Brandau proposal would ticket Fresno drivers for giving to street-corner panhandlers
A new ordinance proposed for the city of Fresno takes aim at drivers who stop at traffic signals to give money – or anything else – to panhandlers.
Fresno City Councilman Steve Brandau said his proposal, which will be introduced at Thursday’s City Council meeting, is directed at improving public safety. “It’s not a no-panhandling ordinance, although it will affect that world a little bit,” he said. “It’s about transferring stuff at signaled intersections to pedestrians.”
Others, however, say Brandau’s ordinance – co-sponsored by Councilmen Luis Chavez and Paul Caprioglio – is part of an ongoing pattern of city laws that effectively target the poor and the homeless for oppression.
They point to a no-camping ordinance, approved by the City Council in August 2017, that made it illegal for homeless people to camp without permission on public or private property. If campers failed to move when ordered by police, they faced a choice of arrest or being taken to a local clearinghouse program for social service assistance.
Brandau was also the author of the camping measure.
“This is something I’ve been thinking about for quite some time, about the time frame that I brought the no-camping ordinance,” Brandau told The Bee. “It’s something I’ve struggled to think about what could be done. I’ve watered it down quite a bit. … But realistically, it’s like stopping the behavior at the source.”
The ordinance establishes the offense of “unlawful transfer on vehicular right of way,” if a driver or passenger in a vehicle “gives or relinquishes control of … any item of property to a pedestrian,” or if a pedestrian accepts any item from a driver or passenger in a vehicle “or loiters within 200 yards of a signalized intersection for the purpose of violating this section.”
That means if the driver or passenger in a car gives money, food, water or anything else to a pedestrian while they’re waiting at a traffic signal or within 200 yards of a traffic signal, or anywhere else that creates a traffic hazard — they can be cited for an infraction.
Penalties could include a fine of $75 for a first offense, $150 for a second offense within six months, and $300 for a third and additional tickets within a six-month period.
The ordinance indicates that fines collected under the law would be used for traffic safety improvements.
“The guy at the street corner is protected by the First Amendment” and its constitutional guarantee of freedom of expression, Brandau said. “But a driver has no business stopping and jeopardizing the pedestrian and fellow drivers.”
Brandau shied away from comparing his proposal with other efforts by the Fresno Rescue Mission and other organizations to discourage drivers from giving money to panhandlers.
“Look, I’m going to let people decide what to do with their money,” he said. “If they want to give someone a thousand dollars, then pull over and park and give them a thousand dollars. Or if they want to give someone a hamburger, pull over and park and do it. But don’t do it from traffic.”
Brandau said the ordinance would not apply to events like the annual Fill the Boot campaign by firefighters nationwide to collect donations for the Muscular Dystrophy Association, or the sale by volunteers of The Fresno Bee’s annual Kids Day special edition to benefit Valley Children’s Hospital.
“Heck, I was out on Kids Day, and I support Fill the Boot, and even these collections where people are soliciting on street corners to pay for funerals, they can get a permit for that,” Brandau said.
City Councilwoman Esmeralda Soria took to Twitter on Tuesday to criticize the proposal. “We need real solutions to tackle poverty, mental health & drug issues that plague our city. Criminalizing the poor and those that want to bless them is not the answer.”
“I’m not excited about what’s coming before the council,” Soria told The Bee. “It feels like we’re getting in the business of telling people how to do their giving or charity to the community.”
“I don’t want to dismiss the concerns of businesses with people loitering or panhandling in front of their businesses,” she said. “But we already have tools within the code to call Fresno police if someone is loitering or trespassing.”
Soria, who teaches constitutional law and judicial reasoning at Fresno City College, said she believes the ordinance would likely be challenged in court, if it passes. “When I look at this, there’s a lot of gray,” she said. “I don’t know if we can really justify this. I would hate for our city to have to use critical resources to defend against a lawsuit instead of looking for a positive solution.”
“It could be like the anti-camping ordinance, which we’re not enforcing because there’s case law that says if you can’t demonstrate that you have enough shelter space, it’s unconstitutional,” Soria added. She said she hopes Mayor Lee Brand would “exhibit leadership and veto this” if the ordinance gets the minimum four votes needed to pass.
On Wednesday, two other council members, Nelson Esparza and Miguel Arias, announced that they are joining Soria in opposing the ordinance. If those commitments hold, it would deprive the measure of the five council votes that would be needed to override a veto by the mayor.
Dez Martinez, a formerly homeless woman who now runs the nonprofit We are Not Invisible Foundation in Fresno, said she believes the ordinance is part of a pattern of laws that have the effect of criminalizing the poor and the homeless. “They’re trying to make the homeless as invisible as possible,” she said. “The less people see of them, the fewer complaints and phone calls they get about them.”
Martinez said many panhandlers “are just trying to survive.”
“It’s a humiliating thing to have to do, sitting on a corner in the cold or the rain, or when it’s 100 degrees, and ask people for change from their ashtray,” she said. “When I see people put down other individuals who are less fortunate and have to ask for help, I wonder, do they know that person, their situation, their story? … We know the majority of people who are out there asking for funds are the homeless … or don’t have money or food to feed their families.”
It’s disingenuous, she added, to characterize it as a traffic safety issue. “If it’s a safety thing, why do we allow the firefighters to do it? Why do we allow the little kids to stand out there on Kids Day?” Martinez said. “It’s all about money. If you pay for a permit, you can stand out there all day long. How much money can we get from people here in Fresno?”
“If it’s really a safety issue, we wouldn’t allow any of these things,” she added.
Brandau said he’s awaiting figures from Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer, but added that he believes Fresno “is on track to set a record for pedestrian deaths this year.”
This story was originally published March 20, 2019 at 5:39 AM.
