A new community conduct ordinance that was passed to address drug use and crime in downtown Brattleboro was rejected at a special town meeting Thursday.
The select board passed the ordinance in September, after hearing from shop owners and residents about the deteriorating climate in downtown.
At a series of select board meetings this summer they talked about open drug use, prostitution, shoplifting and broken windows.
The ordinance, which the select board approved in a 3-2 vote, gave the police, and other town officials, authority to issue civil fines for low-level drug offenses, trespassing, alcohol consumption or fighting.
It also addressed “high response” properties where the police, or a town health officer, have been dispatched four or more times within a three-month period.
The idea, supporters argued, was that by issuing civil penalties, and not criminal charges, the police could connect with people and help get them the social services they need.
But soon after the select board approved the ordinance, a petition was signed by enough town residents to call for the special town meeting vote.
Brattleboro is the only town in Vermont that has a representative town meeting. The town is divided into three districts. Residents who live in each district are caucused in to represent that part of town, and they vote on the town budget and other town issues.
At the special representative town meeting Thursday night, the ordinance was defeated by a vote of 76-55.
The way the ordinance is written makes it 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.Cristina Shay-Onye, Brattleboro town meeting representative
Cristina Shay-Onye, a town meeting representative who submitted the petition that called for a vote, said at the meeting that the ordinance was poorly written and would not stand up to legal challenges.
“The way the ordinance is written makes it 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. “We simply cannot set up a system of civil charges in a quick and cheap manner that doesn’t open the town up for expensive lawsuits.”
The town attorney said he thought the ordinance would survive a legal challenge.
Because of Brattleboro’s representative town meeting system, many of the people who showed up at the select board meetings this summer could not vote on the ordinance, and it was clear as the meeting went on that a majority of the town meeting representatives opposed the ordinance.
There were very few people who stood up and supported the ordinance during the almost two-hour meeting.
William Kraham, who acknowledged there was a problem and said he sees people injecting drugs regularly in his neighborhood, did not think the ordinance would do anything to address the issue of homelessness and addiction.
“If I’m homeless, and I’m addicted to fentanyl, or heroin, and I’m panhandling outside the co-op, and a police officer comes along and under this ordinance issues me a Class A violation, with a $200 fine, what’s the point of that? I can’t pay a fine,” he said.
Opponents criticized the select board for criminalizing poverty, and for giving the police and town officials arbitrary powers to ticket and remove a certain class of town residents from public spaces.
But the select board members who supported the ordinance said they were only trying to listen to those who are frustrated with the climate downtown.
We are here, in large part, because our downtown has a perception of absolute erosion.Peter Case, Brattleboro Select Board member
And before the vote, they pleaded with the meeting to allow them to at least try out the ordinance in an attempt to better serve those who were in the greatest need.
“We are here, in large part, because our downtown has a perception of absolute erosion,” select board member Peter Case said. “Now, nobody at this table ever blamed anybody who is unhoused. Nobody at this table looks to criminalize poverty. We had three or four select board meetings in a row where a hundred-plus people begging this board to do something, and do something quickly.”
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