Firefighters and cheerleaders looking for donations might be swept off the streets of Gaithersburg under an ordinance originally aimed at keeping day laborers out of traffic as they look for work to be debated at tonight’s city council meeting.
The bill seeks to preserve the least controversial part of a city anti-solicitation ordinance. The first version was rejected by Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler two months ago.
Gansler said the measure, which would have made looking for work or workers along city streets a misdemeanor for all involved, ran afoul of the First Amendment and Maryland’s vehicle laws, which already banned some of the activity.
“All of that stuff that affected solicitation in roadways, parking lots, alleyways, all of that would be gone,” said newly elected Councilman Ryan Spiegel, who touted his opposition to the former measure as part of his campaign.
“I will probably vote for this change because it scraps 99 percent of the former law, although I still have some concerns.”
City officials say the first measure was intended to protect both workers’ and drivers’ safety but opponents condemned it as being unfairly aimed at Hispanics, who comprise a majority of those looking for work on the city’s streets.
“Common sense tells me that it’s not safe to solicit on a median strip, but I haven’t seen any empirical evidence proving deaths or accidents are coming from this,” Spiegel said, adding that the move will also block high school teams from promoting car washes and firefighters who do annual fundraising efforts for charities from using medians.
Many officials say the anti-solicitation ordinance issue last year prompted a debate over illegal immigration.
Councilman Henry Marraffa, who supported the original anti-solicitation ordinance, and leaders of immigrant advocacy group CASA of Maryland, which vehemently opposed the old rule, both voiced displeasure with the new measure.
“My thoughts are that we can keep the Boy Scouts from solicitation in this new measure but we can’t keep the illegal aliens from soliciting altogether,” Marraffa said. “I find that very frustrating.”
CASA spokeswoman Kim Propeack said city police are already charging day laborers who look for work on private property with trespassing, so additional policies are not needed.
“[The rules] are unnecessary and are clearly designed to target day laborers living in the community,” Propeack said.
