City law in effect; no tickets yet

HOT SPRINGS — An ordinance that the American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas has said targets panhandlers took effect Thursday, but the city is waiting for a judicial determination before it begins enforcing it.

Hot Springs City Attorney Brian Albright said citations won’t be issued for violating the ordinance until the court rules on the ACLU-sponsored federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the new regulation. The ordinance prohibits the physical interaction of pedestrians and motorists on public rights of way.

Albright said that may change if the lawsuit isn’t resolved within a reasonable amount of time. Hot Springs police will issue warnings in the interim, he said.

“There needs to be an educational period,” he said. “If police officers observe a violation, they’ll make the person aware the ordinance is in effect. They won’t be writing citations until there’s been a good deal of education for motorists and pedestrians alike.”

ACLU attorney Bettina Brownstein said the organization plans to file a motion seeking a judgment in the lawsuit it filed in June on behalf of Michael Rodgers. A motion to add more plaintiffs also may be forthcoming, she said.

The ACLU suspended the lawsuit while it waited to see what would replace the ordinance that the Hot Springs Board of Directors repealed in August. That city law prohibited the solicitation of donations from motorists on public rights of way.

The amended complaint that the ACLU filed last month says the new ordinance adopted at the board’s Dec. 5 meeting invokes public safety to criminalize panhandling.

It doesn’t allow vehicles and motorists to “interact physically,” which is defined as an “attempt to make physical contact with a motor vehicle or any object or occupant therein,” or “to make physical contact or attempt to make physical contact with a pedestrian or object in the possession of such pedestrian by an occupant of a motor vehicle.”

Albright said people can hold signs on medians, sidewalks or other lawful locations, but the physical interaction of motorists and pedestrians is prohibited. He said both can be cited.