or summarily remove public nuisances and to compel the clearing or removal of any public nuisance from sidewalks," according to language in the bill.
While not mentioning (de)Occupy Honolulu by name, the mayor said the new ordinance "is going to thwart those who want to leave an area and then come back."
(De)Occupy, which is protesting government policies on homelessness and other issues and is an offshoot of Occupy Wall Street, has been at Thomas Square since fall 2011.
Opponents of the bill disagree with Caldwell’s interpretation.
Several (de)Occupy Honolulu supporters filed a federal lawsuit over the stored-property ordinance in U.S. District Court in December, alleging the law violated their constitutional rights and due process. The lawsuit also alleges the city, during several raids, violated the ordinance language by, among other things, summarily disposing of items that had not been tagged and not returning items (de)Occupy supporters tried to reclaim.
The lawsuit has not yet gone to trial. But Chris "Nova" Smith, a party to the lawsuit, said a stipulated order in lieu of holding a hearing on a motion for a temporary restraining order conflicts with Bill 7.
Smith said that under the court order, granted by U.S. District Judge J. Michael Seabright, 24-hour notice is required, or "they would have to get a court order every time they want to do a raid."
Sugar Russell, another (de)Occupy Honolulu member who is part of the suit over the stored-property ordinance, said the group believes the sidewalk nuisance ordinance is also unconstitutional and plans to file a similar challenge.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii also testified against Bill 7, challenging its constitutionality.
Meanwhile, real estate attorney Robert H. Thomas said the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently struck down a Los Angeles ordinance aimed at removing property belonging to the homeless which may have a bearing on Bill 7. The appeals court panel ruled Los Angeles "could not presume that property owned by homeless people in the Skid Row area was abandoned, and enjoined the city from seizing and destroying it when the owner was ‘momentarily away’ from it," Thomas said in an email.
"Bill 7 certainly seems vulnerable to court attack."
The mayor said he believes Bill 7 is defensible.
Both Caldwell and City Council members said far from being insensitive to the homeless as implied by (de)Occupy Honolulu members, the city is developing a far-reaching plan to address homelessness that is expected to be unveiled May 1. The mayor noted that the city has begun to look at "remnant parcels that may be appropriate."
According to information provided by the city requested by the Star-Advertiser:
» The city has undertaken 470 enforcement actions on Oahu from Jan. 1, 2012, to mid-April, tagging 2,127 items.
» Of those, 64 actions were in and around Thomas Square, resulting in 621 "items removed" either voluntarily or seized.
» The Iwilei neighborhood near the Institute for Human Services’ two shelters had the second-highest totals, with 52 actions and 298 items removed.
