BRATTLEBORO-At a standing-room-only meeting at Academy School on Dec. 12, Representative Town Meeting (RTM) members voted 76–55 to rescind the town's recently adopted Acceptable Community Conduct Ordinance.
Cristina Shay-Onye, District 8, made the motion to disapprove the ordinance, arguing that if enacted the ordinance would violate Constitutional rights and expose the town to expensive lawsuits. She urged town representatives to vote to disapprove the ordinance.
Referencing the ordinance's "Behavioral No Trespass Zones," which include Brooks Memorial Library and the Brattleboro Transportation Center, where "boundaries on behavior shall be enforced," Shay-Onye said, "the government has to be even more careful to protect these spaces, and has a duty to guarantee the most right of access when an individual is trespassed from public property."
She also argued that the ordinance fails to provide a robust appeals process for individuals who have been issued no-trespass orders from these public spaces.
"It's very likely that if challenged in court, all or part of the ordinance would be invalidated, and the town would have to pay [money] in damages," she said. "ACLU lawyers are watching closely."
Town Attorney Bob Fisher defended the ordinance and noted similar ordinances in Montpelier, Essex Junction, and St. Albans.
"When you look at the safety issues, the health issues, we believe that we can support that if called upon," said Fisher.
Vermont law authorizes municipalities to define what constitutes a public nuisance and to take action "for its abatement or removal as the public health, safety, or welfare may require."
Isaac Evans-Frantz, District 8, spoke against the ordinance's designation of and penalties for "high response properties" - defined as properties that exhibit "a notorious atmosphere of criminal and other unacceptable conduct" where the BPD has been dispatched four or more times in the preceding three months.
"The fines are going to incentivize [property] owners to evict tenants who call the police," Evans-Frantz said. "My question for my fellow representatives here is, does that make our town safer when people are afraid to call the police? I think the answer is no."
More than just the ordinance
Several speakers implored RTM members to disapprove the ordinance and give existing public safety initiatives a chance.
Citing the work of One Brattleboro, a collaboration among human service agencies, town officials, and first responders to address problem behaviors in town, Tara O'Brien, District 8, said she would vote against the ordinance.
She said that with a dire need to support human resource agencies that serve a vulnerable population, One Brattleboro can attract state funding, thus relieving the pressure on local taxes.
The ordinance is one piece of the Selectboard's public safety agenda, which also includes funding the Brattleboro Resource Assistance Team (BRAT) to provide street-level support and resources to address public safety downtown. In a recent email to The Commons, Brattleboro Police Chief Norma Hardy reported the BRAT staff have gotten "very positive reviews."
Justin Johnston, a BRAT member who works for the police department as a community resource specialist, "has already been able to offer his services to many who need help, including transportation to treatment," Hardy said.
Selectboard Chair Daniel Quipp, who voted against the ordinance at the board's Sept. 17 meeting, asked RTM members to "take a bigger-picture view of our questions around public safety, and take a look at some of the work that the town administration has been doing this year."
"I think there are reasons to feel positively about many things that the Selectboard has done this year," Quipp said.
Peter Elwell, the chair of the Board of Directors for Groundworks Collaborative, a 34-bed shelter in Brattleboro, and was the Brattleboro Town Manager from 2015 to 2021, had previously lobbied RTM representatives to overturn the ordinance.
"This ordinance is dividing us when there are so many efforts being made by town government and by people in the community who care about each other and about the community," he said at the meeting. "We need to invest in those things."
Hardy was not happy with the outcome of the vote.
"I'm appalled and surprised," she said. "I believe there was a lot of misinformation given."
Referring to statements that the ordinance "criminalizes poverty" she said, "You've never heard me ever associate poverty with criminality."
"I believe the town manager [John Potter] went into this process with a full heart, trying just to make the town better," she said.
Protecting the whole community
The effectiveness of a public nuisance property ordinance will soon be tested in the City of Saint Albans, where the city council adopted a Public Nuisance Property (PNP) ordinance on Dec. 9.
Similar to language in Brattleboro's ordinance, St. Albans' PNP ordinance allows property owners to work with the city to develop individual management plans to address problem behaviors. Property owners who do not then comply with the plan can be fined up to $800 per day.
In an interview with The Commons, St. Albans Town Manager Dominic Cloud said that "when individual properties are having seemingly nonstop calls for drug use, drug dealing, larceny, possession of stolen property, sex-related crimes, assaults, and stabbings, then the property owner has a responsibility."
"We expect more from our property owners than just collecting a rent check," Cloud said.
Cloud said the city council has acted on "behalf of the other 99%" - the people who live next to the nuisance properties "who are just fed up with living next to properties that violate every common standard of decency."
Acknowledging the limits to municipalities' ability to act, Cloud said, "Brattleboro and St. Albans can't fund community treatment, but we can shine a light on the need, we can join with those folks in advocating for more treatment."
This News item by Ellen Pratt was written for The Commons.